Global Design Conference Schedule

We are proud to present a global survey, as exhaustive as possible, of design that represents and expresses the new understanding of humanity – or harmony. Ideas of Community; Energy; Infrastructure; Tradition and Modernity; Work, Leisure and Home; Culture; Wellbeing; Retail, the Digital Revolution, Machine Intelligence, Materials … the list goes on and on.

Zhongguancun International Innovation Center

"Pixel, Abu Dhabi, was designed to challenge the typology that prioritises luxury over community," say designers MVRDV. Instead of isolated towers made palatable by a veneer of luxury finishes, Pixel makes it possible for residents to spend time outdoors and become friends with their neighbours, encouraging an enjoyable, environmentally and socially  sustainable way of life.

C40 Cities is a global network of mayors of the world’s leading cities united in action to confront the climate crisis, committed to a science-based collaborative approach to cut emissions and build healthy, equitable and resilient communities. 

The Easyhome Huanggang Vertical Forest City complex defines a new type of green architecture, characterised by alternating open balconies and closed loggias accentuated by trees and shrubs that can grow freely in height.

The Vertical Forest transforms the quality of living spaces, giving people the opportunity to experience urban space but feel the comfort of being surrounded by nature. 

"This looks like the beginning of the future" said a visitor to The Phoenix, a sustainable neighbourhood development in Sussex, UK. Constructed primarily in sustainable timber, powered by renewable energy and designed to encourage a culture of sharing, The Phoenix is a new and regenerative way to make a place, build a community and create a productive, circular local economy.

Atelier Li's Pudong villa overlooks an orchard in rural Shanghai, melting the boundaries between interior and exterior, while Xian Architects re-imagines the traditional Zheng Fang courtyard-based layout to engage with landscape and community. "The architecture becomes the eyes of the landscape, the ears of the environment, and the horn of signals," say the architects.

The bookshop as a personal space - as a cathedral, as a rural retreat, as a piece of history. TAO's mountaintop bookstore overlooks the Nujiang Grand Canyon, while their Weishan Chongzheng Academy Bookstore repurposes a 500-year old  academy. X-Living's Tianjin Zhongshuge bookstore uses 400,000 custom-designed bricks to create a rising succession of spaces. "The design aims to blur the physical boundaries of the architecture," says principal Li Xiang, "suggesting that the boundaries of knowledge and cognition are vague, yet the spiritual core is clear and resolute."

AIM Architecture' spectacular Spine Resort emerges onto its rural site like a cluster of ecosystems. Grandiose and intimate at the same time, the biophilic design dynamically balances architecture, nature and people, creating localized connections while framing panoramic views.
The core of Safdie Architects’ design for the new  Singapore EDITION hotel, blending luxury with modernism, is its seamless integration with nature. Sweeping vistas and lush greenery, from the sky park to the sunken garden, are everywhere. At the hqeart is a timber-decked garden courtyard, framed by shallow, black-tiled pools and tropical foliage. Light floods the corridors, plant-filled conservatory, and public spaces, creating a serene escape. 

1. The 185,000 sqm OPPO HQ in Shenzhen works both for the city and the employees of China's leading smartphone manufacturer. Large atrium spaces, obstruction-free floors, abundant natural light and social spaces all generate engagement and spontaneity; the building also addresses the city with a public walkway, shops and galleries.

2. The Shanghai HQ for CECEP, China's leading renewnable energy company, sets new benchmarks for the city in energy efficeny and sustainability. Three towers are linked with a park connecting directly with the city, creating new public spaces in a natural environment.

The Shenzhen Wave, the new hq for ZTE: The distinctive design is imagined as a dynamic, living organism that generates innovation, cutting-edge ideas and new ways of working and living together. A sinuous diagonal "Wave" cuts through the building and links its multiple levels, lifting the structure off the ground and cresting up through the roof. This key element becomes an open and experiential pathway through the building for light, views and circulation, encouraging spontaneous encounters between users throughout the structure.

Embodying TOD principles, the award-winning Chengdu Tianfu New Station makes the traffic hub the centre of urban life, laying out the functions in 3D so that the rail hub and the city blend into one. Local ecological resources are used to integrate the hub with nature; "building a nest to attract phoenixes", the project forms an urban living room for people.

The sinuous, translucent form of the Yoohoo Museum in Hangzhou takes inspiration from the 2500-year old Grand Canal and Jade - China's iconic precious stone - which symbolises purity, connection and reverence. A magical project that addresses heaven and earth, and combines two major traditional elements of Chinese culture.

The long awaited Beijing City Library is just about as iconic as it gets. The glass-lined building, filled with towering tree-like columns and rooms disguised as hills, is designed  to "reinstate the library's relevance in the 21st century" and aims to offer a "new vision" for the typology. "The terraced landscape and tree-like columns invite visitors to lift their gaze and focus at a distance, taking in the bigger picture," says Snøhetta Asia Pacific director Robert Greenwood. "This is a place where you can be sitting under a tree, reading your favorite book."

Our "Design Triple" session places three museums together, each one of which pushes the boundaries of the accepted functions of a cultural institution. Muda Architects' Tianfu Museum of Chinese Medicine is designed as a giant Taiji diagram, or yin-yang symbol, to represent the philosophy of holistic traditional Chinese medicine; Aurora Design's HumShan Ding You Feng photography museum draws from the local landscape, the architecture reflecting harmony between mountains, water, and the built environment; and UN Studio's Chungnam Art Museum turns itself  "inside out" to address the community with vibrant interactive spaces.

The Fengying Stone Art Museum is a "jewel" of only 200 sq meters, a beautiful and mysterious square building whose exterior wall is formed with gaps through which people can peek inside and see three different-shaped light courtyards. Bamboo layers create an ethereal oriental atmosphere for the spaces. In a self-referential move the architects have used local stone 654 for the exterior wall – one of the most commonly used stone materials in the sculpture exhibits.

Antistatics conceived the façade of the Beijing Vicutu store as an array of interwoven interlaced aluminium forms, generated to suggest the structure of cloth fabric. "A respite from the digital realm", says the promotional text – delivered by the highly advanced, digitally driven design and fabrication techniques. Do projects like this lead to the next step – AI-driven "responsive buildings"? And is it the retail sector that will drive these advances?

Embodying the principles of Thomas Heatherwick's groundbreaking and provocative "Humanise" philosophy, the massive mixed-use Xi'an CCBD development – a neighbourhood of 155,000 sq m -  blends a retail podium with walkable streets, terraces and open plazas, offices, apartments, accommodation, green spaces, and a vertical park. Local craftspeople produced over 100,000 tiles, giving a tactile as well as a visual experience, while the spectacular "Xi'an Tree" rises in a 57m-high sequence of cascading gardens following the biomes of the ancient Silk Route.

The biggest question facing creative in all disciplines all over the world. Put simply: will the machines take over and put us out of a job? As the technical development of AI races far ahead of the ethical and human issues it impacts, architects and designers tussle with the key differences between machine and human Intelligence – and "ideation".

The Design for Humanity Finale of Peace, Harmony and Humanity – we have invited designers of ‘Spaces for Inner Space’ of serenity and spiritual uplift to present their work, then exchange and discuss their multiple approaches. There is a pressing need for all people to have access to spaces that engender contemplation, refreshment and renewal; we explore ways to serve that need using light and shade, engagement with nature, technology, demountable structure and local history.

The 3-to-1 Pavilion design is the integration of time, space, and people, with a focus on "in-between" or interstitial spaces, say the designers. It is a serene sanctuary for tea drinking, contemplation, and social gatherings in a Shanghai garden setting.

Sunk into a pond in Hefei City, Anhui Province, the pavilion is made from 469 bespoke pieces of CNC-cut metal CNC. Drawing inspiration from birds' nests and eggshells, the pavilion's acoustic design creates an echoing effect that promotes a sense of inner contemplation and peace.

The Cloud Retreat Hotel Ganzhou uses contemporary spatial forms and material colours – the red of local Ganzhou pigment - to reconstruct the living memory of Hakka Enclosed houses. "With a geometric processing of the spaces, collaging and overlapping, we create a living experience linking local memory and contemporary quality," say the designers.

The speech will focus on the importance of sound and acoustics within spatial design. Unknown Works is fascinated by how our perception of sound impacts our experience of the built environment, especially when it comes to crafting spaces for introspection and calm. The talk will contextualise the studio's research through the development and construction of The Armadillo, a groundbreaking experimental CLT pavilion designed and built for both personal and collective enjoyment of sound. The talk will also discuss the importance of sustainability in construction and showcase how the structure has been designed with adaptability and reuse in mind.