Overview

This Final Bachelor Project contributes to the field of design for cohabitation and designing with a more-than-human perspective, by investigating how a living artifact can shift the perspective on smartness, putting existing cultural scripts under tension! The project responds to the growing presence of smart products in our homes and questions the dominant model of intelligence based on speed, efficiency, and silicon-based computation. Instead, it proposes an alternative: smartness found in attention. The research question guiding this project is: How would we be able to form symbiosis with integrated fungi through a smart living artifact? To explore this, I designed Thermocelium, a living thermostat made with Reishi mycelium. Thermocelium does not measure temperature in numbers. It grows in response to heat and invites cohabitation. It asks for noticing. It offers subjectivity instead of precision. The project uses a research-through-design approach combined with autoethnography. I lived with Thermocelium for seven days, observing its growth and reflecting on how it changed my perception of smartness and heat. I also engaged in conversations with visitors during Demo Day to understand how others relate to the idea of living smart objects. Key findings include a shift in how smartness is perceived from control to mutualism, from automation to attention. The project also touches op on the ethical and practical challenges of designing with living organisms. It shows how aesthetics, context, and storytelling are crucial in shaping acceptance and understanding. Thermocelium is not a product. It is a shift in perspective. It contributes to more-than-human design discourse by offering a tangible example of cohabitation with a sensing organism. It opens up new ways of thinking about intelligence, technology, and our relationship with the living.