BENTO architecture
"How can we rethink architecture in a world where resources are increasingly limited?"
This is the major challenge facing the architects at BENTO architecture. They are exploring ethical and ethical and responsible for rethinking urban architecture. Their approach integrates living beings as constructive elements, broadening the relationship between humans and non-humans.
In this regard, Corentin and Florian Mahieu work in particular with "fungal leather", dereived from mycelium , the root structure of mushroomsi. To obtain this material, a fungal organism is grown as a leaf on the surface of a solid or a liquid nutrient substrate. Then the mycelium gradually forms a dense, tangled tissue of thread-like structures known as "hyphae". This regenerative material provides a sustainable alternative to animal leather, enabling objects to develop autonomously.
This year's edition of Private Choice 2025 will feature stools by Florian Mahieu in collaboration with BENTO architecture: stool in mycelium Stool L18. These creations focus on regeneration, reversing the logic of programmed obsolescence. The architects bet on the natural growth of living matter to gradually generate new forms, merging life cycles and creative time.
The species used to make this object has been collected in the in Belgium's Forêt de Soignes (a UNESCO World Heritage site), where it grows naturally on the local beech wood.
