The building and construction sector is a key area that has significant impacts on the economy and environment. This sector contributes to the economy (about 9% of the EU’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)), provides direct and indirect job opportunities (18 million direct jobs at the EU) and satisfies the people’s needs for buildings and facilities. Therefore, any effort concerning global climate change and cleaner production should include this industry as a major player. ATRIUM exploits the potential of combining natural fibres (leftovers of European crops, mainly hemp), second and third generation of bioplastics (bio-PE/PA/PU) and mycelium-based biotechnology to produce bio-composites intermediates that can be integrated in construction products (outdoor and indoor floorings, acoustic panels, green wall systems, and building block) to be easily used by professionals and amateurs in building and renovation actuations. In this way, ATRIUM will not only provide more safety and non-toxic construction solutions but also boost the creation of sustainable bio-based value chains and the integration of efficient biotechnology to develop the circular economy and bioeconomy sectors. To do this, ATRIUM will develop production pilot lines that integrate efficient and flexible technologies (co-extrusion, foaming, injection moulding, additive manufacturing and biofabrications) and engage the key actors for the design acceptance and certification of the new products. ATRIUM will also promote the public engagement dialogue to bring the EU closer to citizens and local urban and rural areas through appropriate communications, local initiatives and actions.

The aim of BIOBUILD project is to develop and demonstrate fully bio-based building materials with thermal storage function that can replace high environmental footprint products. Our solution demonstrates functional incorporation of bio-based phase change materials (bioPCMs) into solid wood and wood fibres bound by plant oil resins, lignin, or fungal mycelia to produce novel bio-composite building materials with significantly improved thermal properties. The novel materials possess a high multifunctional performance, meet requirements for sustainable “green” production, and ensure end-of-life options and recycling. Environmental and social impacts and benefits are fully integrated into the life-cycle perspective.

There is a need for a ground-breaking technology to boost crop yield (both grains and biomass) and its processing into materials of economic interests. Novel crops with enhanced photosynthesis and assimilation of green-house gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3), and tailored straw suitable for industrial manufacturing will be the foundation of this radical change. We are an alliance of European plant breeding companies, straw processing companies and academic plant scientists aiming to use the major advances in photosynthetic knowledge to improve barley yield and to exploit the variability of barley straw quality and composition. We will capitalize on very promising strategies to improve the photosynthetic properties and ozone assimilation of barley: i) tuning leaf chlorophyll content and modifying canopy architecture; ii) increasing the kinetics of photosynthetic responses to changes in irradiance; iii), introducing photorespiration bypasses; iv) modulating stomatal opening, thus increasing the rate of CO2 fixation and O3 assimilation. Beside the higher yield, the resulting barley straw will be tailored to: i) increase straw protein content to make it suitable as an alternative feed production source; ii) control cellulose/lignin contents and lignin properties to develop construction panels and straw reinforced polymer composites. To do so, we aim to exploit barley natural- and induced-genetic variability as well as gene editing and transgenic engineering. Based on precedent, we expect that improving our targeted traits will result in increases in above ground total biomass production by 15-20% without modification of the harvest index, and there will be added benefits in sustainability via better resource-use efficiency of water and nitrogen. A public dialogue will be established to ensure stakeholder engagement and explore the acceptability of a range of technologies as potential routes to crop improvement and climate change mitigation.

With CO2 emission at 36% and energy consumption at 40%, building sector is far from sustainability. The need for construction materials to achieve climate neutral buildings reaches 0.2 m3 per m2 of net floor in France, leading to several billions of m3 in Europe by 2050. EASI ZERo proposes a global system to cut the environmental impact by rising the thermal performance of buildings’ envelope by 20% with bio-sourced and recycled materials. This include grown mycelium, wood fibres, low carbon foam, recycled raw material for spayed renders, multifunctional building bricks, and healthy finishes. This unique portfolio of tailored components results from manufacturing and sourcing with reduced CO2 emission and embodied energy. It will demonstrate cost-efficient and easy installation in green deep renovation and also new construction operations. The re-use of components and the integration of recycled materials enhance circular economy by closing carbon cycle and raise resilience in the construction value chain. Design tools, numerical database and material passport will optimise the materials combination towards maximum sustainability and minimum payback time for any typology of buildings and conditions (climate, aesthetics, specific risk). Projects use-cases will show real buildings reaching durable high environmental performance and carbon emission over more than 40 years and neutral energy balance with integrated PV generation where relevant. A multidisciplinary consortium will support these objectives and benefit from project outcomes, as universities, technology developers, construction material producers and building engineers. Use-cases will especially consider social housing. Outcomes will positively impact i) European competitiveness with manufacturing of sustainable and clean construction materials and easy installation on any building in EU stock ii) raise resilience thanks to circular economy, eco-design and digitization of the EASI ZERo renovation system.

As one of the primary consumers of environmental resource, the building industry faces unprecedented challenges in needing to reduce the environmental impact of current consumption practices. This applies to both the construction of the built environment and resource consumption during its occupation and use. Where incremental improvements to current practices can be realised, the net benefits are often far outstripped by the burgeoning demands of rapidly increasing population growth and urbanisation. Against the backdrop of this grand societal challenge, it is necessary to explore approaches that envision a paradigm shift in how material is sourced, processed and assembled to address the magnitude of these challenges in a truly sustainable way, and which can even provide added value. We propose to develop a structural substrate by using live fungal mycelium (WP2), functionalise the substrate with nanoparticles and polymers to make a mycelium-based electronics (WP3), implement sensorial fusion and decision making in the fungal electronics (WP4) and to growing monolithic buildings from the functionalized fungal substrate (WP5). Fungal buildings will self-grow, build, and repair themselves subject to substrate supplied, use natural adaptation to the environment, sense all what human can sense. To achieve the goal we assembled a small but efficient consortium comprised of architects and designers (CITA), computer scientists and biophysicists (UWE), mycologists (UU), experts in mycelium-based technologies for the production (MOGU).