Biodesign education increasingly integrates living systems and biomaterials into design curricula, introducing material conditions that fundamentally reorganise how learning unfolds. This paper proposes that eco material libraries function as pedagogical infrastructures that stabilise material inquiry, mediate cross-disciplinary engagement and render ecological interdependence tangible. Drawing on eight years of situated pedagogical practice across two university contexts, it develops an exploratory conceptual analysis of how biomaterial samples operate as boundary objects within infrastructural arrangements that preserve iterations, breakdowns and process documentation. This infrastructural framing reveals how embodied material engagement recalibrates design epistemologies – repositioning learners as situated participants within material-ecological systems. Such recalibration has implications for challenge-based learning environments, where transversal competences are frequently presupposed but rarely explained. By demonstrating that such competences are enacted within organised material conditions rather than transmitted through instruction alone, the paper contributes a conceptual vocabulary for understanding how material environments shape learning trajectories in emerging biodesign pedagogies.

This study explores the material effects of mechanics-driven reinforcement topologies on fully compostable membranes made from fungal mycelium or recycled cellulose tissue using material extrusion. Biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH) was additively printed as defined diamond and re-entrant lattice structures onto compliant substrates. The systematic Make–Break–Simulate approach combines fabrication, tensile testing, simplified mechanical modelling and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Additive reinforcement significantly increased ultimate tensile strength and Young’s modulus in all configurations. Cellulose-based hybrids showed higher stiffness and ultimate tensile load than mycelium systems, indicating more efficient stress transfer due to substrate homogeneity. Diamond lattices exhibited stretching-dominated behaviour with axial load amplification, whereas re-entrant lattices produced geometry-induced stiffening and progressive fracture. The re-entrant topology consistently achieved the highest stiffness values and enabled distributed fracture behaviour through geometric stress redistribution. The screening-level LCA further showed that the mechanical gains of re-entrant reinforcement exceeded the corresponding increase in global warming potential (GWP). The findings demonstrate that mechanical properties of bio-based membranes can be tuned through geometric pattern design without altering the biological substrate. Topology-controlled additive reinforcement thus offers a scalable strategy to enhance structural reliability while preserving full compostability and material circularity. The presented approach further highlights the potential of geometry-controlled reinforcement as a design strategy for lightweight biodesign and membrane-based applications.

Current bio-digital systems frequently position organisms as sensors or esthetic elements, while their inherent computational capabilities remain underutilized. At the same time, when biological processes are integrated into technical systems, they often remain hidden or abstracted away, failing to foster awareness and appreciation of the biological intelligence (Kim et al. 2023). This dual limitation prevents both technical innovation and conceptual understanding of what biological computers might become. We present MagnoSphere, a living biodesign installation that addresses both gaps by demonstrating the natural sensing and collective response capabilities of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) as potential building blocks for bio-digital computation. The project investigates how microorganisms’ intrinsic sensing and collective behavior can be made perceptible through design. Rather than implementing a complete computational system, the project investigates foundational questions: how do microorganisms respond to environmental changes in ways that could serve computational functions, and how can design make these biological dynamics perceptible and understandable? MTB biomineralize magnetic nanoparticles (magnetosomes) within their cellular structure, making them responsive to external magnetic fields (Goswami et al. 2022). MTB navigate using magnetotaxis, creating complex collective behaviors in response to magnetic stimulation. These observable responses could potentially be harnessed as forms of information processing in computational paradigms like Physical Reservoir Computing (Nakajima 2020). However, before computational implementation is possible, we must first surface, understand and characterize these responses, along with their repeatability over time. Drawing on Kim et al.’s Surfacing Livingness paper (Kim et al. 2023), MagnoSphere employs sensorial amplification strategies to make the bacterial responses visible and tangible for human observers. The installation emphasizes exploration: visitors manipulate the magnetic field to direct bacterial movement within the chamber, observing how populations collectively migrate, shimmer and reorganize over time. This approach enables visitors to perceive biological sensing as an observable process revealing characteristics like shimmering intensity, response speed, collective organization and temporal patterns that could serve as computational building blocks. Magnetic field manipulation serves as input, bacterial movement and lighting patterns serve as computational transformation and sensorial amplification layers make this process perceptible: real-time microscopy projections enlarge the bacterial dynamics, and data visualization tracks response characteristics over time. The system uses digital components for real-time readout of the bacterial state and amplification (supporting observation and understanding), while the biological system provides the sensing and collective response dynamics. The sensorial amplification aims at creating a communication bridge, enabling humans to witness this relationship between and explore these biological capabilities. The installation unites biodesign with computational investigation through a demonstration where living organisms’ responses are made directly observable rather than abstracted away. For the biodesign community, the contribution is threefold. First, it concretizes MTB’s computational potential through quantitative population-level characterization of bacterial collective behavior – thereby revealing the dynamics that underpin its computational capabilities. Secondly, it operationalizes the concept of surfacing livingness, demonstrating how sensorial amplification can reveal otherwise hidden biological intelligence. Third, it enables critical discussion about how synergistic bio-digital computational systems might be realized in practice. Conference attendees will engage with an installation where they can manipulate magnetic inputs and observe the unfolding living responses. Through this direct exploration, visitors develop intuition about bacterial dynamics, while encountering questions about how such capabilities might serve future computational functions. As an installation, MagnoSphere communicates the potential for biological intelligence and digital systems to interweave – creating dialogue about alternative computational futures.

Bacteria have emerged as an innovative medium in Biodesign, yet their use as coloring agents is still largely framed by textile applications. Bactereature extends this scope by investigating pigment-producing bacteria as a living dye for porous ceramics and textured surfaces. Through iterative material tinkering with pigments derived from Serratia marcescens, this pictorial identifies porous ceramic bodies as effective carriers that absorb dye solutions and enable surface patterning. Rather than treating coloration as a fixed finish, we examined how porosity, liquid uptake, surface texture, time and environmental exposure shape visual outcomes such as color intensity, edge diffusion and fading. We present a set of textured ceramic artworks that serve as comparative evidence and synthesize the visual-material relationships observed into a practical pathway to design bacterial dye patterning beyond 2D planes.

This article explores submerged liquid fermentation (SLF) as a space for design inquiry in the development of mycelium-based materials. Despite its considerable potential for producing novel biofabricated materials, SLF remains largely underexplored within biodesign research. Drawing on iterative experimentation cycles and learnings in a laboratory environment, the study investigates how design-led approaches can contribute to techno-scientific biofabrication processes while critically examining the opportunities and constraints that arise when working with SLF-derived mycelium biomass. Framed through material-driven design methodologies, the research demonstrates how technical performance can be integrated with sensorial and expressive material qualities through collaborative practices between designers and scientists. By positioning SLF as both a biotechnological process and a creative material practice. The study contributes to broader discussions on the expanding role of design in shaping emerging biofabrication technologies across industrial and creative domains.

Colour is usually added to materials after fabrication. ChromoBC presents a different approach using bacterial cellulose (BC) that has exceptional mechanical properties and can be microbially produced from low-cost carbon sources. ChromoBC encodes colour and responsiveness into a material that is grown by microbes and whose properties can be genetically programmed. In this work, we demonstrate four colouring modes. In the first approach, the cellulose-producing bacterium, Komagataeibacter rhaeticus, expresses visible proteins that paint the growing cellulose. In the second, K. rhaeticus synthesises eumelanin via an engineered biopathway that forms tuneable grey-to-black materials. As a responsive material, anthocyanin-loaded BC reports environmental pH through instant colour changes. The fourth mode uses a synthetic symbiotic co-culture of bacteria and yeast (Syn-SCOBY) to develop a living, responsive cellulose-based material. The engineered baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, functionalises cellulose with a secreted enzyme, allowing a chemical input to trigger a colour change. Together, these prototypes demonstrate different forms of BC-based colour-changing materials that can be permanent, tuneable, reversible and responsive. At BioDesign 2026, visitors encountered ChromoBC as a hands-on BC-based material palette, testing pH-responsive material and activating enzyme-based colour changes. This demo positions biologically designed BC as a sustainable and tuneable interface in which biological processes become visible and interactive.

Most research on mycelium-based composites (MBC) focuses on the growth and properties of pure mycelium materials (PMM), engineered living materials (ELM) and biofoams. Using the basic method patented by Chris Maurer and team for MycoHAB, which we call high-compression mycofabrication (HCM), we turn spent mushroom substrate into mycobricks to understand and improve their material properties towards structural building. Compressive tests of HCM coupons of Ganoderma lucidum (reishi) fabricated at 20 tons and Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster) fabricated at 20 tons and 30 tons of force reveal that oyster outperforms reishi in compressive stress, reversing what is commonly known about these species when tested as biofoams or PMMs. Whereas Maurer has achieved 26 MPa with reishi, our median for oyster at 20 tons is 34.95 MPa and at 30 tons is 46.1 MPa measured at ∼70% deformation levels, comparable to values accepted for medium- and high-strength concrete (but at much lower deformations). Furthermore, for oyster HCM, it appears that higher compression during fabrication produces higher compressive stress results during testing, even possibly strain-hardening behavior.

This paper investigates the potential of pinecones as augmented hygromorphic natural sensors (AHNSs) and interaction bio-triggers, particularly in response to changes in humidity/moisture of mediums such as soil. As well-recognised nature-based hygroscopic actuators, pinecones have gained interest in recent years, especially in decoding their actuation mechanisms. From this perspective, we can even frame them as plant-grown robots. The paper outlines the characteristics of pinecones, surveys the landscape of biological sensors in the context of human–plant interaction and slow interaction and advances an experimental approach for developing a hybrid plant-pinecone-controlled slow-interaction system. By placing this research at the intersection of human–plant interaction, biosensorics and slow interaction, we rely on scientific strategies and poetic considerations, as props for reflection on the nature of crafted AHNS technologies with multifaceted aesthetic and functional implications. Moreover, we introduce the concept of the Hygromorphically Driven Interaction Framework and proffer hygroscopic actuators and sensors as time-based media.

This demonstration presents prototypes of a modular biofabricated orthopedic wearable system and material samples made from textile-like fungal materials that integrate localized padding, flexibility and support within a single continuous structure. The exhibit features hand–wrist orthopedic garment concepts alongside material samples that illustrate how fabrication strategies, processing conditions and patterning techniques can be tuned to create configurable zones of support, malleability and cushioning within one unified textile system. The modular approach allows the same material system to be arranged differently across garments depending on coverage and support needs, showing how a single fabrication logic can generate multiple assistive possibilities. Visitors engage visually with the materials to understand the development and tinkering process and explore how the interplay among the different system parameters engender different design outcomes. By highlighting the supportive and expressive properties of fungal textiles, the demo communicates their potential as customizable, regenerative alternatives in orthopedic applications. It illustrates how biofabrication can support human wellbeing while advancing sustainable material lifecycles, providing practical and experiential insights for designers, researchers and practitioners in biodesign and wearable technologies.