Corobrik: Mushroom Brick Tower Points To The Future of Biodesign

Photo courtesy of Kris Graves

When it comes to new and exciting innovations in brick, we always look forward to what leading brick manufacturers, Corobrik, have to share with us. The mushroom brick tower, featured in their latest brick breakthrough focus below offers a glimpse into the future of sustainable building materials and bio design, and we think you’ll be amazed by this new brick manufacturing technology.

Exploring Brick Breakthroughs With Corobrik: David Benjamin’s Hy-Fi Tower

Pushing the limits of sustainable design, New York based architect, David Benjamin has created the word’s first brick tower made from fungus.

Drawing inspiration from living biological organisms, Benjamin has literally brought architecture to life through his experiments in bringing together biological technologies and advanced computer-based engineering. His organic brick tower, known as Hy-Fi, was designed as part of MoMA’s Young Architects Program, and it artfully demonstrates how farm waste and a culture of fungus that is extracted from a mushroom root and is grown to fill a brick-shaped mould can be transformed into a sustainable building material. This innovative new technique requires no energy and produces zero carbon emissions, making it the perfect prototype for sustainable buildings of the future.

Furthermore, once Benjamin’s temporary brick structure reaches the end of its lifespan, it will be returned to raw material and be used as compost for local community gardens and tree planting programs. With an eco-friendly and avant-garde approach, as well as a captivating design consisting of three cylinders that branch into each other and form an endless loop rising up from the MoMA’s PS1 courtyard in New York, Benjamin has given a face to bio-design and has taken the first step in the journey towards blurring the lines between biology and built environments. Photo courtesy of Kris Graves