It’s only a few days until Beijing Design Week 2016 opens! We pick some highlights from the Design HOP programme.
Dashilar and 751 D-Park are back once again; the former featuring the flagship Dashilar Pilots initiative entailing “responsive design solutions for its complex built environment”. Dashilar will also introduce a recently reclaimed zone dubbed Beijing Fang, where eight thematic pavilions and a project called Open Blocks will be unveiled for the first time. Meanwhile, 751 D-Park will host the 2016 Guest City Program: Seoul with an expansive series of exhibitions and interventions, and Daan Roosegarde will unveil his Smog Tower.
Baitasi Remade, a highlight of last year’s event, will also return. Part of the programme includes courtyard renovations by architects Zhang Ke, Xu Tiantian and Gong Dong, as well as the final review of the International Design Competition (launched earlier this year with World Architecture Magazine), which entails the remaking of twelve courtyards in the area.
Studio-X will also have a presence in the form of a pop-up, asking questions such as: how can we effectively mobilise traceable data technologies to expand the horizons of bottom-up social development? And how can data actually be leveraged in practice to foster greater social and economic inclusivity and new systems of transparency? Overall, the work presented at Baitasi Remade will rethink “how design can enter productive dialogue with the social and infrastructural givens of this historical urban enclave”.
New projects include the first edition of the Beijing Media Art Biennale, co-organised by CAFA, the China Millennium Monument, and the B3 Moving Image Biennale (Berlin) under the theme “Ethics of Technology”; the Taikooli Light Festival, a series of interactive installations to be found around the Sanlitun area; and a Chaoyang District-wide set of exhibitions and events. Additionally, UCCA will organise a unique series of talks and debates alongside the exhibition "Accommodating Reforms: International Hotels and Architecture in China, 1978-1990”, and China House Vision will hold a book launch.
Beijing Design Week 2016 will run from 23 September until 7 October. See the official website for further details.
Design China is happy to announce that we are continuing our media partnership with Beijing Design Week! Though we will be taking a small step back in our coverage of this year’s event, we hope to keep you informed about updates to the programme and other relevant happenings. Watch this space!
