Hypha-Lume, a modular mycelium pavilion that turns visitor movement into light

Hypha-Lume starts from a material that is grown rather than made: mycelium, the root-like network of fungi, shaped here into tapered building blocks. Its designers, Darya Holub, Selin Ozasik, Pinak Bhapkar, Nikhil Narendiran and Baskar Bharathwaj Subramanian, describe it as an adaptive pavilion that also works as a record of the people who pass through it.

The kit is simple. There are three block types, curving at 20, 40 and 60 degrees, which lock around vertical supports for stability. Because the pieces can be taken apart and put back in different arrangements, the open shell can change shape to suit whatever site it lands on, with varying heights and openings that frame different paths and views.

The more unusual part is the wiring. Sensors follow visitors' routes, pauses and gatherings, turning them into light and sound in real time. By day you would notice the organic curves and the textured mycelium surface; after dark, coloured light runs along the joins between modules, and traces of earlier visits build up across the shell as a shifting field of colour.

This came to designboom through its reader submissions feature, and the piece gives no location, dates or sign that it has been built for the public. Worth reading for anyone curious about biomaterials and responsive architecture.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 15 October 2026. Read the original

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