For Nature, Miles Lizak spoke to Mtamu Kililo who has found a unique way to try and tackle Kenya’s housing crisis: building with mushroom components [archived version]:
“In my view, the most important thing to communicate is that this is a practical solution to problems that people are facing day-to-day. Even somebody who doesn’t understand the bigger picture of the environmental impact can still use the product, build, and get the benefits.”
Mtamu is the co-founder and CEO of MycoTile, a company that makes affordable building materials out of food waste and oyster-mushroom mycelium.
Mycelia are key to ecosystems on land and sea as they help decompose plant materials improve the organic makeup of soils by supplying food to creatures that live in it. They also help to put carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and play a huge role in plant health. So to use these kinds of materials to build houses for people is simultaneously unorthodox and par for the course.