A Living, Biodegradable Mushroom Chair By Shinwei Rhoda Yen

by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 03. 2.09

Mushrooms ate my furniture chair by Shinwei Rhoda Yen (All photos: Design Boom)

What if our furniture were ‘living’ somehow? Well, this clever ‘mushrooms ate my furniture’ chair by designer Shinwei Rhoda Yen has all the right elements – it’s simple, biodegradable and its underside is graced by small mushrooms. One can easily imagine it outdoors as a comfy seat to use while gardening, and as a tool to grow mushrooms (perhaps ones suitable for eating?). Let's take a closeup view of this fantastic chair:

Hey, are those shitake mushrooms?
Closeup of the mushrooms...

The chair’s bottom is already embedded with spores for easy growing, and the straightforward design allows the mushrooms to grow and live on the chair for years, as they feed off the nutrients of the wood. Eventually, the chair will degrade naturally. The chair presents a minimal and intelligent statement about the life-cycles of consumer products, and it’s one that suggests a re-thinking and re-defining versatility and sustainability to include the humblest of life forms as well.