Work

Turning infrastructure nature-positive: how mycelium-based forms can enable biocircular and regenerative habitat interfaces in solar parks

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Large-scale solar parks are rapidly expanding as critical infrastructures for climate mitigation, yet they often remain ecologically underutilized landscapes. This pictorial presents MycoNest, a biodegradable, mycelium-based habitat system designed to support multi-species regeneration within solar parks. Rather than treating biodiversity enhancement as a permanent architectural intervention, MycoNest operates through designed temporality: seasonal habitation, material decay and ecological succession. Grown from agricultural biowaste resulting dried mycelium composites, the structures function as nesting sites and insect habitats while gradually returning nutrients to the soil and supporting native vegetation after use. Anchored in real-world deployment contexts, the project explores how renewable energy infrastructure can act as an ecological interface rather than an exclusionary system. Through material experimentation, lifecycle-based design and situated deployment scenarios, this work contributes a regenerative, more-than-human biodesign approach that foregrounds time, decay and ecological participation as central design parameters.

Source: Biotechnology Design

DOI: 10.1017/s2977905726100973

Author: Alex Toth

Language: English

Topic: Sustainable Design and Development

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences