Mushroom Tiny House

This is a radical project to grow a tiny house. The walls and insulation will be grown out of Ecovative's Myco-Foam technology. Learn more at www.ecovativedesign.com.

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Tiny House in the Big City

The Mushroom Tiny House made it from Green Island to New York with no problems! We showed it off all day and night on the street to passersby and attendees of the Cradle to Cradle Gala. It was a big hit!

Can you spot the Mushroom Tiny House?

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The Journey to NYC

Most houses don't have to stand up to 70mph winds, and earthquake-like pothole induced vibrations. But these are just the conditions experienced by a house rolling down the highway, and the Mushroom Tiny House handled the challenge with zero issues. Mushroom Insulation doesn't just keep the house comfortable, it's structural! Check out these photos from the road trip into Manhattan.

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We are on our way to NYC. Come see us tonight. 555 W 18th Street, 4:30-10pm.

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Coming to NYC!

All the details: IAC Building (555 W 18th St New York, NY 10011 Nov 15th from 4:30-9:30pm Open house! See every room (there aren't many) of the world's first Mushroom Tiny House November 15th from 4:30-9:30pm. New Yorkers have been talking a lot about tiny things lately; from tiny apartments to smaller sodas. It seems like the perfect time to share our creation.

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Tiny House, Big City!

This Friday, November 15th, we’re bringing the original Mushroom Tiny House to New York City!

This is an event not to be missed! From 4:30 to 9:30pm, you can stop by outside the IAC Building (555 W 18th St New York, NY 10011 ) and tour Ecovative’s first building grown out of Mushroom® Insulation.

Until then, we’re furiously putting finishing touches on the house for its NYC debut.

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Come See Our Latest Tech at Greenbuild Next Month

For the first time ever, we’ll be sharing the future of Mushroom® Insulation and Myco Board® with the world. Come see these cutting edge materials at the world’s best green building products expo at booth #2205. We will be highlighting several exciting products, still in development, that will be market ready in the next 12-24 months. These cutting-edge sustainable materials include: -Myco Board: formaldehyde-free, tree-free light weight alternative to fiberboard and other core materials. -Mushroom Insulated Sheathing: Add continuous insulation to a retrofit or new construction… without any plastic foam. -Grown-in-place Mushroom Insulation: This has been called "the greenest insulating material". We’re seeking leading edge partners to take it to the next level. -And lots more from the Ecovative labs including Mushroom Insulation, SIPs, acoustic tiles, and more. All the details: Greenbuild Expo Philadelphia Convention Center November 20-22, 2013 See Ecovative at Booth #2205

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On Display at The New Institute (Rotterdam, NL)

The New Institute, an architecture museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands is displaying a grown-in-place Mushroom Insulation wall assembly. This is an improved version of the wall system used on our Mushroom Tiny House.

The exhibit, Living Matter, highlights newly developed materials and applications that utilize biology for design, art and architecture. These explorations highlight the possibility of working with life in a variety of ways, including supporting a building with trees, recycling waste, and growing fabric with microbes. Several of these innovations work to align human behavior with the preservation of the environment, to erect bridges between ecosystems and the built environment. The examples demonstrate that the two can benefit and ultimately sustain one another. The exhibition is curated by William Myers and is based on his book BioDesign published by The Museum of Modern Art in 2012. More details can be found at: www.biology-design.com

All the details: Living Matter Exhibition The New Institute Rotterdam, The Netherlands September 26 – December 31 2013

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We are thrilled to announce that Ecovative's Mushroom Tiny House project, and the concept of grown-in-place Mushroom® Insulation, has been selected as one of 10 finalists! 144 applicants were screened by Cradle to Cradle certification experts, toxicologists from ToxServices, and building professionals from Make It Right. These judges selected 10 finalists who are now being considered for the $250,000 cash prize. The 10 finalists represent alternatives to a range of traditional building products, including insulation,paint, drywall, siding, roofing, and construction panels. Three winners will share the cash prize, with 1st place receiving $125,000, 2nd winning $75,000 and 3rd getting $50,000. The three winners will be announced on November 15th, 2013 at the Institute's Innovation Celebration gala In New York City.

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Vote for the Mushroom Tiny House in the Smithsonian's 2013 People's Design Award

Ecovative’s Mushroom Tiny House has been anonymously nominated for the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Awards, which includes public selection for the People’s Design Award. The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. The Awards are bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life. We are honored to be included in the league of other prestigious designs and designers, and we are eager to continue developing Mushroom® Materials as a platform technology to improve the quality of life on Earth. Public voting for the award takes place September 10 – October 11 at smithsonianmag.com/design-awards. You and anyone you know can vote once per day. Ecovative appreciates your vote and your willingness to join us in support of our mission.

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Why do RV's all look the same?

Seriously... what's with the swooshy graphics that seem to adorn 95% of RVs and mobile homes?

It seems strange to me that RV's almost never are stylized to look like homes, with dignified exterior finishes. They also never fit with automotive styling; you can't select their color. For some reason, the industry has settled on white with weird swooshy, sometimes tribal looking vinyl graphics plastered on the side, without consideration even of where the windows fit in. This vinyl swooshy graphic trend seems to have permeated almost every brand of RV.

The only difference seems to be on very high end models which switch to a pallet of darkers colors and tan swooshes. What's up with that?

Now, there are still some exceptions, like airstreams, but they are few and far between. Tiny houses offer a way to live, and move, in style.

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We're installing this premium cherry hardwood floor in the Mushroom Tiny House this week. We even used the laser engraver from our prototyping shop to burn in our logo. Fancy fancy!

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Tiny House Order Form

Like this project? You can now buy a kit and grow one yourself! It could be your new weekend retreat, wilderness lodge, or full time dwelling! Click the link above to order. We're also selling live Mushroom Insulation for you to experiment with in your own structure or design. Click through to the order form to learn all the details. Contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

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Subtitle:  Mushroom insulation might be the world's greenest insulation, when it becomes available Images:  Building Science Rather than blowing agents, this insulation uses growing agents. It's natural. It's made with

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Is Mushroom Insulation the World's Greenest Insulating Material?

Green, Greener, Greenest? Check out this article from the building science experts at Energy Vangaurd. Let us know what you think!

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Yestermorrow Grow a Wall Workshop Recap

A few weeks ago we towed the Mushoom Tiny House on its first journey up to the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Vermont for the first annual Tiny House Fair. I wanted to take some time to share some photos and give a bit of a recap. The Tiny House Fair was a blast! It was a perfect shakedown test for the freshly completed Mushroom Tiny House, and I'm happy to report that it made it there and back along bumpy Vermont roads in one piece. I was thrilled by all the positive feedback we got about this radical method to GROW the walls of a house. I left convinced that Mushroom Insulation is a perfect fit for Tiny Houses. It's manageable and affordable for people to do on their own without special equipment. Compared to cellulose or fiberglass, it won't settle or reduce in effectiveness after vibrating down the road. Like spray foam, it insulates, air seals and also glues the whole house together. Unlike plastic foams however, it's all natural, renewable and it's safer in the event of a fire. Mushroom Insulation and Tiny Houses really seem like a perfect match. For me, the highlight of the weekend was teaching a workshop on how to pack walls with Mushroom Insulation. This is the first time this has ever been done outside of Ecovative's R&D facility! Thank you to all the guinea pigs who participated. Great work! Check out all these smiling faces insulating test walls during the hands-on demo:

We hope to teach more of these workshops in the future and keep expanding these walls into a dog house or chicken coop or some sort of teeny tiny house. Thanks to everyone who helped grow the first section!

I had an absolute blast at the first ever Tiny House Fair. Thanks so much to everyone at Yestermorrow and in the Tiny House community for making this event happen. We hope by next year there will be a whole village of Tiny Houses insulated with Mushroom Insulation!

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Hello, Mycelium Mavericks at Ecovative Design! Please let me be the first person to order your currently-in-development SIPs for my 399 square feet very small (but bigger than tiny) home in Richmond, Virginia. I'm planning on breaking ground at the beginning of August, and would like to know if your new product will be ready around that time. Please contact me at your earliest convenience: Laura Middlebrooks 804-502-6419. THANKS!

Laura,Our SIPs won't be ready by then, but you can pre-order live Mushroom Insulation to grow your own walls similarly to how the Mushroom Tiny House was put together. Check out the pre-order form on this site and let us know if you have any questions! [email protected]

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HI there, I realise you will be wanting to make a profit, but I was wondering if you will put up the details of how you made this house? I'm currently wanting to build a tiny house made from timber shipping pallets and am looking for options for insulation. Is it possible to use mushroom spores or is there another way of only using the roots? Thanks for all the great work you are doing :) Ben

Ben, It takes a lot of specialized equipment that we've build and developed over the past 6 years to make this work well. We are now taking pre-orders for the live Mushroom Insulation so you can buy some and grow it yourself in your creation. Check it out!