161: ‘Project Phoenix, Part 3: Innovating with Mycelium’, with David Benjamin and Thomas van Haren
A conversation with David Benjamin and Thomas van Haren.
David Benjamin and Thomas van Haren join the podcast to talk about the journey of creating sustainable building materials using mycelium, the history of their partnership and the evolution from demonstration projects to scalable solutions, insights on the importance of digital workflows, the challenges and innovations in building facades, and the incredible versatility of mycelium as a materials platform.
We also talk about the potential of mycelium to revolutionize various industries and the urgent need for scalable, carbon-negative solutions in architecture building materials and beyond.
Episode links:
- Ecovative website
- Autodesk Research website
- Autodesk on LinkedIn
- Path to Net Zero: Validating New Materials and Strategies for Decarbonization (Autodesk University seminar)
- Decarbonize Architecture: Mycelium Fungi as a Building Material (Autodesk University seminar)
- Fantastic Fungi documentary (Wikipedia)
- Project Phoenix Modular Housing Shows a Sustainable Way Forward (YouTube)
- TRXL 159: ‘Project Phoenix, Part 1: Design’, with David Benjamin and Ryan McNulty
- TRXL 160: ‘Project Phoenix, Part 2: Prefab Modular’, with David Benjamin and Andrew Meagher
About David Benjamin:
Architect David Benjamin leads applied research on Net-Zero Buildings at Autodesk Research. His work combines research and practice, with a focus on an expanded and actionable framework of environmental sustainability. Over the past several years, his team has explored generative design, low-carbon materials, and re-usable design intelligence for the built environment.
About Thomas van Haren:
Thomas van Haren is Ecovative’s Chief Operating Officer, where he is responsible for the raw materials and mycelium composites business lines across the United States and Europe. Ecovative is scaling its mycelium technology to provide an alternative for industrial farming and to replace plastics. We harvest delicious bacon without the pig and biofabricate leather without the cow. Thomas graduated from the London School of Economics and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
