But maybe it is wrong to talk about designing WITH living materials. A better way of putting it, would be designing FOR living materials. In the past few weeks, we came to the realisation that trying to steer fungi into some direction is quite hard. You can try to set the boundaries, but that does not mean that the fungi will actually grow into the form you like. It goes its own way, and many more factors are at play then just the agar agar which we used to create a canvas to grow our fungi.
The elements in the greenhouse at Mediamatic gave us the opportunity to see a lot of different factors that are relevant for designing with (or for) living materials. Sunlight, temperature, wind, humidity - even the position of a door can influence whether and how fungi grow. So if all these factors can impact the design, why even design at all?
And why would we actually want to steer the growth of these fungi? They themselves can create rather beautiful patterns, just by growing on their own. We have all seen that in the first week and exercise. So maybe it is wise to talk more about designing FOR living materials, than designing WITH living materials. In the end, it is more about creating the circumstances where they can grow, than trying to create the perfect end result that is in our head.
This is maybe also true in a wider context. Why ware we as urbanists, landscape architects and architects trying to design a perfect (theoretical) image? In the end, people, animals, fungi and the elements will use these designs. Maybe in the way we intended. Maybe not. I think it is best to try to design the best circumstances for users. Be it people - be it other forms of life.
