In collaboration with Biolab Seoul, Kuo Duo has created a series of masks made from Mushroom Mycelium. Developed for a public workshop at gwacheon national science museum, the masks intend to showcase the advantages of this sustainable biomaterial and its potential application.
Mycelium, a vegetative part of fungus, consumes natural waste to grow into the desired shape and has a white colour and soft texture as a drawing paper.
From that, kuo duo came up with the idea to design playful masks that hark back to people’s childhood. There are five mask designs, each of which are inspired by the natural shapes of various mushroom types. The design duo went through the process of growing mycelium in mask moulds several times, concentrating on creating high strength, dense and white surfaces.
During the process, kuo duo discovered another characteristic of the material. After experimenting with various conditions, they discovered that the more times the mycelium was grown and decomposed, the stronger the mycelium became, and the whiter the surface grew. Repeating the process three or four times was found as the most suitable condition to the optimum strength and surface for the masks. However, if mycelium exceeds a certain period of time, it becomes mushroom and the surface starts to turn yellow.
The designers felt that the more they study the material, the more advanced it becomes, and the more people know, the more the development doubles.
For this reason, kuo duo wants to show the potential of mycelium in an easy-to-understand way. Biolab Seoul has been working to introduce various bio-materials to the public in the form of workshops. workshop has the advantage of learning new things since it provides active experience regardless of different places, channels and age. With them, the masks kuo duo designed have been used for the bio-material workshop at gwacheon national science museum in november 2020.
project name: mushroom mycelium mask
design: kuo duo
Original article published on Designboom.com - 17 Nov 2020
Edited by: Lynne Myers | Designboom
Images courtesy of Kuo Duo via Designboom
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