img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Mushrooms work their magic among energy -reducing specifications

Words:
Mark Parsons

Home-grown mycelium panels, digitally-printed fabric and a flexible, demountable clamp system for small structures are three firm procurement favourites for Studio Polpo co-founder Mark Parsons

Mycelium Pavillion.
Mycelium Pavillion. Credit: Studio Polpo

Mycelium

We’ve been exploring the use of mycelium in architecture, growing our own panels using waste cardboard and pink oyster mushroom spawn, as well as using a ‘ready mix’ which employs hemp stalks from Grown Bio. A mixture of these panels will be used on a pavilion project in Sheffield, and the oyster panels ( which not only bind waste to create the panels but produce food) have been a great way to engage people in the circular economy.

grown.bio, urban-farm-it.com

 

Garden Play, The Hepworth.
Garden Play, The Hepworth. Credit: Studio Polpo

Key-Klamp

We’ve used the Kee-Klamp system on several projects, for small structures and furniture, most recently for The Hepworth gallery’s garden play outreach project, where we had it powder coated. On this and previous projects, we have connected it to coated ply panels and castors in various ways. Importantly for us, it can be disassembled and reconfigured by clients and users at a stage when the originally envisioned design is no longer required, reducing waste and providing flexibility.

scaffolding-direct.co.uk

 

High Street of Exchanges, Venice Biennale.
High Street of Exchanges, Venice Biennale. Credit: Jim Stephenson

Digitally printed fabric

We developed a series of 1:1 composite shopfront facade images for our High Street of Exchanges installation at the Venice Biennale, which were digitally printed onto a 110gsm flag knit fabric. We needed something lightweight that allowed graphics to be visible and colorful on both sides in varying light conditions, something crucial for the space they were displayed in. The panels were suspended from, and weighted by, rods passed through sleeved edges.

imagegroupuk.com

 

Latest

Checking in with four architects on both sides of the pond who have gone through the application process

Checking in with four architects on both sides of the pond who have gone through the application process

In west London, Maccreanor Lavington’s MacFarlane Place scheme for Peabody salutes Victorian blocks while offering satisfying points of difference and tenant-friendly touches such as heat-regulating shutters

MacFarlane Place salutes Victorian blocks while offering tenant-friendly touches such as heat-regulating shutters

Bid for a spot on a construction consultancy services framework, create a motor-free square in the capital, lead the restoration of four war memorial sites - some of the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry

Latest: Construction consultancy services DPS

Sir John Burnet, Tait and Lorne's 1936 Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Paisley, now flats, followed the firm's renowned Royal Masonic Hospital in London

Sir John Burnet, Tait and Lorne's Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Paisley followed the firm's renowned Royal Masonic Hospital in London

'We're not just a roomful of architects,' say IDK's members, as they discuss designing the V&A's David Bowie Centre and working with communities from London to Paris to Devon

The practice's work spans from the V&A's David Bowie Centre to working with communities in London and Devon