Concrete has become synonymous with construction but there is a growing movement worldwide against this and other energy-intensive, non-sustainable materials, as designers and architects search for sustainable alternatives.

Associate Professor Rosangela Tenorio, a co-founder of the Bio-Based Materials Design Lab at The University of Western Australia with adjunct senior lecturer Dr Jairo Da Costa, said concrete was responsible for eight per cent of global greenhouse emissions and the need for alternatives was urgent.

“The manufacture, use and disposal of concrete is far from environmentally friendly,” Associate Professor Tenorio said.

There is so much potential to create affordable homes and buildings with bio-based materials.

^{Associate Professor Rosangela Tenorio works with mycelium for using in buildings and furniture}

The future of bamboo, hemp and fungus

Associate Professor Tenorio and her students are developing products using materials such as bamboo, algae, the fungus mycelium, straw bales, engineered timber and hemp.

It is a mission to create a better living environment while regenerating the planet through design.

The move into bio-based materials is at its essence to transform our current practices and design so we can achieve zero carbon emissions,” she said.

“This means we need to look at alternative, low-carbon construction materials. Bio-based construction materials are renewable, and during their growth phase, they capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide.

“Bamboo as an example, is an extremely fast-growing plant and the faster a plant grows, the more it will use carbon dioxide.

“It will absorb between four and six times more carbon dioxide than trees as it’s ready to be used for construction in less than five years.

“Therefore, when a designer chooses to build with biomaterials, we are starting in a positive way by storing rather than emitting carbon so this is a climate-positive building industry.”

Cultivating the solution

In her office at the BBMLab Associate Professor Tenorio is cultivating mycelium for use in furniture and to trial in products such as building panels.

It has a suede-like texture and good thermal properties as well as being fire-resistant.

“In some cases, mycelium is an alternative on its own but it can also be used with products we’re more familiar with such as timber and bamboo,” she said.

“We need to look at the things around us and see their properties.

“At the BBMLab we work with material scientists and product designers as well as architects and engineers to explore different building products which are strong, weather-protective and renewable but not toxic.

“An example of this is our perforated Buka panels, made of bamboo plywood and mycelium, which are being used in a project in Indonesia to create a screened area with ventilation.”

She said collaborating with experts from other fields, including engineers, biologists and computer scientists, would lead to smarter solutions.

Local and global design action

In the Bio-Based Materials course at UWA, students have been involved in projects overseas and in remote areas of Australia.

“The BBMLab students at UWA have worked in the Kimberley but also in Brazil, Timor-Leste and Indonesia where they use mostly locally sourced products,” Associate Professor Tenorio said.

“We also use digital technology, including 3D printers and computer numerical control machines, to produce high-quality designs and products.”

While bio-based materials aren’t yet being produced on the scale of traditional construction products, the trend is positive, according to the passionate teacher and industry innovator.

“At the moment the bio-economy is small, up to about five per cent, but I have no doubt it will grow,” she said.

A new architecture

Associate Professor Tenorio said she hoped the work she and her colleagues and students were doing would make architecture more accessible.

Architecture tends to be an extremely elite profession catering for a small minority of the population,” she said.

“Our goal is to create cutting-edge design and allow our research to reach more people because there is plenty of demand for environmental, social design.