design42day

Dates: 25 September – 3 October
Location: Dutch Design Generator at 751 D • Park, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang
District, Beijing

‘Smart Cities, Healthy Cities’ focuses on how design can sustainably improve the quality of daily life in our cities. With multiple exhibitions, individual presentations by designers, a varied conference programme, a book lounge, mini cinema and roof terrace, ‘Smart Cities, Healthy Cities’ showcases clever, cool and constructive Dutch architecture, fashion and design at the Dutch Design Generator in 751 D • Park.

Caption: Dune by Daan Roosegaarde

Smart Cities, Healthy Cities Exhibition Programme
Connecting Concepts

The thirty objects on display in Connecting Concepts have much to say about design concepts, processes and disciplinary cross-pollination in the Netherlands. Exceptional conditions, concerning industrial development, a tradition of government commissionership and particularly the man made quality of the country itself, provide Dutch design with its coherence. In themselves, however, the processes are not unique. By revealing and analyzing what makes a wide array of Dutch design processes tick, Connecting Concepts will therefore help people from all cultures understand Dutch design and connect it to examples they know from their own experience. During each episode of Connecting Concepts local designers with similar mentalities are added. In China curator Ed van Hinte has been scouting for Chinese contributions to the exhibition.

Caption: Glue Jeans by G + N, photography by Jossy

Liberation of Light

Light and lighting design is no longer just the domain of technical specialists. Technical advances confront us with new possibilities and challenges on several levels relating to light – not only functional and regarding control and sustainability but also emotional, biological, social and cultural. Light literally is liberating itself. This change calls for a broader and multidisciplinary approach towards light and lighting in the field of research, development, engineering and design. Visitors of Liberation of Light are offered a sneak preview into the future. They experience the poetry and interaction of light and are being offered an exquisite and inspiring selection of led applications in a multitude of domains, ranging from health and food production to education and beautification of public space.

The exhibition will be accompanied by in-situ interactive lighting interventions, resulting from a Light Through Culture master class, initiated by the Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI) at Eindhoven University of Technology. The master class is a collaboration of Tsinghua University in Beijing and the ILI at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Caption: Breathing Cloud by Dorette Sturm, photography Mike Harris

NEXT

New approaches to projective research and design are crucial for the designers of the future. The Next City master class conducted in 2010 asked institutions, designers and thinkers to examine the implications of these new approaches. As a follow up to the master class, NEXT at Beijing Design Week presents thoughts, discussions and possibilities that emerged from this examination in the form of a publication, an exhibition and a discussion forum. All are centered around several questions in anticipation of the city, the designer and the school of the future.

Caption: Students at work in the Next City Master Class

The Book Lounge

The Book Lounge on the ground floor of the Dutch Design Generator showcases the Best Dutch Book Designs in a uniquely designed display. Simultaneously the lounge functions as a pop-up public library, cafe and meeting point.

Caption: Selection of books on display

Mini Cinema: Dutch Profiles

Dutch Profiles are a series of short documentaries about architects, graphic, product and fashion designers in the Netherlands. They focus on the conceptual and research-based background of icons of Dutch design, showing designers such as Rem Koolhaas, Jurgen Bey and Irma Boom in the context of their work. The Mini Cinema is a continuous daily screening of a selection from Dutch Profiles.

Caption: Profile of Dutch designer Iris van Herpen

Business Lounge

An exclusive selection of Dutch designers and design companies will be presenting their work and products at the Dutch Design Generator.

Smart Cities, Healthy Cities Talks Programme at the Dutch Design Generator

Sept 25 Opening Smart Cities, Healthy Cities

Official Opening Dutch Design Generator at 751 followed by a FRAME Design Daily, powered by PechaKucha and FRAME China first anniversary party.
Sept 26 Feeding the City & City of Communication

Feeding the City

Eating is both a biological necessity and a cultural matter. In fact, with food important in so many ways, it is strange that its industry hardly employs any designers. Our ideal image of where our food comes from is worlds away from the reality of agribusiness. The activities needed to feed the rising numbers of world’s residents will move us even further from this ideal. What role can designers play in closing the gap between consumers and industry by helping the industry to innovate and people to understand new forms of agriculture and farming?

City of Communication

The growth of cities and rising numbers of urban residents require a higher density of spatial use. The actual space for each individual citizen is decreasing. One way to counteract this development is to increase the quality of public space. City of Communication concentrates on the importance of graphic design as an extra qualitative layer in the design of public spaces. The programme will feature leading Dutch design offices such as Mijksenaar and Studio Dumbar.

Sept 27 Next Cities, Next Designers

Today’s cities and their rapid development present new challenges that ask for a new breed of designers. Who are these future designers; what are their responsibilities, values, and skills; and how do our design schools need to change in order to educate them? Leading international design education specialists will come together to discuss this very question during the NEXT conference and launch of the publication NEXT, edited by Jennifer Sigler. The conference is followed by a key lecture on Future Cities by visionary architect Winy Maas.

Sept 28 Bright Cities

Bright Cities will expose the recent revolution in led lighting beyond price and life span, and will explore its immense potential for enriching our physical, emotional and social experience of the city. A forum of the ILI master class, a result of the Sino-Dutch educational exchange programme and a key lecture from the eminent light artist/architect Daan Roosegaarde complement the programme.

Sept 29 Taking Care of the City

Taking Care of the City explores how design can safeguard the physical, mental and social well being of our cities’ inhabitants. Urgent topics such as design for public space, design for the elderly, design for children, education and sustainable design will be highlighted throughout the day through stimulating talks and presentations.

Sept 30 Rizzoli B2B at Dutch Design Generator

Featured Speakers

Artist and architect Daan Roosegaarde explores the dawn of a new nature that is evolving from technological innovations by creating interactive landscapes that instinctively respond to sound and movement. Roosegaarde’s remarkable works of art function as a documentation of the dynamic relation between architecture, people, and technology. In 2009, Roosegaarde won the Dutch Design Award. He has been the focus of exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the National Museum in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and various public spaces in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.

Jacob van Rijs

Jacob van Rijs is one of the co-founding directors of MVRDV. In 1990, he graduated from the Technical University of Delft with a degree in Architecture (with honours). In the past he has completed the TEDA housing in Tianjin, a high density housing project that experimented with a mix of low rise and high rise. Currently he is working on the design for the Comic and Animation Museum in Hangzhou, China. The museum will be the icon of a larger development and consolidate the ciokaty’s leading position in the animation industry.