What would it mean to design as an expression of the land itself?
Climate change emerges from being cognitively severed from local ecologies. Mycorrhizal fungi have often been described as ‘ecological nervous systems,’ facilitating tree-tree communication in terrestrial landscapes. What kind of morphological guidance for us might be held within these mycelium-based knowledge systems?
In this project, we prototyped a mycelium-sensing apparatus as an interspecies tool to guide urban development.
applications
Geographical siting of developmental sites to minimize ecological stress.
Biofeedback to design minimally invasive footpaths and roads.
Subterranean aquifer monitoring.
Real-time resource allocation for ‘green infrastructure.’
Early warnings of drought or flood risk.
Enhances soil health for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
Links green spaces to improve computational capacity.
Potential computational interface to ‘write’ new information to other species.