At LEM, we work with solid oak — a material that is honest, durable, and built to last decades. But we're also curious about what happens to wood after its life as furniture: offcuts, sawdust, production waste.
One direction we've been following is mycelium composites. The technology is simple in principle: shredded wood is mixed with fungal spores (most commonly oyster mushroom). Over one to two weeks, the mycelium — the fungal root network — grows through the wood particles, binding them with fine threads and turning loose material into a solid mass. The result is then dried at high temperature, halting the fungal growth and locking in the structure.
What emerges is a lightweight, compression-resistant, fully biodegradable material — with no synthetic resin involved.
This isn't a replacement for solid wood yet: mycelium composite has lower bending strength and isn't suited for load-bearing elements like table legs or chair frames. But as a way to repurpose production waste into secondary materials — panels, fillers, decorative elements — the direction looks promising.
For us, this isn't about changing our material. It's about giving even the sawdust from our workshop a second life.