Fancy building your house from mushrooms? Maybe this ‘Veganuary’ the thought has crossed your mind! I’ve heard of straw-bale houses, rammed earth structures and wildflower roofs etc., but mushroom blocks…? That was a new one on me – and no, I haven’t been on the prosecco!

As strange as this sounds, vegan-friendly building materials are being developed, in particular by a student of architecture at Northumbria University, Ehab Sayed.

In 2016, Ehab founded his business, Biohm, and he and his team have been working on ways to use natural products in construction. The products they have come up with are described as natural, biodegradable and vegan. If that isn’t enough, they consume waste and carbon during production, and some also purify the air when they are used in buildings.

Insulation made from mycelium (the vegetative part of a mushroom) has been developed, and apparently it meets fire safety standards as it’s naturally self-extinguishing.

There is also an interlocking construction system that allows walls to be moved easily and rooms added to existing buildings. Maybe this will appeal to the vegan self-build market.

According to the data, if just 150 buildings were constructed in the UK each year these materials, the nation’s energy consumption would be reduced to the tune of £35 million, and 10 million tonnes of waste would be diverted from landfill.

Those are mighty impressive figures for such a small number of new-builds!

The likes of Tata Steel, Heathrow Airport and some of the UK’s major housebuilders are looking at using these products.

This begs the question: could we soon be seeing fields of mushrooms instead of fields of solar panels?

(Data taken from https://buildingproducts.co.uk/vegan-vision/)