At PLP Labs, we’ve spent the last two and a half years immersed in the potential of mycelium as a material for architecture. Our latest publication charts this journey – from the first block-shaped experiments to 3D-printed prototypes developed in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. This project is inspired by the next era in human history: Symbiocene (Greek; companionship) in which humans and nature actively collaborate to build a better world.
PLP Labs collaborated with Light Earth Designs to produce a comprehensive housing replacement strategy for Ascension Island. The report provided a detailed plan to design, construct, and deliver environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient homes on Ascension Island.
PLP Labs has conducted a long-running study on IUMO (Integrated Urban Mobility) with input from experts at the Transport Systems and Logistics Laboratory and Reed Mobility with support from Epic Games Mega Grant, to reimagine Crossrail 2.
PLP Labs collaborated with Studio Snoop and their AI designer, Tilly Talbot, to present an AI designed stool for London Design Festival 2023 exhibited at Tom Dixon’s Studio. In a bid to explore what the human’s role is in a world of AI, PLP Labs grew one of Tilly’s designs, a mycelium stool called GUS and taught the AI their mycelium know-how.
PLP Labs presented the “Future Sumbiotecture” at the world’s first Metaverse Architecture Biennale. The event, held in the metaverses Decentraland and W3rlds, calls back to the first architecture biennale with the theme “Presence of the Future”, offering a moment to contemplate the future of digital architecture.
PLP Labs published a study titled ‘Reap What You Sow: Valuing Workplaces that Grow Good Ideas’ with academics from Loughborough University, the University of Reading, and biophilic experts Benholm. The report details the process of measuring and monetising the well-being and environmental value of biophilia in architectural design. It explores how design decisions can be given a monetary value to enable real estate clients to fairly evaluate the worth of these interventions alongside other project costs.
LP Labs collaborated with Metaverse property platform VerseProp to launch 5000 NFTs.
PLP Labs documented drivers, such as value and priority shifts, in the midst and aftermath of COVID-19 to explain larger home and space trends. The report illustrated homes refract major changes, resulting in a variety of observable, emerging residential space trends. This body of research was developed for a project with an international leading consumer and home electronics company.
PLP Labs and Centric Lab published research for the British Council for Offices titled “Designing for Neurodiversity”. The report examines the impacts that physical spaces have on their users, finding that certain spaces can be disabling because of their poor design and lack of consideration for the diverse needs of users. The report encourages workplace design to address unemployment and burnout among neurodiverse workers.