We were invited to design an installation for the National Museum of Architecture as part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale.

Situated half inside and half outside the Library, Hidden Half World explores degrowth through a pair of stools built from mycelium. These objects offer an opportunity to discover the hidden world of microbial activity, which the growth paradigm has typically led us to neglect and ignore. Over the course of the triennale, the exterior stool will decompose back into the ground and return to the soil, which those sitting on the interior stool will be able to confront and watch. Take a seat.

Client: Oslo Architecture Triennale

Collaborators: Mio Tsuneyama (Studio mnm), Krown

Team: Madeleine Kessler, Mio Tsuneyama, Hans-Christoph Schultz

Image Credit: OAT / Istvan Virag 2019

Above: Hidden Half World on display at the National Museum in Oslo. Photographs by Hans-Christoph Schultz.

Above: Madeleine and Mio grew the Hidden Half World from mycellium over a number of months, providing an opportunity to test mycellium's material properties and its portential as a building material. Photographs by Madeleine Kessler.