As Namibia faces its worst drought in a century, a waste-to-building initiative emerges as a sustainable alternative amid rising greenhouse gas emissions from land and forestry use. With a population of approximately 3.02 million, over 40% of Namibians reside in informal settlements, where inadequate housing, overcrowding, and lack of basic services are prevalent. The capital, Windhoek, experiences a housing demand that surpasses supply, with over 300,000 new homes needed to meet the growing demand.
Conventional construction methods in Namibia heavily rely on materials like cement, steel, and timber, which are costly and contribute to environmental degradation. Encroacher bushes have spread over 45 million hectares, impacting agriculture and groundwater. To address this, the government plans to burn 300 million tonnes of invasive bush every 15 years, aiming to reduce environmental impacts while generating charcoal revenue. Land use and forestry remain the top contributors to Namibia's greenhouse emissions.
In response, local researchers, entrepreneurs, and organizations initiated a project in 2019 to explore alternative building materials using organic waste, specifically mushroom waste and invasive weeds. The MycoHab project, a collaboration between MIT, Standard Bank, and Redhouse Studio, has developed a process combining mushroom cultivation with light-scale manufacturing. This involves harvesting bush, chipping it into sawdust, and mixing it with water and nutrients. The mix is then pasteurized, inoculated with fungal mycelium, and grown into mushrooms. The remaining material is pressed into building blocks.
These blocks have shown success in pilot projects across Namibia, meeting structural integrity and insulation standards while offering better thermal insulation than traditional materials. The project also contributes to reducing invasive weed species and landfill waste, promoting a circular economy. However, scalability remains a challenge, requiring significant investment in infrastructure and technology. Partnerships with government agencies, private investors, and international organizations are being explored to expand the project.
Globally, fungi are gaining attention as a sustainable building material. Researchers in Namibia are focusing on large-scale production of fungi-based materials, aiming to reduce dependency on non-renewable resources and lower construction costs. The potential of fungi-based building materials as a mainstream solution for affordable housing is being explored, with hopes of mitigating climate change effects by reducing the carbon footprint of the building industry.
Source: Fair Planet
