Ecovative's Mushroom Tiny House

The winning submission to this year's Buckminster Fuller Challenge, a $100K prize doled out to the most socially responsible design, was Ecovative's mycological biomaterial. College buddies Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre came up with the idea to use fungi as a binding agent while studying engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York back in 2007. Their eco-friendly material could replace existing plastic foams -- which are both non-recyclable and petroleum-based -- with a substitute derived from fungi for applications in furniture, building insulation, and even footwear or surfboards. Mushroomtinyhouse.com