Travelling events such as football championships have been criticised for their environmental impact. Many of the previous venues have consumed valuable resources and generated a large amount of waste and unused space. For this year's European Championship EURO2024 in Germany, IBK is looking for proposals for a circular venue. By circular, we mean the circular bioeconomy, in which waste streams from natural resources are returned to nature. We want to use the novel biomaterial Mycelium Based Composites (MBC) and investigate its effects on design and construction. We are realising a spatial construction made of mycelium composite material, which is intended to create an atmospheric venue for the public viewing of the EURO2024 final.
Mycelium is the root-like structure of fungi that, when cultivated on organic particles (hemp shavings, wood dust, etc.), can form a building material with similar properties to cork. Working with a living material will influence the way we construct, design and imagine spaces. Students will be able to immerse themselves in the design and construction phase of realising architectural works and experience how much creativity this phase requires when working with non-standardised materials. We want to continue some of the experiments started in the winter semester 2023/24 (DesignStudio MyzelStructure) and incorporate them into the design of the final demonstration object of the EURO2024 venue.