“I’m most likely the one architect who created a ultimate house,” Bob Hendrikx tells The Verge. Tombs and catacombs apart, Hendrikx is likely to be the one one to make a ultimate house utilizing mushrooms.
Hendrikx is the founder and CEO of Loop Biotech, an organization that makes caskets out of mycelium, the fibrous root construction of mushrooms. This June, the primary burial in North America to make use of certainly one of Loop Biotech’s caskets befell in Maine.
“He at all times mentioned he needed to be buried bare within the woods.”
The mushroom casket offers folks another possibility to depart the residing with a gentler influence, a part of a rising array of what are purported to be extra sustainable options to conventional burials. Mycelium has additionally had a second lately, with different eco-conscious designers making biodegradable packaging, leather, and bricks from the fabric.
Hendrikx began out attempting to make a “residing house” from mycelium, a fabric that can be utilized to make self-healing structures if the fibers proceed to develop. Whereas he was finding out structure at Delft College of Know-how, he says somebody requested him what would occur if their grandma occurred to die in that house.
“It might be nice, as a result of there’s going to be a lot positivity for Earth,” he remembers answering after which considering — “Oh my God, this needs to be a casket.” The mushroom casket turned his commencement mission, and Hendrikx began Loop Biotech within the Netherlands in 2021.
The casket, which Loop Biotech calls a “Residing Cocoon” and sells for round $4,000, is made completely of mycelium and may be grown in seven days. It might then biodegrade utterly in about 45 days, in accordance with the corporate. The physique inside, nonetheless, takes longer. In a typical casket, it might be decades before a body fully decomposes. However since fungi might help break down useless natural matter, that point shortens to 2 to 3 years in a Residing Cocoon, Hendrikx says.
“I personally hate the thought of a physique simply mendacity there within the floor,” says Marsya Ancker, whose father, Mark Ancker, was laid to relaxation in a Residing Cocoon in Maine in June. “I don’t need to lie within the floor, however I’m pleased to develop into a part of the soil and feed the crops.” She heard about Loop Biotech in a TED Speak years in the past and determined to name up the corporate the day after she acquired the decision that her dad had handed.
“He would have gotten a kick out of it, out of the truth that he was the primary [to be buried in a Living Cocoon],” Marsya provides. Her household’s not one to overlook a chance. Marsya described an iconic picture of her dad sitting on a inexperienced Volkswagen bus on the way in which to Woodstock, looking over a visitors jam with binoculars, quickly after Marsya was born and got here house from the hospital. “Don’t be ridiculous,” there’s no sense in losing each their tickets, Marsya says her mother advised her dad.
“He at all times mentioned he needed to be buried bare within the woods,” Marsya says. “As a youthful particular person, that horrified me. I’m like, ‘However how will I keep in mind you?’ … This manner he will get to be buried bare within the woods.” And he or she’ll have one thing there to recollect him by; the household planted a memorial backyard with a few of Mark’s favourite perennials on the land the place he was buried. Loop Biotech says its mushroom casket will assist enrich the soil beneath.
Marsya additionally finds the chemical compounds utilized in embalming “gross.” A want to reduce waste and air pollution is one more reason some individuals are turning away from commonplace caskets or cremation.
Standard burials within the US use round 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid, 20 million board toes of hardwood, and 1.6 million tons of bolstered concrete every year, in accordance with the Green Burial Council.
The primary Residing Cocoon burial within the US (which follows 1000’s extra utilizing Loop Biotech’s mushroom casket in Europe), exhibits “there’s pleasure and vitality round inexperienced burial,” says Sam Bar, who’s a part of the board of administrators of the Inexperienced Burial Council.
A “inexperienced” burial doesn’t have to include mushrooms, in fact. The aim is primarily to encourage decomposition and use pure supplies in a sustainable manner, Bar says. That will also be achieved utilizing different supplies that break down extra simply, like woven sea grass or bamboo. “Inexperienced is a spectrum,” Bar says.
Ever the architect, Hendrikx has additionally stored snug design in thoughts together with his Residing Cocoon. Other than the potential environmental advantages, the mushroom casket can also be mushy to the contact and rounded, he factors out to The Verge. “So as a substitute of getting, like, a tough, pointy casket, you now have one thing which you could really hug,” Hendrikx says. “Which is very nice for the grieving course of.”