Life-Frame

New methodologies of mycelium form-making promise innovative relationships between architectural systems and the domestic. More than a microhome, LIFE-FRAME utilizes these mycelium volumes to infill the structure of living, creating a thick wall condition teeming with plants, mushrooms, and views of the outside world. It is a framework for new ways of living centered around a new living frame.

The blocks — insulation, mushroom, and plants — are cast from 3D printed molds, using baked mycelium as a light, plastic material. Because of the ease of production and high insulative performance, the cast mycelium functions as a sustainable and high performing enclosure system. In order to incorporate glazing into the wall system, modified Kingspan Uniquad translucent panels and Kingspan Clear Acrylic Unit Skylights are also fit within the voids of the structural waffle system, forming a gradient of light and life which responds to dynamic site conditions.

The waffle structure is constructed out of CNC milled plywood pieces, prefabricated off-site and transported for assembly. Within the structure, prefabricated programmed volumes supply area for the entrance, kitchen, and bedroom. Inside the waffle, the bathroom and storage are built into a southern infrastructural band, allowing for the complete vegetation of the southern facade.

As the LIFE-FRAME is occupied it gains the nuance of platforms, ladders, plants, and furniture; all which grow in and out of the frame. Each volume and enclosure would come to represent the diverse lives which they contain, assisted by the agency given to each occupant through the open-ended frame structure. Beyond a frame full of life — an archi-tectonic system — it becomes a framework for living.