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[Inquisitor Saturn]

Apparently someone has developed a way to turn mushroom roots into building materials.

The short version: An artist has discovered how to grow mushroom roots into tightly packed shapes which are stronger than wood as well as fireproof and resistant to water and mold. Naturally I thought of Dwarf Fortress. Perhaps one could mod in a new breed of mushroom for dorfs to grow and process at a special building into blocks and logs.

[nenjin]

Well you can already build quite a bit out of Towercaps. But it would be sweet to make mushroom statues, dolls, toys, spikes?, and such.

Of course we'd need an expert Mushroomcrafter.

(PS-I welcome our mushroom-based future.)

[Inquisitor Saturn]

Well you can already build quite a bit out of Towercaps. But it would be sweet to make mushroom statues, dolls, toys, spikes?, and such.

Of course we'd need an expert Mushroomcrafter.

(PS-I welcome our mushroom-based future.)

Yeah, I was thinking about that. Perhaps there would have to be some limitation to its use, such as making it have a very low trade value or somehow make it hard to get.

But a specialized class I could see, since this stuff, based on the article, has a consistency of styrofoam, concrete, and wood all at the same time.

Come to think of it, it would probably make a good cloth, too. Look out, pigtails.

[Doomshifter]

This is so awesome. But, wouldn't your mushroom-walls slowly rot away?

[Cruxador]

This is so awesome. But, wouldn't your mushroom-walls slowly rot away?

They should be significantly less susceptible to mold than wood is.

[Caesar]

This is so awesome. But, wouldn't your mushroom-walls slowly rot away?

They should be significantly less susceptible to mold than wood is.

And well-treated wood can last for centuries.

[LostEnder]

Wood isn't really used for its toughness or durability, but rather for its malleability with simple tools, which makes it easy to make complex shapes (like houses and furniture) from. Also, wood has more than a little bit of historical impetus behind it, stemming from the times when most land was forested.  From the Time article, this material might be a little too hard to work with in a conventional fashion, and also fairly difficult to manufacture in economically viable quantities.  Still, properly sealed and treated, it could have some useful applications, especially if a way was developed that would create standard shapes, like growing the shrooms in a mold sort of deal.

One thing to also consider would be the true ecological impact of growing massive farms of fungi, in terms of water usage, fertilizer use, etc.  I don't know much about growing fungi, but it would have to be considered.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Morrowind-style mushroom castle.
That is what must be made.

[nenjin]

From the Time article, this material might be a little too hard to work with in a conventional fashion, and also fairly difficult to manufacture in economically viable quantities.

Meh. It needs funding outside of the lab, and time grow and be produced on a mass scale, which is true of just about every green tech that has been developed in the last four years.

I don't see how it could be that hard to work. Industrial lathing can shave blocks of steel into corkscrews. I seriously doubt this compact mushroom is denser/harder than steel.

[LostEnder]

No, of course not.  But it is apparently a damn sight harder than wood:

so sturdy that he destroyed many a metal file and saw blade in shaping the 'shrooms into an archway 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 6 ft. wide.

I'm sure that we have tools to work this material, but the point was that it won't be as easy to work as wood is.

I do think that it could have a good niche as insulation though, being fire/mold resistant and nontoxic is a great set of properties to have there.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

All I want is a gigantic mushroom tower.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

stronger than wood as well as fireproof and resistant to water and mold.

Fireproof? As in, it doesn't burn when it gets hot, it melts? Huh. Yeah, I can see a lot of uses for that - sans charcoal production.

I wonder if melting and casting the root-mixture would keep it's strength, or if the resilience of the material relies on the structure of the fibers?

[shadow_archmagi]

After the husks are cooked, sprayed with water and myco-vitamins and seeded with mushroom spores, the mixture is poured into a mold of the desired shape and left to grow in a dark warehouse. A week or two later, the finished product is popped out and the material rendered biologically inert.

You can already get custom shapes. The guy broke the saws "putting the finishing touches"

[Lancensis]

This is so awesome. But, wouldn't your mushroom-walls slowly rot away?

More entertainingly, if it were living Mushroom you might have to keep sanding the walls down, lest they grow and envelop you.

[alfie275]

And use their little tube things (forgot the name) to suck the nutrients out of you when you sleep.