The Mycelial Portal
Mutant Gardens – The Mycelial Portal is an ephemeral spatial installation designed to translate MANE’s fragrance MYCO° into a fully immersive experience. Rather than presenting scent as an object, the project invites visitors to physically enter it, crossing a threshold into a small-scale world where nature, ritual, and perception subtly mutate. Inspired by mycelium networks and mushroom folklore, the installation explores transformation, sensory awareness, and the blurred boundary between the real and the imagined.
Client MANE Flavor & Fragrance Manufacturer
Size 250 m²
Location IED Barcelona, Point 2
Year 2025
Subject Ephemeral Project
IED Year 4th B UDD Interior Design 25/26
Programs used Rhinoceros, D5 Render, InDesign, CapCut
An Otherworldly Mutant Garden
The project is conceived as a 2 × 2 m immersive dome, inspired by the protective form of a mushroom cap and the intelligence of fungal networks. The structure acts as a portal: a moment of transition from the external world into an enclosed, enchanted environment. Here, architecture becomes a sensory filter, slowing the body down and heightening perception through light, reflection, scent, and materiality.
The fragrance MYCO° (mango, mushroom, sage) is treated as a living entity that shapes the space itself. Mushroom becomes the grounding architectural language, mango is translated into warm, glowing light and energy, and sage appears as a ritual mist that moves through the installation. Together, these elements create a layered atmosphere where scent, space, and emotion are inseparable.
Rooted in folklore, philosophy, and post-digital thinking, Mutant Gardens blends natural and artificial elements to distort scale and reality. Mirrors expand the micro-space, digital projections suggest shifting time and seasons, and organic textures evoke an underground ecosystem. The result is an ephemeral interior that feels intimate yet expansive — a quiet, sensorial world designed to be felt rather than simply observed.