Published by Leonardo Calcagno
26 September, 2014 – 03 October, 2014
Beijing Design Week (BJDW) returns to enliven China’s capital with a unique city-wide series of initiatives celebrating creativity and innovation from the design field at large.
Coming to its fourth edition, BJDW has over the past three years sought to shape a critical arena and empower a positioning for the design in the cultural, economic and social shape of contemporary China. BJDW has become an active mediator in establishing cooperative frameworks among private and public stakeholders both locally and internationally, investing in the enquiring capacity of design to assess common goals and localized solutions for the future of China.
With year-long operations in and out of China, BJDW has come to define new scopes for its weeklong programming and its institutional role in sustaining long-term initiatives, as well as enforcing contextualized perspectives produced at the crossroads of formal and grassroots strategies of engagement.
BJDW remains a unique observatory – of discovery, dialogue and productive challenge – making China-based professionals and emerging talents protagonists.
International actions started in 2011 with the City of Milan, resulting in BJDW yearly presence at its globally-attended Salone, and continue to date with an ever expanding city-and-country network of partners including Holland, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Dubai, Copenhagen and most recently Venice – with a three year framework of cooperation launched with the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.
An official collateral event to the international showcase, the exhibition Across Chinese Cities-Beijing hosted in the Tese of the Arsenale and curated by BJDW’s Creative Director Beatrice Leanza and architect Michele Brunelle, is an investigation into the Chinese capital’s spatial transformations with an explorative focus on its historical district Dashilar. BJDW will renew its presence in Venice over the next two years with unique curated projects, during the 2015 EXPO in both Milan and Venice, and eventually the 2016 Architecture Biennale, strengthening its role as an active content producer and promoter of China’s evolving intellectual and cultural landscape.
See this year’s programme on the website here.
source: frameweb.com