Design by Decay, Decay by Design

Design by Decay, Decay by Design

Design by Decay, Decay by Design

Design by Decay, Decay by Design reframes the nature of waste as both unavoidable and unacceptable. The project is a series of artifacts that exhibit designed decay. They were done for the Ginkgo Bioworks Creative Residency on how to design a world without waste. As an architect and designer, I recognize that most of what I create goes to landfill. If that is the case, let me design waste that I can live with, garbage that retains some desirability as it degrades, in sight and on site. Let me design waste as nature designs it, not only as the product of breakdown and destruction but also as inputs for renewal and construction. In biology, one system’s entropy is another system’s organization. In collaboration with Ginkgo scientists,, this project organizes decay, using enzymes, fungus, bacteria and other biological agents as ways of decomposing and composing matter at the same time. By mediating decay through species selection, control of environmental conditions, and nutrient templating, I actively pursue mutability as a desired quality in the physical world as well as the guarantee that the mechanisms of constructive renewal will be embedded into that world.

Design by Decay does not develop a product, but instead outlines a process by which we can create artifacts where decay is built-in, not as only a means of disposal but also as a potential fabrication process transforming objects in ways that are still acceptable to the user. My base material system included biocomposites of chitin, cellulose, and pectin, derived from the exoskeletons of shrimp, tree pulp waste, and fruit skins. These materials can be combined in different ratios to form different bioplastics with a wide range of mechanical and physical characteristics and are environmentally responsive and easily degradable. The work is organized into 3 projects, done in Gingko’s wetlabs with its scientists:
1. Using enzymes derived from fungus and human saliva and integrating them into biocomposites with spatial and temporal control to transform the material rather than only destroy it. This was degradation as a fabrication process.
2. Using different strains of Streptomyces bacteria to colonize cellulose and different bioplastics in order to transform them. Streptomyces are common soil bacteria and secondary decomposers that produce vibrant pigments and geosmin, the compound responsible for soil smell.
3. Using different types of fungi, Aspergillus niger (black mold) and Trichoderma viride (green mold) in co-cultures to transform and selectively degrade different materials. Mold is a much more powerful and resilient decay agent and would rapidly colonize any substrate we provided.
The transformations are not always predictable nor standardized which for industry can be highly inconvenient. But given our state of climate crisis, we can no longer design primarily for convenience; our survival depends on changing our priorities and expectations for the material world. My goal in using these material systems and these biological agents is not to create a low carbon footprint project or upcycle waste into new products. Rather it’s to support a different mode of design, one where the process of making and breaking is provisional and not only consumptive. Design by Decay, Decay by Design seeks to redistribute value away from permanent materials that destroy ecosystems onto transient ones that restore them, finding epistemological as well as practical value in designing responsivity, degradation, and renewal into man-made objects.

Design by Decay was done in collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks. As a company that designs life, Ginkgo understands how in synthetic biology, long term success comes from working in symbiosis with the underlying logic of natural systems rather than trying to subjugate them to human will. Part of the inspiration for this project are the 70,000 year old Bradshaw rock paintings in Australia, that remain vibrant despite their age. They are vivid because the original pigments have been decomposed and eaten by symbiotic communities of fungus and algae that then stayed within the confines of the original drawing for thousands of years, creating a material system that has endured far longer than any man-made system. It may seem odd that an architect is promoting the design of transience as a design solution, however, when working with natural systems, it is the fact that nature’s materials degrade and re-organize that allows for a system’s longevity (through renewal rather than static robustness) that man-made materials are not capable of.

One of the great challenges of working with biological materials and agents is that they are environmentally responsive and have agency, and the resulting artifacts are not always predictable or standardized. Contamination was common, as was loss of viability. As a classically trained architect, I am used to having precise control over my output, and the struggle in a design practice such as this is to learn how to accept the embedded tensions where material and biological agency sometimes work in contradiction to what I have planned or what I am comfortable with. It is a struggle for industry to accept this inconvenience as well. However, if we accept this inconvenience, using decay to facilitate renewal offers extraordinary advantages, such as access to circular systems and the ability to grow, adapt, and reproduce out of literal rotting, providing a resilience not found in industrial systems. By taking this approach, I am trying to shift design away from extractive paradigms with very narrow definitions of efficiency towards softer, more holistic ones that first address ecological consequences, in order to take care of social and economic ones.

Enzymatic decay samples, 2019. Human and fungal enzymes on chitosan-pectin-cellulose composites. Various sizes, up to 90cm x 45cm.
Fungal decomposition blocks, 2019. Trichoderma viride and Aspergillus niger on maple carvings. 30cm x 45cm x 7cm.
Bacterial decay samples, 2019. Streptomyces strains on chitosan-pectin-cellulose composites. Various sizes, up to 20cm x 45cm.
Biocomposite Cocoon, 2019. Streptomyces coelicolor on chitosan-pectin-cellulose cocoon structure. 25cm x 15cm x 70cm.

Designer / Artist: Andrea Ling
Curatorial Team: Ginkgo Bioworks + Faber Futures
Natsai Audrey Chieza, Dr. Christina Agapakis, Grace Chuang, Kit McDonnell, Dr. Joshua Dunn
Scientific advisors: Ginkgo Bioworks
Dr. Joshua Dunn, Dr. Ming-Yueh Wu, Kyle Kenyon, Duy Nguyen, Dr. Lucy Foulston
With thanks to the MIT Media Lab, Mediated Matter Group
Project funding received from Ginkgo Bioworks
Photos by Ally Schmaling, Andrea Ling, and Grace Chuang

https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/2020/01/06/2019-creative-in-residence/

https://vimeo.com/455637263

http://andreasling.com