Making Bricks Out of Fast-Growing Mushrooms

Stanford Designer is Making Bricks Out of Fast-Growing Mushrooms That Are Stronger than Concrete

This may have applications in space, like building structures on Mars.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/phil-ross-invents-mycelium-mushroom-bricks-arch/
"Phil Ross doesn't use the mushroom, or fruiting body of the reishi; he uses mycelium, the fast-growing fibrous roots that make up the vast majority of fungus lifeforms.

Mycelium grows fast, and is incredibly durable, waterproof, non-toxic, fire-resistant, and biodegradable.

Ross uses it to build bricks by growing mycelium in bags of delicious (to mushrooms) sawdust, before drying them out and cutting them with extremely heavy-duty steel blades.

This works because mushrooms digest cellulose in the sawdust, converting it into chitin, the same fiber that insect exoskeletons are made from.

"The bricks have the feel of a composite material with a core of spongy cross grained pulp that becomes progressively denser towards its outer skin," explained Discover Magazine. "The skin itself is incredibly hard, shatter resistant, and can handle enormous amounts of compression.""