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Meet the designer turning forest mushrooms into shoes, plates, and furniture

What is nicer after a long day than sinking your feet into comfortable slippers? But one Italian designer is hoping to show that shoes made from mushrooms can be just as cosy.

Meet the designer turning forest mushrooms into shoes, plates, and furniture
Designer Maurizio Montalti poses with some of the everyday objects he has made from mushrooms. Photo: Sophie Mignon/AFP

A pair of light brown slippers, bowls, lampshades and even a chair are also among the everyday objects that artist Maurizio Montalti has been fashioning from various fungi, such as the “mushrooms that you find in the forest when you take a walk.”

Montalti, 36, hopes one day his new, sustainable material could even replace plastic, made from diminishing fossil fuels and difficult to recycle.

“I started working with fungi as part of my design practice a few years ago,” he told AFP, saying he was seeking a “different vision” on the benefits of humans engaging “with species, which are usually disregarded, such as fungal organisms.”

His prime material is mycelium, the white, organic and underground part of a mushroom composed of a network of tiny threads. At first invisible to the human eye, the network can become so dense that it grows into a visible, furry mass.

READ ALSO: Farmers turn cowpats into crockery at Italy's Shit MuseumItaly's farmers turn cowpats into crockery at 'Shit Museum'
Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

“Mycelium is a very interesting product because it is able to break down all leaves for instance, or all kinds of products that we don't use anymore,” said Ilja Dekker, technician at the world's only microbe museum, Micropia, in Amsterdam.

This means it can be used to make different products.

“It can be used to build all types of things like vases, things that we can put inside our houses. But also to build our houses, as a building material to actually make a house,” she said.

Micropia, an interactive museum housed next to Artis, Amsterdam's zoo, is hosting a small permanent exhibition of Montalti's work as part of its mission to highlight how useful microbes are.

Cooking fungi

His concept of “growing design” allows objects to grow naturally with no external shaping, cutting or sculpting, much as plants do in the wild.

Placed into moulds made from wood, clay, plastic or plaster, the mushroom is left to gorge on organic matter like wood chips, straw, hay or linen.

“They feed on such plant matter and while degrading it, they also extend their microscopic filamentous threads and they create this very interconnected network of threads which works as a binding glue, you could say as a natural glue,” said Montalti.

File photo of forest fungus. Photo: ccaetano/Depositphotos

At some point the process has to be halted otherwise the ravenous fungi would just continue to grow, completely breaking down the organic matter.

So the mould is placed into a low-heat oven, which, in effect, cooks the fungus inside.

The fungi culture is “fully deactivated” leaving behind an “inert material, but still fully natural and fully compostable,” he said.

In this way, in ten days a sand-coloured vase was created, or a whitish, rough chair which took 20 days to make.

“Every object is unique,” said Montalti, highlighting how the kind of fungus used, the organic food source or environmental conditions can all change the object's look, colour and feel.


Agaric honey fungus pictured near a tree stump. Photo: Alekcey/Depositphotos

Natural resources

At the start of his research Montalti had been looking at using fungi to help break down materials, such as to stop pollution.

But it was when he “stumbled” upon the creation of a new material that he took a different turn.

Depending on what kind of fungi is used, the material it produces can be stiff or elastic, porous to water, brittle or resistant to heat.

The shoe industry is interested now in his work, hoping to replace traditional rubbers for instance.

There is also interest in it as “victimless leather,” which involves finding materials that resemble traditional animal leather but “do not involve any killing”.

“The ecological aspect and the ecological responsibility is rather paramount” to the whole project, Montalti said.

And he outlined a grand vision. “I foresee a future in the next ten or 20 years where such materials will strongly impact our way of life.”

By Sophie Mignon

READ ALSO: Keep up with the latest Italian art news hereItalian food chain to fund €1 million restoration of The Last Supper
Photo: AFP

 

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FOOD AND DRINK

Do Italians really eat pasta every day?

Pasta is the foundation of Italian cuisine and Italians have a reputation for eating it nearly every day. But is this reality or myth?

Do Italians really eat pasta every day?

Pasta is the cornerstone of Italian cuisine and an essential staple of Italians’ diet, hence the popularity of the adage Toglietemi tutto ma non la pasta! (‘Take everything away from me except pasta’).

But there is a widespread belief among foreign nationals that people in the bel paese eat it every single day of the week. 

Is this reality or myth?

According to a survey from research platform YouGov Italia, ‘only’ 17 percent of Italians eat pasta every day or at least six days a week. 

The majority of Italians (37 percent) consume pasta two to three times a week, while 30 percent say they eat it four to five times a week. 

Finally, 8 percent eat pasta just once a week.

While the survey seems to disprove the claim that Italians generally eat pasta every day (only a minority does), does that mean that they are not as big pasta eaters as we may have originally thought?

Not really. 

Italians are still the leading pasta consumers in the world as the average person in the country eats some 23.1 kilograms of it every year (that’s nearly two kilograms a month).

READ ALSO: Ask an Italian: How do you sauce pasta properly?

For context, people in neighbouring France and Germany only consume 8.3 and 7.9 kg per capita a year, whereas the average American eats about 9 kg every year.

Further, yearly per capita consumption in the UK stands at an average of just 3.5 kg, according to a report from pasta maker Barilla.

So, while they may not have it every day, Italians do eat quite a lot of pasta over the course of a year. 

But how do they never get tired of it? 

One of the main reasons behind Italians’ unbreakable bond with the high-carb food is variety. 

Italians are extremely creative when it comes to pasta and they rarely eat the same dish twice in a row as they like to experiment with a wide range of recipes and sauces.

READ ALSO: Ten golden rules for cooking pasta like an Italian

Further, there are over 350 types of pasta in Italy, which means that you could potentially eat a different pasta shape almost every day of the year.

Another reason why most Italians have pasta multiple times a week is that they tend to eat it in moderation, steering well clear of potential carb overloads. 

While they may have a large, high-calorie pasta dish (for instance, lasagne or pasta al ragù) on weekends or on special occasions, people in the country generally go for lighter recipes and sauces on normal days, with portions generally going from 80 to 120 grams per person.

Also, Italians very rarely eat pasta twice a day, with the majority of people having it for lunch and then opting for a non-carb-based dish in the evening.

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