The Circular Garden
A garden made of mushroom
Carlo Ratti Associati, in partnership with global energy company Eni, has developed an architectural structure made of mushrooms, unveiled at Milan Design Week 2019. The installation, called “The Circular Garden,” was grown from soil over six weeks – and will be returned to the soil at the end of the month. It is composed of a series of arches, adding up to a record 1-kilometer-long mycelium, and experiments with sustainable structures that can grow organically and then return to nature in a fully circular way. The project will be showcased during Milan’s Fuorisalone at Brera’s Orto Botanico, the city’s botanical garden. The Circular Garden pushes the boundaries of using mycelium – the fibrous root of mushrooms – in design. The Circular Garden engages with mycelium at the architectural scale – with a series of 60 4-meter-high arches made of mycelium scattered around the Orto Botanico, for a total of 1 kilometer of mushroom.