Dungse Lab

What are the traditional uses and properties of cow dung as a building material? 

In India, we have a multi-generational tradition of using cow dung for home maintenance, still widely practiced. Fresh manure is used for soil nutrition, and the surplus dung is made into a slurry for plastering floors and walls. We also sun-dry it to make blocks for a fire with 50-60% less carbon emissions than firewood. The ash is used for pest and weed control. 

Cow dung is naturally insulative, keeping things warmer or cooler depending on its application. It’s water-repellent, resistant to dust, and when burned, it keeps mosquitoes away. What I also like is that you can change its look and feel as a construction material; you can paint it and create different visuals or patterns. 

On top of all those qualities, it’s accessible. Your own cows in your own house produce this material. You use some as nutrients to grow foods and greenery, but you can give the surplus another life in another form.

How did you take the step to making a lasting contemporary construction material?

During our studies, some fellow students and I started a studio called Studio Carbon. We wanted to try it for a year. That was seven years ago. 

Since then, I moved to the Netherlands to build an international studio, bridging indigenous learnings with modern technologies. While pitching a collaboration with the Dutch Bird Protection Department, I presented products and solutions made of natural materials to improve biodiversity. One suggestion was a cow dung birdhouse. 

A gentleman saw it and said: “This is revolutionary! Can you really do this? I can connect you with the biggest birdhouse and wildlife manufacturer in Europe.” At home in India, we didn’t create anything permanent; we developed the material from our own cows’ manure and applied it as a yearly ritual. So, I said: “Give me a couple of months to create something lasting.” That’s how it started. 

We still have that deal, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the birdhouse development. But in the meantime, we’ve learned and collaborated with Wageningen University, Blue City Lab and Green PAC iLab to improve our R&D and find the most sustainable material. Today, we’ve created two main products: a wood substitute and a bioplastic. 

Does aesthetics influence the acceptability of dung materials? 

For humans, beauty is biologically persuasive – not just voluntarily. During our evolution, a certain symmetry would indicate safety. When we eat or assess edibility, colours and repetition provide indicators. 

Natural patterns and beauty are still embedded in our bodies. We have a biological reference of how our brain compares looks and safety with things that are right and nice. For me, that aesthetic aspect of design is a superpower because it makes wild ideas more aspirational and persuasive. 

I want our products to be as beautiful and aspirational as other materials on the market. I don’t want to position them as an alternative to something else. I actually hate the word “alternative”. Why should cow dung be an alternative to traditional wood? You’re cutting down trees and creating so much chaos. With our solution, you get the same thing – just as beautiful or more – with a lot of other benefits. 

Do you face cultural resistance to using dung in Western contexts?

That’s the most common question I get. I thought people would be grossed out because they think it will smell bad. But there’s no smell in cow dung itself. The smell comes from the decomposition of the chunks lying around. It’s the anaerobic process that creates methane and ammonia. That’s what smells. 

Our material smells like earth due to our processing techniques. I have pictures and videos of people putting their face close and saying: “Oh, this is earth.” 

What I need to navigate much more is that, in the West, we’ve always been told there’s one life and we must make the most of it. That’s literally how we think about our products: we design them for one life, because after that, like our own lives, we incinerate or bury them in a landfill. 

In the East, we believe in life after death and reincarnation, so we’re philosophically wired to think there are many lives. That’s exactly what we do with our materials. In India, the informal recycling and upcycling economy is over a million dollars. It’s not small. 

Think about it. I want shit to reincarnate. 

How do you see Dungse Labs ten years from now? 

We want Dungse to be a mainstream household material like cork, wood, or mycelium. I see it in at least five countries: US, India, the Netherlands, Italy, and China. They all have similar cattle problems. 

We want to build this material from the humble indigenous history of its origins, like Africa and India. But we aim to target developed economies first to create an aspirational positioning rather than a bottom-up approach that reinforces an alternative material stigma. 

The recipes are easy to implement in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, where I’ve worked before. By licensing our intellectual property, we can maintain a sales focus on developed markets while making them available in developing countries. 

To be honest, as an Indian, I’ve always resisted terms like “developing countries” and “developed countries,” or “third world” and “first world”. They’re highly problematic and colonial. Our materials can change the game. We want to show how traditional materials from disadvantaged economies can be reinvented sustainably and redefine building in highly developed markets. This will allow us to exchange value in a much more egalitarian way.

What support do you need to make this global vision a reality?

A big challenge is that everyone wants new materials, but nobody wants to be the first. Most need proof of prior success. We need brave, experienced people to try this product and bring it to a global market. 

We are also looking for a cofounding team that is as passionate about climate tech as we are, and who would like to build a company in that space with us. In addition, we can use help to validate and certify our materials. We have some legal things in place, but there’s a whole slew of them that will help bring our materials to market faster. 

Thirdly, we need funding from angel investors or family offices with decade-plus timelines. This requires patient capital. Based on my math, we could be profitable in five or six years depending on the location.

Finally, what is the main message you want people to take away?

I want to give purpose to shit in our society. Shit has no purpose in our society currently. I’d love to show how shit can have a purpose in our life, like in nature. 

Changing the world isn’t hard. If you want to do something meaningful, it just requires a spark of curiosity. That can take us very far. That curious little girl in me is still very much alive. She wants to build the future with shit – literally and metaphorically. Why don’t we reimagine what we consider waste, what we consider valuable, and what we consider possible? 

For me, every intentional change is a form of design. It doesn’t matter what you want to create or what training you have. It can be about bio-based materials, but even the choice of what to wear or background music is a decision. I want to invite people to bring their intention to everything they do, and we can recreate a lot of shit. 

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