China's Creative Future: The launch of Design Shenzhen

Design Shanghai, Asia's largest and most influential design fair, proudly presents a new addition to its event portfolio: Design Shenzhen. Harnessing the city's incredible energy, Design Shenzhen will host over 200 curated brands tailored to architects, interior designers, property developers and the design-savvy public. Shenzhen will become the third city to host Asia's leading design exhibition and will be the largest curated event of its kind ever seen in the city. 

Home to the biggest architecture and design, cultural and creative communities in China, Shenzhen is a hub of cutting edge and future-focused innovation. Dubbed the ‘Silicon Valley of China', Shenzhen is home to leading tech company HQs, alongside vibrant art, culture and design businesses and institutions. Shenzhen's energy can be witnessed in real time through the huge concentration of landmark architectural projects that have been built by prominent international and Chinese architectural firms.

The event will take place from the 1st- 4th December 2022, at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center (SZCEC), an architectural landmark of Shenzhen in the heart of the city. The city, once a fishing town in South China's Guangdong province, is one of China's best known economic miracles of the past 40 years. Today, its gross domestic product ranks third among Chinese mainland cities, after Beijing and Shanghai. Design Shenzhen will bring a new perspective to this design frontier city, creating a unique design exchange and resource replacement platform for the future and influential design audience group.

Zhuo Tan, Managing Director of Clarion Events Shanghai Limited, ”Design Shenzhen will join Design Shanghai and Design China Beijing to create Asia's largest network of annual design shows. The combined events will create a continuous and comprehensive design platform and promote the vigorous development of China's design industry!”

Raymond Wang, Show Director of Design Shenzhen, “Our aim for Design Shenzhen is to launch an exhibition in the Greater Bay Area that has an impact within Asia and on the international stage. As China's first 'City of Design' designated by UNESCO, Shenzhen is undoubtedly the best place to host the cutting-edge design event. The first 'Design Shenzhen' will continue the professionalism of our series of exhibitions. As a brand-new exhibition, we invite industry pioneers in the fields of design, culture, creativity, etc., and look forward to bringing the vitality of design to Shenzhen this December.”

As a platform for future-focused innovation, Design Shenzhen will provide a journey into the future, spotlighting cutting-edge design and technology through global product launches, immersive installations, feature areas and a talks programme that will be led by minds shaping the future of design.  Design Shenzhen's Design Forum sponsored by PPG and Duravit invites over 40 prestigious architects, designers and tastemakers to share their insights surrounded by the forum theme ‘Regenerative Design – Design for Wellbeing: Humanity, Sustainability, Technology'. 

Design Shenzhen Highlights include:

Good Design Select

Good Design Select - Industrial designer Xiaoxi Shi collaborates with G-MARK JAPAN GOOD DESIGN AWARD to curate the 'Good Design Select' section and present dozens of cutting edge award-winning designs to Shenzhen for the first time, reflecting comprehensive design values and principles that aim to enrich lives, industries and society. It will also be the first time for these G-MARK award-winning Japanese designs to showcase in Shenzhen.

Audi

At Design Shenzhen, Audi will showcase how they are shaping sustainable mobility of the future with passion and innovation. As an automotive design brand recognized for its progressive design and cutting-edge technology, Audi is demonstrating how aesthetically stunning, high-quality and visionary sustainability can be in the electric era. With progressive products such as the Audi RS e-tron GT, the Four Rings is harnessing its expertise in human-centric design and digitalization to deliver new levels of personal freedom, new possibilities for digital interaction and next-level efficiency in the mobility experience through technologies such as 800-volt architecture and new HMI concept including Audi virtual cockpit plus, latest evolution stage of MMI system and natural language control. Driven by its vision to provide a seamless user experience that enriches customers' lives with innovative solutions for individual mobility, the Four Rings is redefining premium mobility for a more sustainable world, and a more sustainable future for all.

Sony Design

Sony Design will make its debut in China at the Design Shenzhen 2022. Since its inception in 1961, Sony Design has forged its reputation as a leading and award-winning global design team. Today the group's contribution has expanded beyond purely product design to a wide range of design activities, including user experience, communication, entertainment and more. We continuously explore the possibilities of design, working with people around the world to realise richer experiences and more comfortable lifestyles – whilst creating ‘new standards' of value through the fusion of creativity and technology.

WAD

WAD, the special exhibition "Back to the Oasis · Back to the Oasis" curated by Gaetano Scintilla, an Italian designer who is known as the "Godfather of Colour", will present to the public the "post-tech" era. The most common dryland plants and climbing plants in the oasis are used on site to show vitality naturally, remind people to return to their inner perception and stimulate multiple interactions with the environment. At the same time, by selecting low-saturation natural materials such as gravel, wool, clay, linen and other low-saturation natural materials to echo the colour of plants and soil, the unity with the natural environment is realised, prompting people to start to become aware of themselves, feel life, and then focus on inward exploration. Return to that unique spiritual "oasis".

WellConnect

WellConnect is curated by David Hugh, a team of disruptive thinkers based in Cambridge, England and the Guoke Longhui Foundation. They bring together furniture design, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience, to help shape the future of health and wellness. DavidHugh invite industry pioneers and thought leaders including technology brand Dose and lighting brand Ostuni to demonstrate how technology and design will affect one's body, mind, work and living; how it inspires and leads more people to create healthier spaces and experiences in their daily lives, and to explore a better solution for the coexistence of people, environment and technology. 

Future Home

Future Home is set to be one of the largest features of the show, with leaders from Shenzhen in the fields of interior design, home design, industrial design, art and graphic design coming together to create a heuristic future home space in a conceptual, cross-border and diversified way. 

Neooold

Neooold is curated by industrial designer Min Chen. It proposes the idea of breaking the boundaries of design, art and craftsmanship, and merging them into an innovative creation. This year's theme is “Have a Cup of Tea”- exploring the profound tea culture found in both China and the UK. The same items make different influences in different cultures, which is well worth exploring. Design Shenzhen welcomes a stellar line-up of world class designers including Aldo Bakker, Dan Tomimatsu and Chi Wing Lo. And this year, Neooold is ready to push the boundaries of fusion innovations in terms of materials, scales, and techniques, and to present you a unique exhibition.

Yum Ziya, Chief Experience Officer

Yum Ziya, is the first Virtual Human that was released by the designer toy brand Underverse. Yum Ziya will be the Chief Experience Officer of Design Shenzhen 2022. 

 
Yum Ziya, the Chief Experience Officer of Design Shenzhen 2022

Rural Futures Award

Rural Futures Award, will launch China's first architectural practice award for sustainable rural construction, designed to recognize the architectural practice in the field of rural construction with an emphasis on exploring the value of sustainability, and to form a guide for sustainable rural revitalization. The Awards are coordinated by the young architecture community platform APT (Architecture Practice Talks).

Design Shenzhen expects to welcome over 50,000 high-end trade visitors, leading architects, interior designers, influential property developers from the Greater Bay Area, China's elite professional buyers and specifiers, key decision makers from the private and public sectors, and affluent design aware consumers