Design by Decay, Decay by Design, by Mediated Matter alum Andrea Ling, has been chosen as a winner in the Science in the Arts category at the 2020 Falling Walls conference in Berlin.

Ling’s work revolves around designing responsive skins informed by material ecology-centered design research. To design a world without waste, Design by Decay designs waste intentionally. It proposes biological decay as a fabrication process, using enzymes and microbes to decompose and compose biological matter at the same time. By mediating decay through species selection, environmental conditions, and nutrient templating, the work rethinks the circular economy and pursues mutability in the physical world, in order to ensure that the mechanisms of constructive renewal are embedded into that world.