The 2020 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards has recognized Andrea Shin Ling?s Design by Decay, Decay by Design project, and Michael Green Architecture and Katerra?s Catalyst Building among the winners of this year?s program.

The Awards honor the designers and businesses solving the problems of today and tomorrow. The competition, now in its ninth year, has  29 categories, and the judges include renowned designers from a variety of disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company?s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact.

Ling?s project  is a series of artifacts that exhibit designed decay by combining two technologies: Interatomic Coulombic decay (ICT) and biotechnology.
The research and resulting artifacts were created as part of Ling?s 2019 Ginkgo Bioworks Creative Residency on how to design a world without waste. The project?s base material system included biocomposites of chitin, cellulose, and pectin, derived from the exoskeletons of shrimp, tree pulp waste, and fruit skins.

Located at the South Landing Eco District in Spokane, Washington, the Catalyst building is a  five story, 159,000-square foot facility designed by Michael Green Architecture and constructed by Katerra.

The building and the adjacent Scott Morris Center for Energy Innovation demo...