A book shop made of book shop waste

We have grown, we think, the world's first fungal book shop.

Followers of Threads will know that Mushroom Sculpt is a climate hope project - an opportunity for people to play and experiment with the materials that will shape their future. The main material we use is “mushroom plastic” - a living block of dense mycelial threads being used in packaging and construction.

We’re collaborating with Forum Books and The Biscuit Factory for the next experiment in the Mushroom Sculpt series.

CARDBOARD RHINOS

The Bound (part of Forum Books) is an independent bookshop in Whitley Bay. Books are shipped to The Bound by publishers in non-reusable cardboard boxes, totalling over 2 tonnes a month. That’s two rhinos weight of cardboard being recycled every month.

Recycling is great. Way better than making things from new. But recycling isn’t magic, it still has a cost. Pulping and reforming those 2 rhinos emits about 800kg of CO2. This is a good example of how climate action is complicated, and requires a total re-think of all systems, processes and technologies.

We want to bring people together for a bit of thinking and exploration around this theme - Circularity. The nature of waste, reuse, and what we can learn from nature.

A VENUE FOR CIRCULAR THINKING

We are running a series of workshops where members of the public will process the cardboard, "innoculate" it with samples of our chosen fungus - Grey Oyster Mushrooms - and fill our pre-prepared moulds.

The moulds will reside at the biscuit factory - the fungus growing and binding the scrap cardboard into a strong, light, fire-retardant, compostable structure.

After being unsealed from their moulds, the modules will be assembled into an array of book shelves and columns, stocked with a selection of books curated by The Bound.

This pop-up structure will become a venue for a month-long programme of talks and curated book selection in May - June 2024. The theme will be “circular thinking”.

Join us at a workshop in February / March, and help grow the world’s first fungal book shop!