A four-square-meter shelter grown from fungus rather than built from conventional materials has appeared in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Called Refugio Fúngico, the structure was completed in 2021 by the design studio SUPERPRAXIS, led by architects Ramiro Carro and Juliana Lareu, as an experimental piece of biotechnological research rather than a permanent building.
The shelter is assembled from repeating blocks made of mycelium, the root-like network of a fungus, combined with organic waste sourced from local food and timber industries. The species used is Ganoderma lucidum, commonly known as Reishi, an edible mushroom. Rather than forming a solid enclosure, the blocks are arranged in an open, permeable pattern that acts as a kind of membrane between inside and outside.
Mycelium works by growing hyphae, microscopic filaments that spread through waste matter and bind it together as they feed. According to the project’s designers, the resulting material can end up stronger than concrete while remaining extremely light. They also point to its resistance to fire, its insulating qualities against both heat and sound, and its ability to float owing to its porous structure.
In their own words, the designers describe the process: “Mycelium consists of a network of microscopic filaments called hyphae that expand rhizomatically, feeding on inert matter and binding organic waste. This process creates a structure capable of achieving a final strength that can exceed that of materials like concrete. It is also characterized by its extreme lightness, fire-retardant and thermo-acoustic properties, and high buoyancy due to its porosity.”
Because the shelter is made purely from living organisms and organic waste, it is designed to fully decompose. Once the installation reaches the end of its use, the material can be returned to the soil as compost, closing what the designers call a circular loop rather than leaving lasting waste behind.
A shelter that changes and can be heard
Unlike a fixed building material, the mycelium blocks continue to react to their surroundings even after construction. Their surface texture and coloring shift over time depending on local climate and atmospheric conditions, meaning the shelter’s appearance is never entirely finished or predictable. The designers frame this as an invitation to think about impermanence, growth and the changing relationship between people and their environment.
The project also incorporates sound as part of the experience. Using a technique called bio-sonification, data collected from the living mycelium’s biological activity is converted into audio, letting visitors listen to the material’s ongoing processes rather than only see or touch it.
SUPERPRAXIS frames the shelter as an argument for design built around cooperation with natural systems instead of extraction from them, using discarded organic matter as a raw ingredient for a construction material that can ultimately return to the earth.
Refugio Fúngico sits inside a wider shift in how architects choose what to build with. Our guide to biocompatible materials covers mycelium alongside the other grown and bio-based options, and what each one asks of a project in return.
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