BJDW 2011 daily blog: opening

Smart Cities, Healthy Cities, Beijing Design Week 2011 Opening Day - by Cassandra Pizzey

"It's smart and it's light and it's beautiful," is how DutchDFA programme director Christine de Baan described the Dutch Design Generator at Beijing Design Week during the opening ceremony on 25 September 2011. 

Together with Creative Director Aric Chen, de Baan welcomed guests from China and the Netherlands to the official opening of the Dutch pavilion during the first Beijing Design Week. The Dutch Ambassador in Beijing, Rudolf Bekink, called the Dutch Design Generator "aptly named" and "another milestone in the long collaboration between China and the Netherlands."

"Positioned in the flourishing design area 751-D, the Dutch Design Generator offers a dynamic mix of exhibitions, lectures and workshops over three levels. All dedicated to finding smart solutions in order to create healthy cities," de Baan said in her opening speech. The Smart Cities, Healthy Cities programme aims to look at how, through design, we can sustainably improve the quality of living in our urban cultures.

On the first floor we find the traveling exhibition Liberation of Light, devised by Yksi and supported by Brainport Eindhoven, where the future technology of LEDs and OLEDs is shown to its full potential. Leonne Cuppen of Yksi explains: "LEDs are set to have a great impact on our lives, not only as the traditional lamp bulb as we know it is starting to vanish, but because of their technical possibilities. We can now manipulate light and make it part of art, part of our interior, but also see it as a sense of well-being. And it's exactly that turning point which is on show in this exhibition."

Upstairs another exhibition aims to lure those interested in Dutch design inside: Connecting Concepts. Curated by Ed van Hinte and Tim Vermeulen of Premsela, the exhibition has already been on show in the Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore and now will travel through China together with it's latest additions. Exhibiting the Dutchness of Dutch design, Connecting Concepts aims to show the processes that lie behind an actual product or service. "It's a little strange to see the show in this new space," says Ed van Hinte. "But with new additions such as Taobao poetry, the outcome of the Bangalore cycling workshop and new project Plant Paradise by PlantLab I'm certainly happy with it." 

Also on show at the Dutch Design Generator is the Book Lounge designed by HHD_Fun where visitors can browse amongst the most interesting and surprising books on Dutch art, design and architecture. Additionally there is a Mini Cinema situated in one of the space's large disused oil drums where Dutch Profiles are played. 

Last but certainly not least is the NEXT space where the results of the Next City Joint Studio, 2010 are on view. When students of eight Dutch and Chinese design schools sat down together to discuss fashion, product design, graphic design and architecture in a future urban context, some great new ideas were born which are now on show during Beijing Design Week and part of an exhibition, a book and a conference. 

Visitors to the Dutch Design Generator are nothing if not impressed by what the Dutch DFA has accomplished here in China. "It's a great initiative from which the Netherlands will reap the fruits for years to come," says Martijn de Potter of NwA Architects. "I think the Chinese could benefit from the quality of Dutch design and their attitude towards it. It's strange to see the way people seem to work and live here, so different from what we're used to in the Netherlands." Anoek Siegelaar of BNO agrees: "I'm very impressed by the Dutch contribution to BJDW. Also, the Chinese seem so eager, I feel this whole event will grow massively in years to come."

Read the other reports from Bejing here:

• Live report BJDW Day #1, Opening
• Live report BJDW Day #2, part 1
• Live report BJDW Day #2, part 2
• Live report BJDW Day #2, part 3
• Live report BJDW Day #3, part 1
• Live report BJDW Day #3, part 2
• Live report BJDW Day #4, part 1
• Live report BJDW Day #4, part 2