What might we learn from organisms that thrive through connection, cooperation and decay?
By Nina Zulian, Founder and Editor of Plural Magazine
A growing interest in the world of fungi is capturing our imagination as we navigate today’s complex environmental and social crises. In the field of design, fungi—particularly mycelium—are increasingly recognised as living materials, valued for their low-impact, biodegradable, and compostable properties. This shift represents a crucial and promising step toward regenerative solutions, where materials are cultivated rather than extracted, aligning with natural cycles of renewal and decay.
However, if we view fungi solely through the lens of functionality or aesthetics, we risk reducing their role to that of a passive resource. What if, instead, we recognised fungi as active agents—collaborators and even teachers? Mycelial networks, with their capacity for communication, cooperation, and adaptation, invite us to reimagine our relationships with the living world and the systems we build.
This relational approach to fungi is central to Let’s Become Fungal!, a participatory workshop led by curator and writer Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez during What Design Can Do Live 2025 at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam.
Rooted in her book Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts, the workshop explored intersections between art, design, and mycology. Drawing inspiration from a wide range of Indigenous and innovative practices—particularly those led by women across Latin America and the Caribbean—Yasmine’s research centres on multispecies collaboration, non-monetary exchange, decentralisation, non-binary perspectives, and grassroots organisation. All of which mirror the behaviours of fungi.
a journey into fungal thinking
Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez’s transformative journey into fungal thinking began when she moved from the Netherlands to a remote shiitake farm in Brazil. Immersed in the rhythms of fungal life—touching, smelling, and harvesting—she discovered a new ecological perspective and a fresh ethic for creativity. Surrounded by spores and the cycles of growth and decay, she began to see fungi as mentors. As she recalls, “I was harvesting shiitake, eating shiitake, breathing it… I was becoming one.”
In her book, Yasmine presents twelve fungal teachings that explore themes like collective memory, decentralised structures, decoloniality, and biomimicry, while celebrating the essence of ‘becoming fungal.’ The book mirrors the non-linear nature of fungi, embodying their rhizomatic patterns.
Fungi resist control—they flourish through collaboration, fluidity, and mutual dependence. Rather than offering solutions, they invite inquiry. As Yasmine reflects, “Fungi throw up questions, never answers.” This workshop encourages reflection and inspires us to rethink our connections—with each other, with nature, and with complex systems—illuminating the potential for regeneration through interdependence.
“Fungi throw up questions, never answers.”
Stepping into a fungal space
As participants entered the room, they encountered a subtle yet evocative gesture: twelve principles printed on cloth, draped across tables and hanging like flags throughout the space. Each principle was phrased as a question—provocation rather than instruction.
How to become fungal?How to review our collective memory?How do we navigate insecurity?What can fungi teach us about multispecies models of collaboration? How to move through different notions of time?How to understand the closeness of toxicity?
These questions shaped the workshop structure, guiding both shared reflections and embodied exercises. They offered an alternative framework for thinking, sensing, and imagining—one rooted in entanglement rather than hierarchy.
Learning from mycelium
At the heart of the conversation was mycelium, the intricate web of filaments that forms the underground body of fungi. Yasmine highlighted the many roles this organism plays. Often called the “wood wide web,” mycelium connects trees and plants, allowing them to exchange nutrients, send distress signals, and support each other’s growth. These hidden connections nourish biodiversity and sustain the health of entire ecosystems.
Yet mycelium is more than a fascinating natural phenomenon—it offers a compelling model for rethinking systems. It teaches us about decentralised power, adaptive resilience, and the strength found in quiet, cooperative networks. Mycelium breaks down waste, balances ecosystems, and helps regenerate soil, playing an important role in controlling carbon levels and climate.
If we pay closer attention to how fungi behave, Yasmine suggests, we might uncover more caring and intelligent ways of organising ourselves, building communities, and relating to our environments. In this sense, mycelium is not just a metaphor—it’s a living guide for reimagining how we design and exist in the world.
Embracing Decay
One of the most powerful principles explored in the workshop asks us to rethink decay and decomposition. In many design and cultural contexts, breakdown is associated with failure, and death is shrouded in taboo. Fungi offer a radically different perspective: decay is not an end, but a beginning. It is transformation, the fertile ground for new life.
Instead of resisting impermanence, fungal thinking invites us to welcome it. Imagine systems designed to embrace decomposition—processes that allow for rest, rot, and regeneration.
Yasmine encouraged participants to challenge the pressures of ecological “purity” or perfection. Like nature, resilient systems thrive on contradiction and ambiguity. Fungal thinking does not seek clarity—it creates space for complexity.
Embodying Fungal Thinking
The second part of the workshop invited participants to bring fungal thinking into practice. The space was divided into three thematic zones, each grounded in a question from the Let’s Become Fungal! Oracle Cards—a distilled, interactive version of the book. Within each area, small groups of two to three participants formed micro-networks for dialogue and imagination.
Area 1: Creating Systems of Beneficial Exchange with an non-monetary resource
This group explored systems of reciprocity instead of currency, focusing on how all parties can benefit. What resources could circulate within a caring, decentralized system? These resources could include knowledge, expressions of solidarity, or even material goods shared within a network. The goal was to envision symbiotic systems. Proposals ranged from a local “free market” where participants could exchange everything from storytelling and active listening to tools and gestures of support.
Area 2: Rethinking Time – Designing with Cycles
Participants reimagined the concept of time by focusing on natural cycles such as sowing, cultivating, harvesting, and resting. The discussion moved away from rigid productivity models and explored seasonal rhythms and the body’s natural tempo. In this proposal, Yasmine encouraged participants to acknowledge their own rhythms, recognising that we are inherently part of nature.
Area 3: Reclaiming Language and Imagination
In this area, language became the material for design. Participants were encouraged to invent new terms to reflect ecological ethics—such as ecopoetics or symphysis (a blend of symbiosis and synthesis).
The discussion also acknowledged that language, while vital, can be exclusionary. It is not fixed, but in motion—alive and evolving. Participants reflected on how Indigenous languages often carry entirely different worldviews: rooted in kinship, reciprocity, and non-binary thinking. These perspectives offer alternatives to dominant linguistic and cultural frameworks—pointing to more inclusive and holistic modes of knowing and relating.
Toward a Fungal Future
Let’s Become Fungal! did not treat fungi as aesthetic trends or materials of the future. It invited participants to see fungi as mentors. In a time of planetary precarity, fungi offer other ways of sensing, organising, and co-existing.
The workshop ended with a quiet, grounding moment: a collective fungal meditation. With eyes closed and feet rooted, participants were invited to reconnect with their bodies and with the soil beneath them—a reminder that transformation begins with perception.
Words by Nina Zulian, Founder and Curator of Plural Magazine.
About the author
Nina Zulian, a Brazilian curator and designer based in Amsterdam, is dedicated to contemporary design, art, and crafts. Her practice involves actively seeking out materials and processes that support regeneration and circular design, underscoring her strong commitment to social and environmental responsibility. She is the driving force behind Plural Magazine, an online platform that centers on design and material research, and a business partner of SOMA Studio Milano circular design consultancy.