Festival has designs on city becoming world-class

Ti Gong

The inaugural Yangpu International Design Festival, underway at the Shanghai International Fashion Center, aims to establish Shanghai as a world-class "design capital."

The festival brings together prominent design elites from both home and abroad, showcasing outstanding design works and the latest trends in the design industry. It aims to serve as a platform for collaboration and exchange in the creative design field.

During the opening ceremony, Yangpu officials presented appointment letters to the first group of experts for the Yangpu Creative Design Industry International Consultation Conference.

Several new projects and achievements in Yangpu's creative design field were unveiled, including Tongji University's NICE2035 Chifeng Road International Creative Design Street and Holovis China's Design Innovation Center.

Key institutions and universities, including the Italian Industrial Design Association, Shanghai Design Capital Promotion Center and Tongji's College of Design and Innovation, signed agreements with the Yangpu government to jointly launch the Yangpu Creative Design Industry Cooperation Alliance.

This alliance aims to promote deep integration between creative design and related industries and accelerate the development of Yangpu as the core functional area of the "design capital."

Ti Gong

The 2023 Design Intelligence Award Shanghai Exhibition, themed "The Digital-Reality Realm," was also unveiled.

The festival is at the former site of Minghua Sugar Mill Warehouse along the Huangpu River.

The exhibition features more than 400 outstanding entries from this year's Design Intelligence Award competition, as well as previous gold, silver and bronze award-winning works.

They include cutting-edge technological innovations and creative design cases from industries and labs in 21 countries and regions, with 67 percent of the exhibited works making their global debut. The exhibition runs until October 11.

Yangpu aims to integrate design principles and services into all aspects of industrial development, spatial environments, public services and people's lives, the district government said.

The district has enlisted experts in planning, architecture and landscaping as "Community Planners" to launch a series of projects involving small-scale building improvements, spatial renovations and landscape upgrades, bringing design closer to the community and its residents.

The Yangpu International Design Festival is jointly organized by the Yangpu government and Tongji University. A diverse range of design activities, including the Advertising Creative Design Summit and the Fashion Design and Sino-French Brand Summit will be held through mid-October.

Ti Gong