MycoTerra

Mycelial Landscapes

Marize-Louise Viljoen

BArch Hons 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Claudia Morgado
Unit Tutor: Ruby Mungoshi
Unit Assistant: Azraa Gabru

UNIT 13^︎︎︎
Second Nature | Shared Futures

MycoTerra is the investigation of micro mycelial properties on macro architectural terrains which informs the development of mycelial landscapes. Various experiments with mycelium colonisation, substrate and plastic were achieved. The addition of the artificial is particularly important as we are living in an era where the artificial and natural are rarely separate from the artificial smothering our natural environment.

Inspired by the properties of mycelium, the aim of MycoTerra is to develop imagined cityscapes, worlds within worlds, to push the limit of our imagination and to explore possibilities of repair beyond our ordinary existence. Perhaps the greatest question is not in mimicking nature but rather, what can we learn from the relationships between micro biological matter in a symbiotic ecosystem and how does it inform our reality on a macro scale? How can we repair the natural with the artificial when the artificial is asphyxiating the natural?

Keywords:
Mycelium, Landscapes, Ecological Repair, Imagined Cityscapes, Micro, Macro, New Worlds, Fungi, Mycelial Terrains, Biomimicry

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