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A fungus that spent a week inside a grow tent has taken over the MuseLab.

This isn’t the start of a science fiction novel, or an episode of “The Last of Us,” it’s “Party of One: Future Fungal Furniture.” The exhibit is the first publicly shared experiment of Britta Bielak’s research on the potential that mycelium, the root-like structure of a fungus, has as a regenerative and structural building material. Two interior design students, Joseph Byrer and Olivia Mansier, collaborated on the application of the project.

“We have not built a piece of furniture before and somehow I was able to rally these two wonderful students to sign up for this unknown territory, unchartered territory,” said Bielak, an assistant professor of interior design. 

Bielak is one of the co-founders of okom wrks labs, PBC, a San Diego-based startup that developed a patent-pending mycelium-based biocomposite for use in building materials and the built environment.

“Our real hope is to generate a material that's regenerative,” Bielak said. “So kind of going beyond sustainable and actually thinking about, ‘Gosh,