Lecture

Living materials

In Vivo or how to ensure a living building?

2024 Broader interest

Thursday

14.11

20:00

Blaisantkerk

Blaisantvest 37

9000 Gent

With the support of:

Bento architecture
Elise Vanden Elsacker

Fungi play an important role in the networks between plants. In November, we zoom in on the potential of these materials in construction. A scientific and a design perspective show the mesmerising, radical implications of mycelium materials on how we can look at building processes in the future. Building maintenance, for example, suddenly takes on a different meaning and becomes rather caring, keeping alive. What are the possibilities of these new living materials? In what ways does it challenge our building logic and subsequently our behaviour?

Hera Van Sande Bento Architects – Venice Biennale 2023

For the Venice Biennale 2023, Wallonia selected an interdisciplinary team with the young architectural firm Bento and philosophy of science Vinciane Despret at the helm. They note that the way we produce (building) materials urgently needs to change. They look to the future by studying living things and explore the possibility of making building materials based on fungi (mycelium), which are available, sustainable, self-generating and cheap. Their research into ‘the living city’ under the title “IN VIVO” entices us to visit them across the language border. Focusing both on architecture, art and design, Bento’s research focuses on the potential of the mycelium, the vegetative part of the mushroom.

Elise Vanden Elsacker, a researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is also researching funghi as a raw material, keeping mycelium materials alive and its self-healing properties. Driven by a broader sense of societal responsibility, she is dedicated to building bridges to the future of materials. This interest was sparked by experiments she conducted at the ReaGent open biolab during her free time while working as an architect in Ghent (2014-2016). She then completed a doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels entitled Mycelium Matters, one of the first studies to characterise all the key factors affecting the biological and material properties of mycelium composites. At the intersection of architecture, microbiology and chemistry, she currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the VUB on mycelium-based materials and is involved in numerous research projects, including the European Fungateria project.

Bento Architectes

BENTO

Bento Architects Bento Architects – Hertz_Ceramics hoven_Centre d_art contemporain du Luxembourg

Bento Architects

Elise Vanden Elsacker, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Elise Vanden Elsacker Elise Vanden Elsacker – Biowelding living mycelium blocks

ugo_carmeni Elise Vanden Elsacker – Belgian pavilion biennale 2023

Elise Vanden Elsacker Elise Vanden Elsacker – Mycelium insulation panel

Photoalbum

Levende materialen

In Vivo of hoe te zorgen voor een levend gebouw?

Activity — 2024