Grown Materials

So our group is currently looking at the idea of Wellington moving from inflatable architecture in say ten years time, but that by 2040 the materiality of the buildings is something that can be grown which is more environmentally friendly and biodegradable than conventional building methods. I have taken on the role of looking into grown materials (since I have already sent an email to get in contact with a scientist relevant to the area) and how they could be adapted to become a shell on current building structures.

A breakdown of how I currently see it -

We want -
- An organic material to grow over the current foundation of a building (concrete) as a kind of shell . This will be over passage ways between buildings and perhaphs eventually be the main material of building structures.
- A material that the building aids to grow at first but then is able to grow on its own.

In the future past 2040 - Passage ways can possibly be shifted to be between other buildings or when not wanted can degrade in a forest much like leaves.

Why this material -

- The organic material brings more vegetation into the business district and meshes with the 'eden garden' idea that is to be within these passage ways.
- Is more environmentally friendly by using less materials that are used with conventional building methods.

Ive started researching into what materials could be used...

First looking at vines like Ivy, Russian-vine and virginia creeper but then talking to the group again decided we don't want a plant like vines growing on the outside of the buildings but rather just a material that can act like a shell that will eventually replace the PVC material thats the inflatable archiecture.
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Watching the Ted talks video again that Ross showed us in class...

It mainly talks about mycelium, a self assembly organism that does the work in the process of something growing. The benifits of it are that at the end of its life it can be composted into the garden. The group that came up with it believes that better materials should be able to be created anywhere on the planet, use less energy to produce than normal materials and be able to be disposed by nature. So this got me thinking if i have a grown material, mycelium could somehow be intergrated into it to have it grow in a more controlled way - into a shell that would cover the building structure.








The website for it -
http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

I have no idea if this is even possible but just putting the idea out there - could something like mycelium substance be integrated into the DNA of cicada wings or other organic things to control / change the rules in which they grow. Perhaphs also make them stronger so eventually they can serve as a main building structure.

Starting to do some research into cicada wings and found this page that documents experiments carried out on the materiality of cicata wings-

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/6/2/026003/pdf/1748-3190_6_2_026003.pdf
From its research it draws conclusions that cicata wings have anti-reflective and wetting properties from the hexagonal nanostructure of the wings. It is said that the wings filter out ultra violet light.
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/improvements-to-solar-cells-come-from-moths-and-cicadas-00002508.asp?sessionid=1

May be good to have this translucent material as this main shell that wraps over the building structures.