A mycelium bag, mycelium-based animal shelter, and mycelium packaging are among more than 20 fungi-based artworks to be featured in a unique experimental exhibition next month as part of the 2023 Melbourne Design Week.

Created through an innovative collaboration between social impact consultancy Ellis Jones and RMIT Industrial Design, the exhibition, IM-PERMANENT aims to illuminate alternative approaches to design and encourage conversations around a planet-centric circular economy.

IM-PERMANENT opens on 18 May for 10 days at Abbotsford Convent’s The Store, a gallery-inspired space overlooking the Heritage Gardens.

Featuring artworks spanning furniture, apparel, lighting, bio scaffolds, sculpture, packaging, architectural pieces, soil-based production experiments, prints and even an animal shelter, created by mycologists, award-winning designers, researchers, architects and students, the exhibition spotlights emerging innovations in mycelium design while showcasing the interplay between innovation and sustainability.

While highlighting mycelium’s bio-contributing nature, vast uses and ability to restructure traditional design, IM-PERMANENT explores the idea of material impermanence and celebrates a future where products are naturally regenerative, driving home the message of circularity.

IM-PERMANENT exhibitor and product design engineering student, Flynn Williams, is excited to share his ground-breaking work with a larger audience, hoping to encourage other designers to embrace this sustainable material.

“My work highlights the potential of using mycelium in animal conservation. I’ve developed a MycoFibre Shelter, which is a mycelium-based screen that provides protection to native wildlife from predators after a bushfire.

“Prior to the MycoFibre Shelter, mycelium had not been used to create artificial habitats for animal conservation. This new approach opens up exciting possibilities for sustainable and eco-friendly construction in the field of animal conservation,” says Williams.

The IM-PERMANENT showcase also includes a mycelium bag by Isabella Raco, IntoCarry and Josh Riesel; mycelium packaging samples from Fungi Solutions; and a mycelium and brass pendant light from Mechelle Shooter and Richard Greenacre from Volker Haug.

Ellis Jones’ co-principal, and director of design, David Constantine said the exhibition intends to amplify the critical role of circular thinking in moving towards a more sustainable future – a thinking based on reusing and recycling goods, materials and services, with the goal of extending their lifecycle and avoiding waste.

“Fungi is a perfect embodiment of this; a biodegradable resource that has quickly become the sustainable material of the moment,” says Constantine.

IM-PERMANENT will further unpack ideas on circularity, as well as the challenges of moving to a circular economy through a panel discussion called Circular Matters. The exhibition will also include Artists Talks and a DATTA Schools Program.

IM-PERMANENT will open at Abbotsford Convent’s The Store on Thursday 18 May and run until 28 May.

Check out the program for IM-PERMANENT.

Photo credits: Gyungju Chyon, Rebecca Nel and Yurika McGuire, commissioned by K5.

Architecture & Design Team

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