Mushrooms are having a moment. They’re a sustainable, umami-rich alternative to meat, the psychedelic basis of a breakthrough therapy for depression, and the real star of Phantom Thread. But don’t call it a comeback: The fungus kingdom, which includes everything from life-saving penicillin to delectable oysterelles, has been blooming for at least a billion years. And its next evolution could remake the built environment as we know it.

Over the past decade, the design industry has taken a keen interest in mycelium, a network of gauzy white threads that allow fungi to reproduce. Designers use the fast-growing material to create vegan lampshades, mushroom leather, and sustainable packaging alternatives to Styrofoam. Now, architects are using the material to build organic bricks. Eventually, they say mycelium could be used to grow living buildings—and sustainably dismantle old ones.

It’s hard to say when, exactly, designers realized fungi’s true potential. Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre founded Ecovative, best known for its mushroom packaging, in 2007. They grow the mycelium in plastic molds in varying arrangements. After just four days and some serious heat treatment, out pops a wine bottle shipper or a miniature cooler. Every product is sturdy enough for long-distance travel, and 100% compostable.

But Phil Ross, a San Francisco–based artist, is often credited with leading the mushroom renaissance. Ross has incorporated fungi in his art for decades. But in 2011, he filed for a patent for his “method for producing fungus spores” and, in 2013, cofounded MycoWorks, a sustainable start-up. The company recently debuted its much-anticipated reishi leather alternative, which, compared to animal leather, cuts down on water consumption, land use, and cow burps—a serious source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Mycelium is working its way into architecture, too. Mogu, an Italian design company, hopes to work its way up from existing products, like mycelium-derived acoustic panels and composite floor tiles, to whole buildings. So far, designers have focused mostly on dead, dried mycelium. But in a recent paper, Copenhagen-based architect Phil Ayres and his colleagues laid out what he calls “a radical vision of architecture” derived from living fungi. The idea is to create mushroom-machine hybrids that grow sustainable, self-repairing buildings. These structures could exist on Earth and off: Redhouse Studio in Cleveland is working with NASA to design self-growing structures that can be shipped to Mars.

But let’s not get too excited; there are still some major unknowns. Researchers still aren’t sure how durable mycelium is. Concrete may last decades, but mushrooms are sure to degrade faster. Companies are also struggling to scale their production, especially with more elaborate products like vegan leather. While tanners have thousands of years’ experience turning cowhide into leather, companies like MycoWorks have been working on fungal alternatives only for less than a decade. But the demand for eco-friendly products is overwhelming, and mycelium—a biodegradable material that feeds on waste—undoubtedly delivers.

A house made of fungi may still be a few decades off (sigh), but there are ways to incorporate mushrooms into your home today. Ecovative sells GROW.bio, which allows you to cultivate your own mycelium into any shape you desire. Beginners should probably start with a simple pot for plants, but people have made elaborate sculptures and even DIY furniture. You can also stop shopping for expensive mushrooms and grow your own reishi, shiitake, or oyster mushrooms indoors. With all-in-one kits, the only thing you need to do is mist the growing caps, and a single block should produce several harvests. If you have any leftovers, add them to the compost pile—’shrooms are excellent agents of decay.

We've only just begun to catalog the ways fungi can change the world. But when it comes to your home, perhaps their best quality is they don’t take up much room.