Beijing Design Week 2014

Every year since its creation in 2009, Beijing Design Week, supported by Chinese institutional authorities (ministries, Beijing Municipality) and international (UNESCO), strives to provide a platform for encounters between the general public and professional designers around several themes offering both a general overview on the state of design in China, and innovative perspectives aimed at shaping the future, the discourse and the practices of Chinese design.

The BJDW 2014 focuses particularly on economic design, the city and its contemporary urban challenges through the concept of Smart City, with the city of Barcelona as partner city, and with the general theme “Urban Future, Smart Design”. Five emblematic Beijing locations have been selected for the occasion, between disinherited areas, artistic districts, public and commercial spaces: Dashilar Alley, Caochangdi, 798 and751 D-Park, Sanlitun Village and the China Millennium Monument. Among the various and numerous events taking place this week, Modu proposes a selection of exhibitions to see, spaces or installations to visit, and forums not to be missed.

Exhibitions

26/09-03/10, @ China Millennium Monument: Smart Cities Planning and Design Exhibition Series
4 Exhibitions: “The Changing Skyline: 1895 – 2014: A Century of Chinese Urban Design”, “Art Intervention: Shuiwan 1979 Art Community Concept Design Exhibition”, “The Construction of History – Contemporary Chinese Architecture Exhibition”, “Beyond Architecture Exhibition”

26/09-03/10, @ Gearing Space, 751D-Park, organized by CAFA: Interpret and Deduce: Beijing Traditional Urban Public Space Contemporary Studies
Between memory and revival, two exhibitions on the knowledge around traditional public spaces and their contemporary reconstructions.

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, XHY 188#, organized by design schools: City-interface: walking in poetry
Exhibitions on the idea of “walking in poetry” imagined by design schools students through four streets: Dongsinan Street, Meishi Street, Guanghua Street, and Chengfu Street.

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, Quanyechang, organized by l’Instituto Italiano di Cultura: Unboxing Danwei
Exhibition about industrial areas (old danwei) in today’s Beijing and potential solutions for their future tranformation.

26/09-03/10, @ Studio-X Beijing, Columbia University / A103, 46 Fangjia Hutong, Andingmen Inner Street, organized by the magazine Urban China and Studio-X: City: Embeddedness and Representation
Exhibition on exploration methods utilized by urban magazines to deal with major urban challenges.

Multimedia and Interactive Spaces

27/09 (Public Dumping) – 01/10 (Brick by Brick Competition), @ 751 D-Park, organized by People Architecture Foundation: Brick by Brick: Imagined Cities
Multimedia and interactive exhibition that invites the participants to think about the city and its spaces in Beijing’s context.

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, XiheyanHutong 185#, organized by the Sociology Department of Tsinghua University: Community revitalization in Dashilar, Daily Life and The future
Participative exhibition on the daily life, past, present and future, of Dashilar inhabitants.

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, Yangmeizhu Xiejie 120#, organized by the collective Amor de Madre: #DeconstructingCITIES
Interactive platform of photographic manipulation allowing everyone to participate in the debate on the evolutions of urban lifestyles through their pictures of spaces referenced by # tag.
Installations

26/09-03/10, @Dashilar, Sanjing Hutong 26#, organized by CHAOS Studio and Quendy Studio: CHAOS
Architectural and interactive installation, reconstituting the contradictions between heritage conservation and commercial development of Dashilar.

25/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, Tan’erHutong 23#:Urban Farming, Barcelona at Dashilar Alley
Transformation of a siheyuan into an eco-building destined for urban farming.

26/09, @ Millennium Monument Museum of Digital Arts (CMoDA): Launch of Smart City Innovation Centre
The center is an international think tank and an open exchange platform for companies, researchers, experts and local governments, focused on the development of Smart Cities in China.

Urban tours

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, Chaochangdi, organized by SANS Practice: Plug-IN Stations
Urban tours based on DSL Plug-in stations installed within Beijing allowing urban dwellers to enjoy little exhibitions though a walk around the city.

27/09-01/10, @ Caochangdi, Shuttle bus, organized by Maya Rudolph and Wang Xiaowei: LOOP Beijing
The project proposes a new way to travel, with the idea of exchange at the center, with the possibility for each traveler to submit a recording to the LOOP radio platform that will be diffused on the bus during the trip. Also, an installation in Chaochangdi, the LOOP station, gives visitors the opportunity to participate in shaping their public transit environment through interactive tools.

Researches, Workshops, Forums

26/09-03/10, @ Dashilar, Xiheyan Hutong 189#, organized by CAFA: Social Innovation Model
Research project focused on an innovative model of social and cultural ecology for the old areas of Dashilar. Reflection on urban and social heritage: how to link the past and the future?

25/09-27/09(10:00-14:00), @ Sanlitun Taikooli South, The Orange: Film & Architecture Workshop
Three-day workshop on the use of videos in the work of architects and designers.

14/09-25/09 and presentation of the results during the BJDW, @ Tsinghua University, and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, organized by VenhoevenCS Architecture+Urbanism, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, Tsinghua University:Towards 2050
“Towards 2050” is an annual program that reunites city experts from Holland and China. This year, the workshop invites professionals to discuss the Transit Oriented Development through study cases.

27/09 (9:00-12:30), @ Theatre at China Millennium Monument: Design Capital Forum-Mayor Forum, Planning and Design Forum and Industry Forum
For the 2014 edition, the forum invites participants to seriously discuss the themes around economic design and Smart Cities.

28/09 (14:00-16:30), @ Dashilar, Quanyechang: Making Futures: Beijing, Session 3 – Making Places
Forum on the contemporary evolution of craft and design and their contributions to the transformation of our sense of a space. Explorations between identity, memory and space making. This session is particularly interesting for the Dashilar’s urban renewal project.