Sustainable & Material Design

The objective of A.R.C. is to re-innovate ways of buying, gardening, and keeping the organic cycle intact. A.R.C. replaces single-use plastic pots with tough, lightweight, biodegradable materials. We aim for a return to the natural state without pollution.

Mycelium is an unnoticed part of thee fungi, living underground and functioning as vegetative roots. Mycelium and compost together take ca. 7 days to grow inside a mould turning into a white polystyrene foam-like texture. The organism will be ‘killed’ in the oven (ca.7hr on 90°); when completed with its growing phase, it loses a total of 30% of its initial weight. Finally, the combination of lightness and a robust structure is achieved. As a result, transportation is a viable option for the plant pot. The lifecycle of the plant pot ends with biodegradation, depositing the substance into the soil and watching it disappear within ca.40 days. Water will speed up biodegradation. Simultaneously, it provides the plant with necessary fertilization and nutrients.

Our process started with frustration with single-use plastics and questioning why not more than one purpose?

In March 2021, the journey began, experimenting with different organic composts such as eggshells, coffee, and fruit peels. Additionally, we attempted to create mycelium ourselves using wood chips. We noticed that the room temperature (to let mycelium grow), moisture, and thickness level of composts let first attempts fail to mold disasters. For example, too many eggshells made prototypes crumble as the mycelium could not expand as much. Too much coffee made it unstable, and non-dried ground coffee left prototypes mushy. The same issues arose with moist fruit peels, which made prototypes soggy and later on dry. We also experimented with variations of thicknesses, which impacted the number of organic composts for mixture and transportation.

After many trials and errors, we found an ideal mixture balance of ingredients, the thickness of 2cm, and natural glue, honey, to better bind all composts. Drainage holes of plant pots were drilled; it is essential not to add too much pressure to the hollow material. Finally, of all composts, roughly 70% coffee, 15% eggshells, 10% tea grains, 5% honey were used in a layering technique; compost, natural adhesive, mycelium.

This was a group project with Robin Anstoetz, Claire Villemeur in the class Design Studio II, directed by Héctor Serrano.

*Submitted to Dyson Awards 2021