Annotated summary

Doungoud, M. (2018). Mycelium Infrastructures for Impermanent Futures. Retrieved from https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/41701

This article discusses the environmental impacts of non-renewable resources used for the construction of buildings and the proposed solution for it, mycelium bricks. The article talks about how people are making the effort to build houses out of wood, the focus of the article is the real-life application examples of mycelium bricks in use done by other countries. 

In the article, three building constructs were mentioned, a tiny house, a myco-tree and an art exhibition titled “Hi-Fy” project. These examples are only the beginning for future experiments. The article also mentions that the mycelium brick is grown in a special way, allowing the producer to control the physical properties of the brick. The article provides facts backed up by research about the mycelium brick’s durability, stability and weather proofing abilities. The article lists out the intention of further research into experimenting with different substrate mixtures to produce a variety of bricks with varying properties. 

The article highlights the ability for mycelium to remover harmful toxins from soil in their growing process. The article mentions that mycelium production is also in its early stages and not much facilities are allocated for it to produce and conduct research. The article notes that there is an increase in popularity of sustainable bricks for the future and mycelium is bright with promises of almost replacing conventional bricks entirely. 

With the existing research done on mycelium bricks, our team can use it to further our understanding on mycelium bricks, their advantages and disadvantages. The research information, background and projected future for mycelium bricks can also help us better convince our stakeholders to authorize the use of mycelium bricks in all newly constructed buildings in Singapore.