aslhnky

Why scientists are rooting for mushrooms

Mushrooms are the organisms that keep on giving. They grow and feed the soil by breaking down organic matter. For centuries, they’ve also been a staple in our diet. 

Recently, people have started taking a closer look at mushrooms, and more specifically, mycelium — the hidden root of mushrooms — as an engineering material to produce goods like surfboards, packaging materials, furniture and even architecture.

As far as natural materials go, there’s never been anything as versatile and cost-effective as fungi, says Sonia Travaglini, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, who is collaborating with artist and mycologist Philip Ross to unlock the seemingly infinite potential of fungi.

Mycelium can grow into any shape or size (the largest in the world blankets an entire forest in Oregon). They can be engineered to be as hard and strong as wood or brick, as soft and squishy as foam, or even smooth and flexible, like fabric. 

Unlike other natural materials, mushrooms can rely on their recycling properties to break down organic matter so you can grow a lot of it very quickly and cheaply just by feeding it biodegradable waste. In as little as two weeks, you can cultivate a hunk of mushroom that’s brick-sized.

That mycelium actually takes in waste and carbon dioxide as it grows (one species of fungi even eats plastic trash) instead of expelling byproducts makes it far superior to other forms of production.

Plus, when you’re done with mushroom, you can compost it or break up the material to grow more mycelium from it.

“And, unlike forming synthetic materials, which have to be made while very hot or under pressure, all of which takes a lot of energy to create those conditions, mycology materials grow from mushrooms which grow in our normal habitat, so it’s much less energy-intensive,” said Travaglini.

In the lab, Travaglini and other researchers crush, compress, stretch, pull and bend mycelium to test the amount of force the material can tolerate.   

They found that mycelium is incredibly strong and can withstand a lot of compression and tension.

Most materials are only strong from one direction. But mycology materials are tough from all directions and can absorb a lot force without breaking. So it can withstand as much weight as a brick, but won’t shatter when you drop it or when it experiences a hard impact, said Travaglini. 

As one of the newer organisms receiving an application in biomimetics, a field of science that looks to imitate nature’s instinctive designs to find sustainable solutions and innovation, we might be getting merely a glimpse of what fungi is capable of.

“Mycology is still a whole new field of research, we’re still finding more questions and still really don’t know where it’s going to go, which makes it really exciting,” said Travaglini.

World’s longest glass-bottom bridge shuttered under weight of own popularity

FUTURE ENVELOPE 7 IN DELFT

The 7th edition of the facade symposium organized by the Facade Research Group in cooperation with the European Facade Netwok was a huge success. The list of speakers was inspiring and well picked as usual and the topic of Value was a good choosen one, it delivered total different views on the topic.

Here the list of speakers that showed her view on the topic:

Alexandra den Heijer, MSc PhD is associate professor (chair Real Estate Management) at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. She has a background in Architecture (BSc) and Management (MSc). Her specialisation is planning, design and management of university campuses and buildings. She focuses on generating management information for real estate decisions. In the past decade she has developed models and theories that help universities to design and implement their campus strategies and that contribute to creating knowledge cities. Apart from the Dutch situation she has explored international references and has written many reports, articles and papers on the university and campus of the future, trends and changing concepts and campus strategies. Alexandra operates in an extensive network of national and international campus management experts – both in academia and in practice. Her current research project explores (management of) the European campus – in an academic network – to support European decision makers. Focus is the presumed relation between the quality of the physical setting (workplace, ‘univer-city’) and the success of the knowledge economy (attracting and retaining Europe’s knowledge capital). 

Gunhan Karakullukçu was born in 1964 in the city of Trabzon, Turkey. He completed Galatasaray Lisesi in 1983 and graduated from the Economics Department of the Administrative Sciences Faculty of the Bosphorus University in 1988. Immediately after his graduation, he started to work as assistant auditor in the Brussels (Belgium) office of the Pricewaterhouse International Auditing Company.  In 1991, he made a pause on his professional life and started a Master of Public and Private Management (M.P.P.M.) at the Yale University in the U.S.A. During the 1992-1993 academic year he worked on an evaluation study on the economy of Turkey, under the guidance and supervision of Prof. James Tobin, Nobel laureate in Economics. The M.P.P.M. degree he received in 1993 was earned through specialization in Public Sector Economics and in Monetary Policy. On his return to Turkey, he started an engineering and industrial manufacturing company in 1993. He is currently an executive member of the board of directors and Chairman. The company has over 150 employees. 

Hans van der Krogt is director development and organization at Smits Vastgoedzorg, a real estate maintenance company specialized in transformation, renovation and maintenance of real estate. He started his career at TNO Industry as a research assistant after which he became organization consultant. He advised companies in the field of quality management systems and supply chain management. He is co-author of the SBR publications ‘Prestatiegericht samenwerken bij renovatie’ and ‘Resultaatgericht samenwerken bij investeren en onderhoud’. He is also Chairman of the PGS KiB consortium, member of the board of experts of the ‘VGO keur’, member of the board of the ‘Onderhoud NL totaal’ and partner of the ‘Nationaal Renovatie Platform’

  Jan Jongert graduated as Architect at the Academy of Architecture Rotterdam in 2003. As cofounder of Superuse Studios in Rotterdam (formerly known as 2012Architecten) he designs interiors and buildings and develop strategies to facilitate the transition to a sustainable society. He focuses at developing tools and processes and realise projects that empower local exchange and production, as an alternative to transporting our resources, products and components around the globe. He specialises in the behaviour of flows in interior, industrial and urban environment.  Key projects are Villa Welpeloo (2009), Recyclicity MSP (2010), Superuse.org (2007) and Cyclifier.org (2011). Since 2010 Jan Jongert leads a researchgroup INSIDEflows at the Royal academy of Art in The Hague.

  Prof. ir. C.H.C.F. (Kees) Kaan graduated in architecture at Delft University of Technology in 1987. As founding partner of the firm Claus en Kaan Architecten, he has built up an national and international range of projects, urban planning, architecture and interior design, among which in the last five years the won competitions for the master plan El Prat de Llobregat in Barcelona, the Supreme Court of The Netherlands, the Chambre des Métiers et de l’Artisanat in Lille, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Pharmacy building on the campus of the University of Granada. Realized projects include the multiple awards winning Netherlands Institute for Ecological Research in Wageningen, the Crematorium Heimolen in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, awarded with the Lensvelt De Architect Interior Prize, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique. Various books and exhibitions have been dedicated to his body of work. As well as taking on a range of peripheral activities, he is professor at the Delft University of Technology, an international lecturer and member of various juries and boards both in the Netherlands and abroad, in cities like Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, Split, São Paulo, Brasilia, Novosibirsk and Tokyo.

Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Rudolph, trained as a Mechanical Engineer at the University in Stuttgart and Northwestern University in Chicago, is a project manager of Transsolar, a climate engineering firm with offices in Stuttgart, Munich and New York. He helped leading 2010/2011 Transsolar’s New York team as the assistant director and is now based in the Stuttgart office. Since 2012 he is also Professor for building technology at the architecture department of the State Academy of Arts and Design, Stuttgart. Within his 12 years of experience in this field he has developed and analyzed a wide range of climate concepts ranging from individual buildings to large master plans, from a luxury Spa in Bad Aibling in Germany to urban developments in Casablanca, and from the completely passive, indigenous-inspired French School in Damascus to the technically intricate Allston Science Complex for Harvard University in Massachusetts.His thermal simulation expertise plays a major role in the continuous refinement of Transsolar’s advanced analytical techniques.

Dr Mikkel Kragh is the global Façade and Architectural Design Leader for High Performance Building Solutions at Dow Corning, based at Dow Corning Business & Technology Center in Seneffe, Belgium. Mikkel leads a newly formed group of design specialists in the field of high performance façade solutions. Mikkel joined Dow Corning in 2011, after having worked internationally as a façade specialist on numerous prestigious construction projects with Arup consulting engineers and the Permasteelisa Group.  In parallel with design work, he has led a number of collaborative R&D projects, consistently pushing the boundaries in the field of high performance facades. Mikkel holds an MSc in Civil and Structural Engineering and a PhD in Building Physics from the Technical University of Denmark.  He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Member of the Chartered Institute for Building Services Engineers (MCIBSE), and a Fellow of the Society of Façade Engineering (FSFE).

Dr. Ing. Steffen Pekrul studied Civil Engineering and Business administration in the Technical University of Braunschweitg, Germany, and received his degree in 1995. Since 1997, he has been working in HOCHTIEF Construction AG, in Hamburg and Qatar. As HOCHTIEF Department Manager and Head of Business Development, he had leading role in the construction of various national and international projects. In 2005, he finished PhD about the German Construction Industry. While conducting research as a Research Associate at the TU Berlin, we also instructed students in Project Management and Development of expertise Construction-Management. Since 2012, Steffen Pekrul is the Authorised Officer/CBDO of HOCHTIEF Hamburg GmbH. 

  Rudi Scheuermann studied Architecture at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and completed a research degree in tensile structures at Bath University (UK). Between 1993 and 2003 he has been teaching regularly at the architectural faculties, at the University of Hannover as research assistant, then at the University of Applied Science in Holzminden as lecturer, followed by the University RWTH in Aachen as guest professor. After 2003 his academic involvement has been focused on research projects and guest lectures mostly within Europe. During his early career has worked for architects and engineers in the UK, in Germany, the US and in the Netherlands before he joined Arup Façade Engineering in London in 2000. From there he moved on to the Berlin office in 2001 to establish a Facade Engineering Practice in Germany. Besides his role as Office Leader in Berlin since 2005 he has been in charge as Business Development Leader and Consulting Leader for all three German offices and has established further specialist disciplines like Lighting Design, Fire Engineering, Building Physics, Acoustics, Material Consulting and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in Germany. Between 2009 and 2011 he was also leading the European Technology Practice. Since 2009 he is heading the European and since 2012 also the Global Facade Engineering Practice.    

An upgrade, years in the making…

When we imagined Tumblr more than seven years ago, we dreamed of offering creators a new canvas. Every post would be a raw look through the author’s eyes and mind. We imagined the interface disappearing as these subjects came to life.

For years, this vision was challenged by limits in browser technology and an increasingly daunting set of Tumblr features to support. But today, we take a huge step.

After months of careful crafting, we’ve reduced creation on Tumblr to its essence, while carrying over every single feature and making room for some BIG new ones (like completely customizable drag-and-drop photoset creation, faster uploads, and inline reblogging!). We can’t wait for you to try it.

For generations they have signified femininity and glamour - but a pair of high heels was once an essential accessory for men.