UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An acoustic wall that was designed and built using mycelium — the root of fungi — by a team of interdisciplinary researchers led by Benay Gürsoy, associate professor of architecture and director of the Form and Matter (ForMat) Lab in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, now adorns a wall in Penn State Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos’ office in Old Main.
Mycelium-based composites are more eco-friendly than traditional building components, yet they match the performance of traditional insulation. The material has been a focus of ongoing research and experimentation in the ForMat Lab, where Gürsoy and her team explore their architectural applications along with researchers in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
How did this unique office installation come about?
In the spring of 2024, former interim Penn State Provost Tracy Langkilde took notice of Gürsoy’s work after Gürsoy participated in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research’s Art Research Curation Exhibit on the University Park campus. Langkilde invited Gürsoy to design and build a mycelium acoustic wall — based on the work Gürsoy completed with architecture alumna Natalie Walter, now an acoustic engineer at WSP USA — for the provost’s office.
“I was delighted that Benay agreed to this project. This is an extraordinary installation — a stunning fusion ecological innovation, functionality and aesthetic elegance,” Langkilde said. “This unique application of mycelium exemplifies the creativity and innovation of our talented faculty and students and exemplifies the power of Penn State's culture of interdisciplinary research.”
Gürsoy, who is a researcher in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, echoed Langkilde’s enthusiasm about this unique installation.
“We were very excited about this opportunity as it would be our first full-scale acoustic wall installation using mycelium-based composites,” Gürsoy said.
Global research on mycelium-based composites is growing rapidly, Gürsoy said.
“This was a truly collaborative project and a lot of knowledge around it already existed in our lab,” said Alale Mohseni, a third-year architectural doctoral candidate.