Say goodbye to plastic / aluminum headphones, and hello to fungus. Design studio Aivan unveiled Korvaa, the world’s first headphones made from microbial-grown materials. The studio created two versions of the Korvaa headphones, with each consisting of six microbe-grown components with different properties: enzymatically produced, lignin-free cellulose; 3D-printed biodegradable microbial bioplastic PLA for the frame; a leather-like fungal mycelium for the soft foam inside the headset; biosynthetic spider silk for the mesh inside the earphone; and protein foam with plant cellulose.
The headphones were created by teams from Aivan, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and Aalto University. Want a pair? Unfortunately, they’re still in the prototype stage, and don’t yet contain any of the electronics needed for audio playback to happen.
- HEADPHONES | Featuring Dolby Atmos.
- SPATIAL AUDIO | Enjoy an industry-leading Dolby Atmos experience with dynamic head tracking.
- LOSSLESS AUDIO | Stream lossless audio over Bluetooth or via USB-C.
“We’re looking at these different materials and their properties, trying to figure out how to use them, and what to make out of them — as opposed to designing an item and then figuring out what materials we want to use. Process-wise, it’s almost like something out of the stone age. It sets this particular project apart from any other contemporary, wearable-tech project,” said Saku Sysiö and Thomas Tallqvist, Aivan product designers.
