New Delhi: Bob Hendrikx from Netherland – made the coffin that turns bodies into mushroom. Hendrikx is a bio-designer from the University of Delft.
Hendrikx is 26-year-old and he said that “The coffin means we actually feed the earth with our bodies. We are nutrients, not waste. Mycelium is playing vital role in this process. Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus or fungus-like bacteria and it is constantly looking for waste products–oil, plastic, metals, other pollutants–and converting them into nutrients for the environment”
Mycelium is nature’s recycler and it has been shown by mushroom scientists – called mycologists. Mycelium is able to process things which other agents of decomposition can’t tackle, Hendrikx added.
The ‘Living Cocoon’ coffin is made by growing mycelium around a coffin-shaped frame. Mycelium is the part of the mushroom we can’t see—the underground fibrous network that makes up most of the lifeform.
About living cocoon – he said that “I have used artificial cloth fibers, laminated Wood and metal components to make special coffin and it takes one week to grow and takes estimated two to year to decompose the body,”
Currently the coffin costs around $1350 USD but Hendrikx hopes that as more and more people become interested and he can drive the cost down.
Hendrikx is thinking differently on all topics and he imagines a day where every coffin used on earth is made of mycelium, allowing our species that has grown to dominate every corner of the world to constantly give back to the soil we owe so much of our prosperity to.
_Vinayak