Aifunghi turns mycelium furniture into sculptural luxury gifts

Aifunghi makes mycelium feel like the kind of gift you give someone who already knows the good chair from the merely expensive one. The furry seating, mushroom-shaped lighting and shell-like tables have the novelty, conversation value and design-world cachet that make a present feel like an acquisition, not an errand.

Why this is the mycelium story to watch

Aifunghi debuted at Material Matters during 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2025 with a first collection of 10 pieces spanning seating, tables, lighting and upholstered furniture. The brand was founded in the Netherlands by Bart and Marije Schilder, Michiel Geluk and Mo Aouraghé, all with Moooi ties, and Bart Schilder has said he grew uncomfortable with plastics after starting his own studio in 2018. That backstory matters because Aifunghi is not selling mycelium as a lesson, it is selling it as a design language.

The price conversation is part of the point. On 1stDibs, sculptural lounge chairs begin at $325, average about $5,600 and can climb to $72,000, which is the market Aifunghi is clearly trying to enter with pieces that are contract-ready, limited in quantity and built to read as design objects first. For a gift buyer, that puts Aifunghi in the same emotional bracket as collectible seating, where the recipient cares as much about form and provenance as they do about function.

The pieces worth gifting

• The Banet dining chair is the one to give the friend who hosts the long, candlelit dinner and likes their dining room to feel a little editorial. Aifunghi says its dining chair is the world’s first mycelium chair to pass the EN16139 Level 1 test for contract seating, and that certification means it can withstand up to 30 years of heavy use. That makes it more than a pretty object, it makes it the rare statement chair that can actually live with a house full of people.

• The Venosa Lounge Chair is the softer, more intimate gift, the one for the person building a reading corner, a quiet studio, or a room that needs one strong sculptural anchor. Aifunghi describes it as a lounge chair in mycelium composite with upholstery, fully biodegradable and handcrafted in limited quantities, and its shell-like mushroom silhouette gives it the kind of personality most lounge chairs never get near.

• The Campinio pendant and table lamps are for the design obsessive who notices lighting before furniture. Aifunghi says the lamp is fully upholstered in Savian plant-based Fur, slightly sound-absorbing and soothing, with the visible mycelium skin inside the shade revealing its core material, MBC. This is exactly the kind of lamp that makes a room feel like it has an opinion.

• The Bolete side table is the most giftable conversation piece of the lot, especially for someone who collects objects that look as if they were discovered rather than bought. The debut version pairs an upholstered base with a fused-glass top made from leftover shards from mouth-blown glass production, so every piece lands with its own irregular surface and one-off feel.

What gives it luxury credibility

Aifunghi’s core material, Mycelium-Based Composite, or MBC, combines hemp fibers with the natural binding power of mycelium. The company says its chairs are 100% compostable and free of petroleum-derived plastics, which is a sharper luxury proposition than the usual sustainability pitch because it comes with an actual tactile finish and a material story you can see, not just read about.

The collaborators sharpen that point. Savian by BioFluff supplied plant-based faux fur upholstery, while Agoprene supplied seaweed-based comfort foam. Roni GamZon of Savian called working with nature “the ultimate luxury,” and Celine Sandberg of Agoprene said no single material solves everything, but many good ones together can. That is the right tone for this category: less sermon, more finish.

The brand’s scale is small enough to feel selective and large enough to matter. Aifunghi says production is set up in a semi-industrial factory in Enkhuizen, Netherlands, with capacity for up to 1,200 pieces per year. That is the detail that separates a collectible-design label from a one-off experiment, because it means the furniture is made to circulate through homes, hotels and contract projects rather than sit forever in a prototype mood board.

Why the 2026 follow-up matters

Aifunghi returned in 2026 with Outspoken at Material Matters during 3 Days of Design, from 10 to 12 June at Ukraine House, Gammel Dok, Strandgade 27B, 1401 Copenhagen, Denmark. The seven-piece lineup pushed further into lighting and mirrors, introduced first collaborations with French artist Elisa Uberti and Amsterdam-based designer Vito Boox, and added new Naked versions of the Banet chairs and Bolete side tables with an artisanal clay-like finish, plus a new Bovista stool.

That sequel is what makes Aifunghi feel gift-worthy right now. It is no longer a single clever launch built on mushroom novelty, but a brand building a recognizable design vocabulary across seasons, materials and categories. For the buyer looking to give something that feels current, rare and architectural, Aifunghi is crossing into the territory where prestige design starts to look effortless.