--- title: "This Moss-Filled Coffin Is Made Out of Fungus" description: "Designers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created the \"Living Cocoon,\" a moss-filled, \"living\" coffin made out of fungus." date: "2020-09-15" modified: "2020-09-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/living-cocoon-coffin-fungus" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "funeral" - "fungus" - "mycelia" --- # This Moss-Filled Coffin Is Made Out of Fungus ![Designers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created the "Living Cocoon," a moss-filled, "living" coffin made out of fungus.]() *\Image: Loop\* Designers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands teamed up with a local natural history museum to [develop the "Living Cocoon,"]() a moss-filled, "living" coffin made out of a special fungus. The coffin significantly speeds up the time it takes for a human body — plus all the clothing and other materials that get buried along with it — to decompose, from roughly a decade to as little as two years, according to its inventors. ![]() *All images: TU Delft* That's in large part thanks to its construction material of mycelium, a fast-growing, fungus-like bacterial colony that can grow into massive underground networks. Mycelium is also able to neutralize toxic substances and provide nutrition to anything growing nearby, meaning that the soil will actually benefit from such a burial in the long term. "The Living Cocoon enables people to become one with nature again and to enrich the soil, instead of polluting it," Bob Hendrikx, founder of Loop, the startup that developed the coffin, said in [a statement](). To Hendrikx, it's about living alongside living materials. "We are currently living in nature’s graveyard," he argued. "Our behavior is not only parasitic, it’s also short-sighted." ![]() "We are degrading organisms into dead, polluting materials, but what if we kept them alive?," he added. "Just imagine: a house that can breathe and a T-shirt that grows with you." The researchers behind the Living Cocoon have already completed a funeral in which the deceased was buried in one, what they claim to be a world's first, as [*Dutch News* reports](). The Living Cocoon echoes similar inventions, such as the ["Infinity Burial Suit,"]() dreamed up by green burial company Coeio. It's essentially a "death suit," with mycelia spores infused into its crocheted netting. Loop is now investigating the positive effects and increases in biodiversity as a result of burying such a coffin. "We want to know exactly what contribution it makes to the soil as this will help us to convince local municipalities in the future to transform polluted areas into healthy woodland, using our bodies as nutrients," Hendrikx added. **READ MORE:** [A growing business: Dutch develop ‘living’ coffin made of mushroom mycelium]() \[*Dutch News*\] **More on mushrooms:** *[These Researchers Want You to Live In a Fungus Megastructure]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()