(Archive) Mycelium Pigeon Towers

Pigeon Towers

During Dutch Design Week, you can see one of the pigeon towers taking shape as it is being built. You also get the chance to participate in the building process at several moments during the week.

In describing the project, Hendriks states: "We are building a pigeon tower with the waste material of oyster mushroom grower John Verbruggen from Erp. Such a tower attracts enormous biodiversity, edible fungi grow on it, and the tower gives a nice picture of the cycle." It's temporary, living architecture for non-human life."

This ongoing experiment investigates questions such as: Can we build structures to house feral pigeons? What is the best design to build a tower with mycelium? And how long does it take for the bricks to grow together?

Hara Hachi Bu Village

The building of the pigeon tower is part of Mediamatic's contribution to Hara Hachi Bu Village, organized by MU. In this village, a temporary collective of artists, designers, musicians and tinkerers will practice stepping back to make room for the other and for other forms of thinking, feeling, designing and making.

Hara haha bu means: Eat until you are 80% full. So don't eat until you can't eat anymore, but eat until you are no longer hungry. It is the advice people give each other at the beginning of a meal on the Japanese island of Okinawa. It's an invitation to reserve a little space, for the other person, for example