A large mushroom farm near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi is one of a kind: It grows fungi on an industrial scale — not as food for restaurants but as a building material that some Kenyans say could make more people homeowners.

The farm produces mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms that a local company then uses to make building materials it says are more sustainable than regular brick and mortar.

The company, MycoTile, combines the roots with natural fibers and agents to make panels that can be used for everything from roof and wall insulation to interior decor, at a fraction of the cost of building with standard clay bricks. It currently produces about 3,000 square meters (yards) of such materials every month.

Nickson Otieno, Chief Executive Officer at Niko Green, a sustainability ‘think-do-tank’, says using bio-based materials like mycelium is “quite safe because it's much closer to nature and you don't have this exposure to harmful chemicals”.

MycoTile’s work could be a boon for Nairobi, where local leaders cite a housing crisis that has left many homeless or living in informal settlements and dwelling enclaves, prone to fires and sanitary issues. Official figures say there is a housing deficit of at least 2 million units in this metropolis of over 5 million people.

Most Kenyans are renters and those who are homeowners build from the ground up over many years instead of hiring contractors. It is common to find people living in badly finished or incomplete homes to avoid paying rent elsewhere.

“We really think that introducing affordable materials is part of the solution to the grand scheme of providing affordable housing to the community in general”, said Mtamu Kililo, MycoTile's founder.

Kililo said his company's insulation products cost roughly two-thirds of the price of standard materials.

Building a one-bedroom unit in Nairobi using materials such as brick, timber and tin sheets typically costs up to 150,000 Kenyan shillings (about $1,000), for a simple structure, and the figure can double depending on the quality of finishes, according to estimates from builders.

Using mushroom-root panels could shave off a third of the cost of building a house with bricks and mortar. Murugi, the street vendor, spent about 26,880 Kenyan shillings ($208) on the panels for her 15 square meter (161 square feet) home.

AP video by Desmond Tiro