Maurizio Montalti: magic mycelium

Maurizio Montalti is a designer, researcher, educator, entrepreneur and one of the early pioneers in the development of mycelium-based technologies.

Maurizio is the founder of Officina Corpuscoli, a transdisciplinary studio with a focus on the design and production of natural biomaterials. The studio’s work has exhibited globally, in institutions like MoMA, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris and The Design Museum, London.

Maurizio is also co-founder, chairman and research & development director of Mogu – an environmentally conscious design company dedicated to the creation of high-performance solutions and products derived from mycelium.

For those of you who may not have come across mycelium before, it's the living root structure of mushrooms. And over the last decade, mycelium has come to the forefront of bio-design as a potentially revolutionary material that can reduce our reliance on petroleum-based plastics and other unsustainable materials. Today mycelium is being used to create biodegradable packaging, leather-like textiles, plant-based meats and many other alternatives to the products we currently use.

If you’d like to see some of Maurizio’s projects, here are a few links to some of his work:

• Officina Corpuscoli
• Caskia
• Fungal Futures
• The Growing Lab/Mycelia

You can also find Maurizio’s work on Officina Corpuscoli’s Instagram: @corpuscolo

And if you’re interested learning more about Green Canvas, you can find us on our website and feel free to get in touch at: hello@greencanvaspodcast.com

We hope you enjoy the episode and we'll be back with season 2 of Green Canvas in the next few months!