Online Design Forum | Designing Cities

Shenzhen transformed itself from a manufacturing city into a creative city by cultivating the medium of design, as well as the actual work of a variety of design practices. In this city design is integrated within its history and development, representing the concepts, values and aesthetics of its urban lifestyle. 

As a part of the opening events for the 2020 Shenzhen Design Week, this forum will focus on how design activates urban development and how it brings opportunities to the city with a future-oriented approach. Dr. Han Wangxi, Director of Shenzhen Innovation & Creative Design Development Office; Jorn Konijn, head of program of the Dutch Design Week; Deniz Ova, Director of Istanbul Design Biennial at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV); Sir John Sorrell, Co-founder and President of London Design Biennale, and Co-founder and Chairman of London Design Festival; and Marisa Yiu, the Co-founder and Executive Director of the DESIGN TRUST initiative will share their visions on the topic. 

Jorn Konijn is an architecture & design curator and writer based in Amsterdam. He is the head of program of the Dutch Design Week. He is also a senior design researcher at ArtEZ - School of the Arts, Arnhem, and advisor for the Dutch National Council for Culture. He performed curatorial roles for Unsolicited Architecture for the International Architecture Biennale of Sao Paulo, Brazil 2011, the award-winning Housing with a Mission exhibition for the 2011 Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale (UABB), and the Value Factory in 2013. In 2015, he curated the 5th Brazilian Design Biennial. He curated the official Dutch cultural program during the Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro in 2016. 

Deniz Ova is Director of Istanbul Design Biennial at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), since 2013. She has been coordinating the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, the artist residency studio “Turquie” at Cité Internationale des Arts, and managed the participation of Turkey in the London Design Biennial in 2016. Since 2014, she is advisor to the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, and has currently been appointed as jury member for the artist residency studio “Turquie”. She is fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar and Stiftung Mercator “Turkey Europe Future Forum”. 

Sir John Sorrell has championed the UK’s creative industries for more than 50 years. He set up his first business when he was 19 and went on to establish, with his wife Frances, one of Europe’s most successful design businesses, Newell and Sorrell. John and Frances also co-founded two educational charities, The Sorrell Foundation and Saturday Club Trust, which work to inspire creativity in young people. John has chaired both the Design Council and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. In 2014, he founded the Creative Industries Federation. John is Co-founder and President of London Design Biennale, and Co-founder and Chairman of London Design Festival. 

Marisa Yiu is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the DESIGN TRUST initiative, that supports creative and research content related to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. She has been instrumental in shaping the growth of the NGO since 2014 and created and conceptualise the Design Trust Futures Studio programme. Yiu is also an architect and Founding Partner of ESKYIU in Hong Kong. She was the Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture located at the West Kowloon waterfront; and curated Studio-X Shenzhen. 

Xiongfei He, an observer of social trends, opinion provider, and media creator, who insists on being a dispassionate questioner of social issues. He is now associate Editor-in-chief of New Weekly.

Shenzhen Design Week (SZDW) founded in 2017, is an international design festival hosted by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, organized by Shenzhen International Culture Exchange Association, Shenzhen Innovation & Creative Design Development Office, Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, Greater Bay Area Office of the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, Education Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, Innovation Committee of Science and Technology of Shenzhen Municipality, Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Shenzhen Municipality, Culture, Radio and Television, Tourism and Sports Administration of Shenzhen Municipality, with Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association (SDPA) serving as Secretariat. SZDW aims at building an international, cross-categories, and professional platform for the design industry. This platform will facilitate international culture exchange, city branding and promotion, showcasing design achievements, and public education on design thinking and consciousness. This event is a cultural celebration open to the public with over ten days of creative activities taking place across the city, attracting ten of thousands of designers, enterprises, students, media, and citizens from local and global communities.

Design Society is an innovative cultural platform founded by China Merchants Shekou (CMSK), with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as its founding partner. It has already built an extensive network of partners, contributors and supporters from China and around the world, across academia, business, governmental affairs and education, as well as through collaborations with major museums, residential programmes and archival institutions. With the advice of industry experts, the growth of this network demonstrates the overlapping creative practices - closely bound to society and industry – vital to the sustainability of Design Society. An extensive membership programme offers exclusive industry opportunities and career acceleration activities, elevating Design Society as a leading resource on both a local and international scale.

Design Society has curated Minding the Digital, Craft: The Reset, Y Comic X? and Values of Design: China in the Making. Our learning platform Design Society EDU takes Design with the Society as its mission, encourage audiences to make, create and connect with design.

China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co., Ltd (CMSK, stock code:001979), a flagship subsidiary under the China Merchants Group, a leading state-owned enterprise under the direct supervision of the central government, is dedicated to comprehensive urban development. It is also the Group’s asset integration platform for real estate and important business collaboration in China. Committed to be “the better life carrier”, CMSK develops comprehensive solutions for urban development and industrial upgrading and also provides diversified products and services covering full life cycle.