Award in Shanghai

Press release:

The Dutch Design Fashion Architecture participation at the 2011 edition of the Shanghai Creative Industry Week presented a varied programme about Dutch design mentality and won the “Best Innovation and Practice Award”

In the Netherlands, design has evolved into a multidisciplinary tool for change. Practitioners are open and flexible – always looking back and forth with an eye for the realities and the needs of contemporary societies. The Dutch embrace design as the starting point for improvements in sustainability, technology, and communication.

Platform for exchange

The Dutch Design Thinking programme consisted of Connecting Concepts, a travelling exhibition by Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, Design Cooperation Brainport and Netherlands Architecture Institute, in which curator Ed van Hinte uncovers the driving forces behind Dutch design mentality and connects different design attitudes across disciplines. The Dutch Design Workspace Display showcased eminent Dutch design studios that are based at the Dutch Design Workspace in Shanghai. The exhibitions were complemented with two ‘interactive landscapes’ by artist/architect Daan Roosegaarde and a lecture programme featuring leading Chinese and Dutch graphic designers.

Memorandum of Understanding

The director of the Dutch Design Workspace, Giel Groothuis, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kunshan Design Center on the 28 of October 2011 during the official opening of the Dutch Design Thinking programme. This agreement validates the intensification between both parties to link together Chinese clients and Dutch designers. The first concrete collaboration followed with a second signing ceremony, between workspace participant Totems, a high quality exhibition design office from the Netherlands and a Chinese company.

Results

The programme of Dutch Design Fashion Architecture (DutchDFA) which aims to promote the best of Dutch design in four target countries whilst accompanying designers in their first steps in entering markets is increasingly successful in China. The Dutch creative industry appeared frequently in the news in the last months, including the large participation at the Beijing Design Week, the numerous trade missions and the recent agreement between the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Vanke to realise a joint social housing project.

Partners

DutchDFA is initiator and organiser of Dutch Design Thinking, the Dutch participation at the Shanghai Creative Industry Week 2011. The exhibitions and programme were developed in close collaboration with the Dutch Design Workspace in Shanghai, Premsela – Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Shanghai, Design Cooperation Brainport and the Netherlands Architecture Institute.