Forward-Facing Creativity: Design Shenzhen, 9-12 Dec 2021
Brand story by Nick Compton
18.11.21
From 9-12 December, Design Shenzhen’s forums, installations and showcases will bring together 150 international and domestic design brands in one of Asia’s fastest-growing creative hubs.
Design Shenzhen, a new sister event to Design Shanghai and Design Beijing, recognises the city’s emergence as the focal point of China’s creative industries
Design Shenzhen, a new sister event to Design Shanghai and Design Beijing, recognises the city’s emergence as the focal point of China’s creative industries
×Shenzhen has a reputation as China's Silicon Valley, a once sleepy fishing village turned global tech hub, but it also the focal point for the country's creative and design industries, a home to both TikTok and the V&A’s first international gallery. Unesco says the city is home to 6,000 design firms with 100,000 employees generating over $1.5bn in income every year. It is also now an established draw for international designers, architects and design companies looking to tap into the city's singular design and making culture and develop their business in China.
CHINA’S CREATIVE ENGINE
The British industrial designer Michael Young has been a long-time champion of South China's fertile creative capabilities and Shenzhen’s particular cross-disciplinary exchange and energy. ‘Shenzhen is a crossroads between technology, art, music, fashion and industry, the feverish centre of economic creativity,’ he says.
Dutch design brand Moooi are amongst a strong line-up of international brands appearing at Design Shenzhen. Other brands signed up for the debut exhibition include Duravit and Ligne Roset (see below)
Dutch design brand Moooi are amongst a strong line-up of international brands appearing at Design Shenzhen. Other brands signed up for the debut exhibition include Duravit and Ligne Roset (see below)
×Moooi will be amongst the exhibitors at this December’s debut edition of Design Shenzhen , a new sister event to Design Shanghai and Design Beijing. Launched in 2014, Design Shanghai quickly established itself as Asia’s major international design fair and Design Shenzhen is seen as perfect complement, celebrating the city’s creative stretch and tapping into its youthful, can-do positivity.
Taking place between December 9-12, it will showcase 150 domestic and international design and fashion brands with Ligne Roset, Moooi, Scavolini, Duravit, Villeroy & Boch, Yohji Yamamoto, Aritco, and Caesarstone amongst the international contingent. Brands showcasing the best of domestic includes BOKING ART, Burgeree, DAS Design, Eastreme, Fuli Tapestry Carpet, Haohaozhu, PFD+, Tat Ming, Zhi Se, Zhouyu and Vineko
Shown here is White Tulip by exhibitor Duravit, the first complete bathroom series by designer Philippe Starck and inspired by the organic shape of a blooming tulip
Shown here is White Tulip by exhibitor Duravit, the first complete bathroom series by designer Philippe Starck and inspired by the organic shape of a blooming tulip
×ANYTHING-IS-POSSIBLE PROBLEM SOLVING
"Shenzhen is a young, energetic and extremely creative city," says Zhuo Tan, Event Director of Clarion Events, the company behind the triple-hit of Chinese design shows. "It is also the city with the most disruptive ideas in the future of lifestyle."
Shenzhen reputation rests on anything-is-possible problem-solving and that approach will be central to Design Shenzhen's ‘Design Forum’. Leading designers and architects, as well as emerging Chinese designers, will take on the complex relationship between nature, design and technology, looking at how designers can ally with scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs to fast-track the development of more sustainable materials, products and processes.
“To design and make products and buildings that not only minimise but actually eliminate carbon is now a global imperative,” says Forum Director Aidan Walker, “and Shenzhen is the perfect place to demonstrate that nature and technology are not, as many people think, conflicting opposites in the search for solutions to global crises.”
Telen by Christian Werner for Ligne Roset is reminiscent of Japanese Zen gardens. The lines of the highly decorative, organic sofa take on the shape of pebbles stacked on the beach
Telen by Christian Werner for Ligne Roset is reminiscent of Japanese Zen gardens. The lines of the highly decorative, organic sofa take on the shape of pebbles stacked on the beach
×Speakers at Forum include the legendary Italian designer and architect Gaetano Pesce, the Italian architect, inventor and activist, Carlo Ratti, Sou Fujimoto, London-based industrial designer Benjamin Hubert, Satoshi Ohashi of Zaha Hadid Architects, and Steven Smit, Director (Asia) of Dutch architecture and urban design practice MVRDV.
The event’s ‘Design Forum’ will tackle the complex relationship between nature, design and technology. Speakers include the legendary Italian designer Gaetano Pesce. © Mark O'Flaherty / Courtesy of Gaetano Pesce Office
The event’s ‘Design Forum’ will tackle the complex relationship between nature, design and technology. Speakers include the legendary Italian designer Gaetano Pesce. © Mark O'Flaherty / Courtesy of Gaetano Pesce Office
×HOMES OF THE FUTURE
Design Shenzhen will also include ‘Future Home’, with cross-sector designers coming together to create inspirational concepts for homes of the future, ‘Good Design Select’, curated by designer Xiaoxi Shi in collaboration with the G-Mark Japan Good Design Award, as well as collaborations with the Royal Institute of British Architects and Beijing Contemporary Art Expo, who will showcase artworks from 10 galleries exploring the fusion of contemporary art and design.
Design Shenzhen 2021 launches 9-12 December 2021 at Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center
Set across 15,000 m2 of the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, Design Shenzhen will also showcase the very latest furniture, lighting, surface materials, soft furnishings and conceptual installations and be open to local architects, interior designers, property developers as well as the city’s design-savvy citizens.
ABOUT DESIGN SHENZHEN : 9-12 December 2021, Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, Futian District, Shenzhen, China designshanghai.com/design-shenzhen | @design_shanghai
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