Beijing Design Week 2011
The international design event Beijing Design Week took place from 25 September until 3 October 2011 at various locations in China's capital city. The Dutch participated very successfully with “Smart Cities, Healthy Cities”. The 2200 m2 Dutch Design Generator at the trendy 751D•PARK in Beijing made The Netherlands the largest participating country. It proved a hit with both audience and media, resulting in thousands of visitors viewing the Dutch designs and coverage from more than 50 local and international media. See a selection of photos on our Facebook page.
The Dutch programme at BJDW focused on how we can safeguard our well being in tomorrow’s urban environments through design. It included exhibitions, workshops, seminars, and lectures.‘Smart Cities, Healthy Cities’ aimed to address one of today’s most urgent issues: how can we sustainably improve the quality of our living environment in this ‘urban age’?
Highlights of the nine day exhibit included Liberation of Light where Dutch artists, designers and architects provided a sneak preview in the future of how LED lights can be used in applications in a multitude of domains, ranging from health and food production to education and beautification of public space. The Liberation of Light exhibit was officially launched on Wednesday, 28 September, by the Eindhoven Mayor Rob van Gijzel, and included works by Philips, Dune by Daan Roosegaarde and Dorette Sturm’s Breathing Cloud. Liberation of Light was produced by Yksi Expo and Design Cooperation Brainport.
Connecting Concepts, a co-production of Premsela, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Design Cooperation Brainport, contained thirty objects that displayed design concepts, processes and disciplinary cross-pollination in the Netherlands revealing what makes the Dutch design processes tick. It contained Dutch design icons such as Marcel Wanders’ Knotted Chair, Richard Hutten’s Layers Table and work by graphic design studio Thonik
In the seminar programme visitors gained insight into in the future of city planning and development and the design education required for a new breed of twenty first century designers in Next Cities, Next Education featuring Professor Min Wang is Dean of the School of Design at China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and Jacob van Rijs is one of the co-founding directors of MVRDV. Other Notable seminars included Feeding the City, City of Communication,
Bright Cities featuring Gertjan Meeuws, Managing Partner of PlantLab, and artist and architect Daan Roosegaarde, and Taking Care of the City featuring Julian Richardson of Desso and Jeroen Jonkers of NorthernLight.
The Mini Cinema included Dutch Profiles, short documentaries about architects, graphic, product and fashion designers. Dutch Profiles focused on the conceptual approach, the work process, and the context of projects of designers such as Rem Koolhaas, Droog, Jurgen Bey and Dick Bruna, the creator of Miffy.
Over thirty Dutch companies in all fields of design joined the accompanying business delegation for matchmaking and networking events with Chinese counterparts. They presented their work in daily sessions at the Dutch Design Generator.
Commenting on the success of the Dutch Design Generator DutchDFA director Christine de Baan said: “We are delighted with the positive response from both consumers, Chinese media and online social networks. They confirm that the concepts and content of the Dutch programme relate to the current challenges in Chinese society’.
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