BEIJING DESIGN WEEK RETURNS, CELEBRATING ITS 5th YEAR (SEPT 23 - OCT 07)

Beijing Design Week (BJDW) has over the past four years sought to shape a critical arena and empower a positioning for design in the cultural, economic and social scapes of contemporary China. BJDW has become an active mediator in establishing cooperative frameworks among private and public stakeholders both locally and internationally, investing in the enquiring capacity of design to assess common goals and localized solutions for the future of urban China.

 

With year-long operations in and out of the PRC, BJDW has come to define new scopes for its weeklong programming and its institutional role in sustaining long-term initiatives, as well as enforcing contextualized perspectives produced at the crossroads of formal and grassroots strategies of engagement. BJDW remains a unique observatory – of discovery, dialogue and productive challenge – making Chinabased professionals and emerging talents the protagonists.

 

International actions started in 2011 with the City of Milan, resulting in BJDW’s yearly presence at its globally-attended Salone, and continue to date with the ever expanding city-and-country network of partners including Holland, Seoul, Tokyo, Dubai, Copenhagen, Australia, and most recently Venice launched with the 2014 Architecture Biennale.

 

An official collateral event to the international showcase, the exhibition Across Chinese Cities- Beijing hosted in the Tese of the Arsenale and curated by BJDW’s Creative Director Beatrice Leanza and architect Michele Brunello, was an investigation into the Chinese capital`s spatial transformations with an explorative focus on its historical district Dashilar. BJDW will renew its presence in Venice at the 2016 Architecture Biennale, strengthening its role as an active content producer and promoter of China’s evolving intellectual and cultural landscapes.

 

Launched with a pilot effort in 2009, Beijing Design Week (BJDW) is co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal Government, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, to nurture a culture of design in the Chinese context. With seven key sections – Design Service, Design Award, Design Night, Design Trade, Guest City, Smart City and Design HOP- BJDW features hundreds of international exhibitions, public events and trading platforms as the leading design event in the PRC. While offering an expansive overview of China`s transforming design landscape, it serves as a laboratory for innovative perspectives that, from industry to academia, inspire and shape contemporary design discourse and practice.