The idea of sitting on rotting fungus may not appeal to everyone, but a Polish designer has come up with a novel way of making eco-friendly furniture - out of mushrooms.
The fungus lampshades and chairs look and smell like they’ve come out a forest but, says Michał Głogowski the man behind the creation, they are surprisingly durable.
Using fungus spores bought in local shops, the 25-year-old moulds them into the shape he wants using wood chips before putting them in a hermetically sealed, heated tank.
During the two week process the pieces are fused together creating a dense network of connections and when complete the mushroom is dried to stop it growing more.
The Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts graduate told TFN: "The mushroom composite has many advantages, but the way to obtain it is quite difficult. Working with this kind of material requires a lot of precision and delicacy.”
He added: "When it comes to finishing the work, we do not do much. It's a completely natural product.
“If we want the colour to be darker or lighter, we choose the right /proper type/genus of mushrooms.”
Although not the first of their kind - others have also made mushroom furniture - the results are bizarrely aesthetic and 100 per cent biodegradable.
The inspiration, he says, came from a holiday.
He said: "During my Scandinavian holidays three years ago, I ended up in a community living in harmony with nature.
“They were vegetarians who built everything only from natural materials and ran the kitchen outdoors.
“I was wondering what other material, apart from clay and straw is suitable as a building material in design and so I discovered mushrooms.”
Now the young inventor has begun touting his designs around eco fairs both in Poland and abroad, the most recent being the WZORY design fair in Warsaw, in the hope of drumming up interest.
He has also started talks with a Polish company interested in processing biological waste into functional packaging bonded by the power of mushroom spawn.
