The star of this smart garden pavilion

The use of mycelium is expanding in sustainable architecture. In 2025, Studio Weave collaborated with landscape designer Tom Massey and furniture maker Sebastian Cox to create a mycelium-clad pavilion unveiled at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Named the Intelligent Garden and Building, the pavilion comprises a shed primarily constructed from locally felled ash trees and mycelium cultivated in Cox's workshop in Kent.

The façade emphasises the unique properties of the materials, highlighting the naturally irregular texture of the mycelium surfaces. Mycelium is characterised as an innovative, carbon-negative material.

The project's focus on sustainability inspired the use of materials that would normally be discarded, including paving slabs salvaged from previous show gardens.

The pavilion was constructed from wood felled due to ash dieback, which would usually be incinerated at a biomass plant. According to Dezeen, the woven panels used for the façade and to add a handcrafted element to the pavilion's interior were made from components too small for other uses.

The pavilion's low-carbon, eco-friendly and fully compostable nature is due to the use of locally harvested native wood and mycelium.

The Intelligent Garden and Building won a gold medal and the award for Best Construction at the annual gardening exhibition and was relocated to a permanent site at Mayfield Park in Manchester.

Source: Dezeen