Designing a Post-Pandemic World at Beijing Design Week, Sep 16-23
Unlike most events of 2020, the Beijing Design Week Expo, scheduled for Sep 16-23, was planned to be held late enough in the year that it was not disrupted by COVID-19, which oddly seems like an incredible feat and worth mentioning. Anyways, despite the fact that its dates weren't postponed, the focal point of this year’s events have drastically shifted to consider the role that designers and the design industry play in times of global crises. Recently, Beijing Design Week's committee revealed a lineup of some key events at this year’s exhibition.
Design China Beijing
As Beijing Design Expo's flagship event, the Design China Beijing Exhibition will once again be held in the National Agricultural Exhibition Center, showcasing some of the year's finest participants.
Taking “the dimension of people’s livelihood” as a point of departure, the event will facilitate a conversation about the revival of design in a post-pandemic era through various conferences, experimental installations, design products, and three interactive projects.
The first one, “Create Cures,” is a charitable project led by designer Zhou Chenchen and Chen Min that aims to embolden public health developments through unique design approaches by global leaders and thinkers in the field.
The second project, “Re: Set” is an investigation of current trends within the younger generation’s social behavior and how to harness social networks after the pandemic is over, and it was proposed, designed, and implemented by the team behind #madeofDNA and the crew from Beijing's ONEWOOD bar.
Lastly, the Royal Institute of British Architects will hold a one-day design competition to reexamine the changes in human needs and attitudes in a post-pandemic epoch, and how architectural environments can help human society flourish again.
Let your talent bloom in this year’s Beijing Floral Design Festival
Meanwhile, Beijing Floral Design Festival will be celebrating its fifth anniversary in the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. Hoping to spread their message of “Natural & Naturally” to a global audience and maximize the diversity of participants this year, the committee decided to recruit talent from across the world for its onsite installations. If your design blooms larger than any other in this veritable garden, you could win an RMB 20,000 prize reward and earn the chance to work with renowned international clients. The deadline for entry is Aug 22. For more information click here, or email design.expo@bjdw.org.
2020 Youth Design 100 takes over Wangjing
It was a particularly harsh year for college graduates, especially art students who had worked tirelessly for their final show, hoping it might be the launchpad for a future career. In response, NEEDART Art Center and China Vanke Co., Ltd collaborated with Beijing Design Week and the Central Academy of Fine Arts to bring the work of 200 fresh graduates from 15 art academies to Wangjing. These inspiring and bold creations from China's emerging talent take over the Vanke Times Center, Vanke Square, and nearby neighborhoods. The show features both indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces.
Read: You Can Still Get Tix for Every Day of Hot & Spicy 2020
Images: Beijing Design Week, NEEDART
