In a sunlit residence in Mumbai, a smooth console desk sits quietly in opposition to the wall. At first look, it looks like another modern piece of furnishings — minimal, elegant, practical. 

However look nearer, and also you realise the bottom isn’t wooden, stone, or steel. It’s produced from mushrooms!

For Huzefa Rangwala, co-founder of Mumbai-based ‘MuseLAB’, a design follow specialising in luxurious areas, this felt greater than only a furnishings buy.

“We purchased two consoles for a shopper undertaking in Mumbai,” says the architect. “They’re light-weight, straightforward to maneuver, and practical with out overpowering the area. The bottom is made from mushroom columns, whereas the highest is wooden, so it’s each acquainted and experimental.”

Huzefa, whose follow typically works on the intersection of design and sustainability, was intrigued when he first heard of mycelium-based furnishings.

Furnishings that ‘grows’

Mycelium, the basis community of fungi, has lengthy been studied as a materials with exceptional potential. Globally, it has been utilized in packaging and textiles. However in India, its utility in furnishings continues to be uncommon.

“At first, mushroom furnishings sounds uncommon,” he admits. “However the design trade contributes considerably to international warming. So, at any time when fellow designers work with round supplies, I consider it’s vital to assist them. What satisfied me was the honesty in materials innovation,” he says.

His shoppers, too, have been intrigued. “Not everybody is straight away forthcoming, however sustainable design is now a aware alternative,” he explains. “Like gradual style, sustainable furnishings is turning into a motion. Some shoppers admire the uncooked, wabi-sabi aesthetic, whereas others want time to adapt. However for many who worth round design, it’s significant.”

The furnishings, he notes, is surprisingly sturdy. “It’s able to supporting physique weight as much as 70–80 kg. If the identical piece have been forged in concrete, it could be extraordinarily heavy. That is one-tenth the load but sturdy,” he says.

For Huzefa, mushroom furnishings goes past aesthetics or performance, it creates a way of neighborhood. “Supporting such innovation helps us collectively transfer towards sustainable futures. Designing a fabric is extra impactful than designing a method. That’s why this excites me.”

The designers behind these mushroom consoles are Bhakti Loonawat and Suyash Sawant, founders of ‘Anomalia’, a Mumbai-based follow that’s fairly actually “rising” furnishings.

Turning mushrooms into a fabric of the longer term

Bhakti and Suyash’s story begins in 2010, at an structure college in Mumbai, the place they first met. After graduating in 2015, they each pursued superior research on the Institute for Superior Structure of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona.

Their paths diverged briefly, with Bhakti working with the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, and Suyash practising in Lisbon, earlier than converging once more in 2022 once they returned residence to Mumbai. That September, the couple launched Anomalia.

What united them was a shared discomfort with the big waste generated by the development and design industries. “We have been all the time aware of decreasing waste and reusing supplies,” Bhakti recollects. “Mycelium’s regenerative, round nature aligned with our imaginative and prescient. It serves its goal after which biodegrades as a substitute of ending up in landfills.”

Their first experiments have been humble.

Throughout the pandemic, confined to their residence, they grew mushrooms in cupcake trays. “That’s once we realised how light-weight but sturdy the fabric could possibly be,” Suyash says.

From there, they graduated to experimenting with bricks, partitions, textiles, and ultimately, furnishings.

Constructing blocks of change

At Anomalia, the couple doesn’t assemble furnishings however grows it. Their first assortment, ‘Grown Not Constructed’, makes use of modular “microblocks” produced from agricultural waste certain with mycelium. Every block weighs simply 1.5 kg however can stand up to 1.5 tons of compressive load. These blocks may be assembled into stools, tables, cabinets, or partitions.

The second line, ‘MycoLiving’, explores mycelium textiles as vegan options to leather-based. Skinny sheets of mycelium grown in “overgrowth phases” are peeled, processed, and used for seating and fabric.

“The great thing about this materials is that it’s each sturdy and round,” says Bhakti. “Most furnishings results in landfills after 10 to 12 years. Ours can safely return to the soil inside 180 days.”

To enhance sturdiness, the couple bakes or sun-dries the grown blocks, rendering the mycelium inactive and structurally sound. For outside use, they apply pure coatings like beeswax or lime plaster.

From Mumbai to Venice and Seoul

When Bhakti and Suyash launched Anomalia in 2022, they may not have imagined how rapidly their fungi-based experiments would journey the world. Inside simply three years, their work discovered a spot on the Venice Biennale in 2025, some of the prestigious platforms for design.

In Seoul, they went a step additional — presenting a putting 4m x 2.4m mycelium facade that confirmed the fabric may stretch past furnishings and enter the realm of structure. The response, they recall, gave them confidence that their imaginative and prescient may scale globally.

Again in India, the curiosity is smaller however regular. They’ve offered six to seven furnishings models thus far, practically 100 blocks in whole, throughout Mumbai and Surat. Every bit is made to order. “We wish to maintain manufacturing unique and consciously scaled, not mass-produced,” Suyash emphasises.

For now, they companion with MYCL in Indonesia, one of many world’s largest producers of mycelium supplies. On the similar time, they proceed to check native amenities with the hope of organising manufacturing in India. For them, every collaboration is a step nearer to creating mushroom-based supplies a part of on a regular basis life right here.

From crop waste to craft

At a time when the worldwide furnishings trade is dominated by mass-produced MDF (medium-density fibreboard), laminates, and plastics, mushroom furnishings presents a radical different.

“It’s biodegradable, sturdy, and produced from crop waste,” Bhakti explains. “Farmers typically burn agricultural residues, worsening air air pollution. As a substitute, we repurpose that waste into one thing helpful. It’s a win-win.”

Anomalia’s method additionally blends familiarity with innovation. A lot of their designs mix mycelium bases with wooden or steel tops, making the furnishings each sensible and chic. “We don’t need it to appear to be ‘eco furnishings’. We would like it to look elegant and timeless,” Bhakti says.

Globally, mycelium is now not seen as an experiment however as a severe materials of the longer term. In style, luxurious homes reminiscent of Stella McCartney have already launched mycelium leather-based. Automakers are exploring it for seating, and corporations like Ecovative are proving its business worth in packaging.

For Bhakti and Suyash, probably the most speedy alternative lies in furnishings — an trade they consider is prepared for round options in India.

The challenges of working with fungi

Working with a residing materials has its hurdles. Contamination throughout progress is widespread, which typically forces them to discard whole blocks. Moisture is one other limitation, and untreated mycelium doesn’t carry out nicely outside.

“Designing with mycelium is just not like clay or cement. You’re not in full management,” Suyash explains. “You could account for airflow, shrinkage, and progress patterns. It’s half science, half persistence.”

Financially, too, the journey has been demanding. The couple invested private financial savings and relied on fellowships and grants like Godrej’s to scale. Their architectural follow additionally helps the analysis arm. “We’re bootstrapped, however we wish to develop consciously,” says Suyash.

A motion past furnishings

For Anomalia, the purpose is just not solely to promote furnishings however to shift mindsets. “We don’t need viral merchandise,” Bhakti says. “We would like a grounded method that engages farmers, reduces waste, and makes supplies accessible.”

For Bhakti and Suyash, mushrooms maintain the blueprint for tomorrow. Already, their imaginative and prescient stretches past interiors. They dream of rising a complete home from partitions, roofs, to partitions made totally of mycelium. 

“We dream of rising a complete home from fungi. “That will show its structural potential,” Suyash says.

They maintain a easy but radical perception: supplies ought to dwell their goal after which return to the soil. As they put it, sustainability begins at residence — in what we select to make use of and what we select to develop.

Edited by Khushi Arora; all photographs courtesy: Anomalia