Interior Architecture | Flight into the Shadow | Architecture Biennale 2025

Flight into the shadow | Architecture Biennale 2025

Parallel to the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, the Salone Verde art & social club invites you to a "Workshop for cool Cities". The local warming of cities due to climate change and increased urbanisation is currently the subject of much discussion. Two installations examine the question "How can we live with the heat?" from different perspectives:

"Heat is a psychological problem."
by artist Antje Schiffers - with traditional textiles from Mali, Morocco, Anatolia and Uzbekistan inviting a slower, low-energy way of being.

"Flightinto the Shadow"
by the University of Stuttgart, HFT Stuttgart (Interior Architecture) and Deggendorf Institute of Technology – using mycelium-based structures to explore architecture as a form of ecological intelligence.

Mycelium-based materials have inherently low thermal conductivity and thermal storage capacities. When applied to urban areas they can reduce the amount of heat absorbed during the day and diminish the subsequent re-radiation of heat at night. Unlike timber, mycelium grows within days. Its white, fungal skin naturally reflects sunlight, creating high albedo values. The structure is fabricated by solidifying textiles with a thin-film mycelium paste and allowing it to grow in a dedicated lab environment. The exhibition brings together perspectives from architecture, design, technology and art. Together, these academic and artistic voices shape the Salone Verde into a space for listening and for expanding or challenging our understanding of how we might live and build in a rapidly warming world.

Curated by: Salone Verde art & social club & Era Merkuri
Sound: Marc Vogler

Further information:
Press release
Invitation Opening 10.5.

Since 2023, the interior design program at HFT Stuttgart has been experimenting with fungal mycelium as a sustainable material in various formats. The “Myco Lab” - Laboratory for Mycelium Materials, set up specifically for this purpose, was initiated and is managed by academic associate Melissa Acker. The improvised research lab offers space for the development and testing of new types of mycelium-based building materials and gives students practical, low-threshold access to the cultivation and processing of mushroom mycelium.

Since then, several teaching research formats have been realised. The first was the semester project Mycelium Model Making, which investigated how mycelium can be used in architectural model making. The focus was on the question of whether the university's own waste materials, such as sawdust or cardboard scraps, can be used as a nutrient substrate. The results were documented in a waste stream catalog and form the basis for further material studies. The project was led by Melissa Acker in cooperation with Julia Krayer and Lina Vieres from Fraunhofer UMSICHT and Miriam Josi from aléa.

The subsequent Mycelium Surface & Furniture Design seminar focused on the aesthetic and functional properties of prefabricated mycelium panels. The aim was to design sound-absorbing room dividers. Students experimented with various processing and joining methods as well as natural surface finishes. The resulting objects combine mycelium as an acoustically effective surface with filigree wooden constructions. The project was supervised by Prof. Diane Ziegler and Melissa Acker and was developed in cooperation with the  School of Colour and Design Stuttgart-Feuerbach and the companies Grown Bio and Mogu.

This collaboration also led to contact with the FuMaLab (Future Materials Lab) at the University of Stuttgart. Mutual visits resulted in a joint lecture evening, at which Michela Grisa from Mogu gave an insight into the material development and commercialization of mycelium acoustic panels as a guest speaker.

Mycelium was also discussed at the HFT Hemp Building Symposium 2024. The focus was on the creative and constructive interplay of hemp shives in combination with clay, geopolymers and mycelium. Melissa Acker's presentation Hemp + Mycelium highlighted the properties and opportunities of this bio-based composite material: as a CO₂-negative binder for hemp shives – as an alternative to lime, for example – it offers enormous potential for the development of sustainable building materials. In a workshop, test specimens were produced from various types of fungi and hemp substrates, based on the Carazas test known from clay building materials. The tests confirmed the suitability of hemp as a substrate and emphasized the diverse application possibilities of mycelium in sustainable construction.

Previous projects have shown that mycelium as a material can be communicated across disciplines - it combines architecture, design, materials research and environmental issues and is ideal for experimental, research-orientated teaching. It has proven to be a vivid medium for knowledge transfer and communication and opens up a wide range of possibilities for making complex relationships relating to sustainability, recycling principles and material-ecological design tangible. These findings are now also finding expression on an international scale: The "Flight into the Shadows" exhibition at Salone Verde continues this knowledge transfer and embeds it in a larger, transdisciplinary discourse.

Acker, M. (in press). Mycelium Model Making - Biological composites as an alternative to polystyrene foams for architectural model making. In Verbeeck G., Knapen E., Winkels P. (eds.). Proceedings of Building Beyond Borders Symposium 2025. The Power of Reciprocity. February 6-7, 2025, Hasselt.

BauNetz (2024). Pilze statt Polystyrol: Mycelium Model Making. Baunetz CAMPUS.

Bund Deutscher Baumeister, Architekten und Ingenieure e.V. (2024). Semester designs with mushroom mycelium. In: DBZ DeutscheBauzeitschrift 04/2024, p. 18.

Mycelium Resources (2024).Mycelium Model Making

Winner of the Closing the Circle Award (Innovation category): The Exhibition Pavilion, Janina Lamm.

competitionline CAMPUS Award 2025: Shortlist faculty projects "Mycelium Model Making"

The Interior Architecture degree program at HFT Stuttgart combines artistic design with technical feasibility. Students learn to design rooms, furniture and temporary buildings, taking into account function, material and light. The study program promotes interdisciplinary teamwork, independent work, presentation skills and intercultural understanding. The Bachelor's degree can be supplemented by a Master's program.