If I were to ask you about “human-fungi relations”, you might answer that they’re something we eat, cure with, or avoid in damp corners (or on our body, for that matter!). And you’d be right. But there’s another relevant dimension to them: in recent years, fungi have been proving themselves as a source of building materials. The key ingredient is mycelium, the dense network of root-like threads that make up the main body of a fungus. Mycelium can feed forests, connect trees, and break down waste. When cultivated and combined with agricultural by-products, it can also form lightweight, durable, and compostable blocks.  Homes made from mushrooms (and not just in Smurf villages) have already been a thing for some years, although experimental – see for example this 2014 installation in Queens, New York.

In Namibia, the MycoHab Foundation is leading a pilot project to use fungi to tackle two challenges: unsustainable housing materials and the growing problem of encroacher bush. These invasive bushes—resulting from decades of overgrazing and climate shifts—now cover large parts of the country, choking farmland and biodiversity. MycoHab turns this biomass into ecologically sustainable building bricks – “mycoblocks” – by collecting and shredding encroacher bushes. Around 10 kg of this material is needed to make one of these blocks, where the shredded bush acts as the base for growing mycelium. Once fully colonised and dried, the blocks are lightweight, fire-resistant, and can store carbon. They’re also cost-effective at the production stage, as they require less labour and water to produce than traditional bricks.

Still, some challenges – like the cost of machinery or limitations to scaling up – make the “mycoblocks” too costly for the average local household.  That’s the catch. Namibia faces a major housing crisis, and solutions need to be affordable and scalable. The majority of Namibians don’t qualify for conventional housing loans, and approximately 80% of the urban population live in informal settlements, with little or no access to basic services and no land rights. That’s where the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) comes in. This community-based housing savings network has a mission to support low-income groups to organize, save money, and also to build their own homes through partnerships and community-led processes. So, while mycelium won’t solve Namibia’s housing crisis alone, one promising model could involve combining this new tech with grassroots networks like SDFN – which has previously worked with the Buy-a-brick initiative, one of the current partners of MycoHab. Engaging SDFN members directly in building with “mycoblocks” could for example help reduce costs and create jobs. Could then the key to affordable, ecological, and empowering housing be truly just like fungi? Networked, regenerative, and deeply connected to the ground we stand on.