Our Origin Story
Mykos began in November 2024 when Dr. Sun invited Dr. Cogdell to Yunnan Arts University to lead a mycelium design workshop for the Environmental Design Department.
We visited local farmers to collect agricultural waste to use in the mycelium workshop - corn and wheat waste but also spent mushroom substrate.
We showed farmers our “magic box” – samples of mycelium-based flooring, insulation, acoustic panels, and leather Prof. Cogdell brought with her, made by Ecovative, Mylo, Mogu and her students.
They were always AMAZED, because they know mushrooms so well but had never seen or heard of mycelium-based materials.
One mushroom farm manager near Yuxi invited us to build the first “mycelium village” on the site of the old adobe village, near his mushroom greenhouses and a fermentation and substrate factory that he is building.
And so Mykos was born.
Mykos
Mykos — a name derived from ancient Greek, combining myk- (μύκης), meaning “mushroom” or “fungus,” with -kos from oikos (οἶκος), meaning “house” or “home” — the same root found in the word ecology.
From Yunnan, For Yunnan
Mykos is for the communities of Yunnan in collaboration with them. They have an ages-old, land-rooted expertise in fungal culture, in both senses of the word. Mycomaterials make the familiar new again, opening a world of fungal material experimentation for them to explore. Mykos brings knowledge and examples from outside Yunnan to kickstart this journey.
Biodesign Challenge 2025
Since January, students at Yunnan Arts University and UC Davis have been collaborating on Mykos, a project we are submitting jointly to the 2025 Biodesign Challenge.
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International
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Interdisciplinary
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Community-Engaged
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Boundary-Breaking
Teams did not work in isolation but shared knowledge with each other real-time. From international zoom meetings to joint maker sessions and lab experiments - like testing the hydrophobicity of different Mykobrick compositions with and without color and sealants - each team's work augmented the others'.
Their work is shown on the Teams page.
To see how Mykos addresses the judging criteria for the Biodesign Challenge, see our Poster.
Featured Student Projects
Design work for Mykos by YAU and UCD students takes both physical and digital form: bricks, a remade chair, lamp, vase, and models, yet also architectural and interior plans and renderings of its potential realization, posters for exhibition displays, videos and this website.
Discover the Mykos
EcoVillage in 3D
Experience the layout, architecture, and sustainable design principles of the Mykos EcoVillage in this immersive walkthrough, as visualized by YAU students. This design showcases Mykos' potential development in the future, demonstrating student design capabilities for a senior project. Mykos' actual future design depends upon many factors that remain to be determined. For specific steps toward this goal, please see the Leadership Team page.
© 2025 by Mykos. Created on Wix Studio.