nir meiri shapes fungi into mycelium lights lamp collection

founded in 2010, nir meiri is a design studio that offers an out-of-the-ordinary design approach to everyday objects. to do so, the london-based practice carefully selects materials, often raw and wild, and shapes them into clean-cut forms, creating innovating products that play on the tension between the domesticated and the untamed. presented at the london design festival 2018, mycelium lights is their latest project, the result of an ongoing material research in mycelium — the vegetative part of the fungus — leading to the design of a table lamp collection.

all images courtesy of nir meiri

mushrooms or fungi are truly wondrous organisms with significant untapped potential. mycelium consumes organic and synthetic waste to grow into desired shapes and different types of water alters its properties. to create the mycelium lights collection, nir meiri inserted the mycelium inside a mold, where it started consuming organic and synthetic waste and growing under controlled conditions. once it reached the desired form, the mycelium is used as the lampshade assembled into a metal base, glowing back as soft as natural light.

the project is a collaboration between nir meiri studio and BIOHM — a london-based startup working on developing sustainable solutions for the built environment. together, they want to achieve a solution for ridding our planet from the mountains and islands of synthetic waste.