Water as Leverage for Sustainable Development

Hosted by Shenzhen Design Week & Global Design Award Organizing Committee, organized by China Merchants Shekou Holdings| Sea World Culture and Arts Center, and presented by Design Society, the Guest Country Online Exhibition will go live on 15 August 2020. Mr. Henk Ovink, Dutch International Water Envoy, and Mr. Ole Bouman, founding Director of Design Society, are its chief curators. 16 leading figures in the field of water design from the Netherlands and China will share their insights for water affairs by webinar in four consecutive days of 25 to 28 August 2020.

Henk Ovink

Envoy for International Water Affairs

Henk Ovink is the first special Envoy for International Water Affairs. As the Ambassador. He advocated water awareness around the world, built institutional coalitions between governments and NGO'S, and addressed the world's stressing needs on water.

Ole Bouman

Founding Director of Design Society

Ole Bouman is the Founding Director of the new design museum and platform Design Society in Shenzhen since 2015. His past roles include editor-in-chief of Volume (2005-2007) and director of the national Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) (2006-2013).

More and more people are living in cities, often located on rivers or on the coast. In one such area, Shenzhen is more vulnerable to climate change because of its topography and the threat of rising sea levels, as well as prolonged drought and widespread land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation and heavy rains. With 90% of all natural disasters being water related, water related problems affect billions of people and cause trillions of dollars of damage. How should we understand and design water when there is still an opportunity to reverse this trend?

DutchWater

photo：Siebe Swart

Shenzhen River

photo：Zhang Jiakai

For ages, water has determined the life of the Dutch people. The Netherlands, being a coastal country facing the sea, being a sedimented country across the North-West European Rhine-Meuse river delta, as well as being situated in a moderate maritime climate with frequent rainfall, over time has learned to deal with and benefit from its wet life conditions, which any Dutch citizen knows from an early age on, and which any Dutch child hears about once it is said to learn swimming quickly to overcome the existential risk.

map Christiaan Sgroten

North Holland, 1573.

etching Rijksmuseum

Sint Elisabethsvloed, Romeyn de Hooghe, naar Arnold Houbraken, 1675–1677.

Given the long Dutch history of managing water, designing the country by, with and despite water, and using water as a leverage for social design, Dutch creatives are active worldwide to engage with the pressing environmental issues that come with climate change. When there is, or when there may be too much, or too little, or too dirty water, Dutch designers and engineers are often part of the team to deal with it, or even bring up unsolicited ideas to start thinking about comprehensive solutions.

Oosterschelde storm surge barrier, 

photographed in 2013.

photo：Siebe Swart

The Netherlands is a leading nation in water management in the broadest sense, and enjoys global acknowledgement for its resolve to address multiple problems with the unifying power of design. In recent years, relying on the awareness of water as important indicator of climate urgency and enabler for sustainable development, has developed a concept of “water as leverage”. In this exhibition, Urban Planning and Architectural Design firms from the Netherlands, are presenting 6 recent thematic project cases, so that we can understand the practice of Dutch "water" specialty in China.

Dutch firms Arcadis and ONE Architecture

the BIG U

WEST8 project Governors Island

The city of Shenzhen is situated in the south of Guangdong Province with 11 river water systems and a total of 183 reservoirs. With a subtropical maritime climate, Shenzhen has the average annual rainfall of 1935.8 mm, 86% of which mainly in April to September. The water situation in Shenzhen has three characteristics or main challenges: the shortage of local water resources, frequent typhoons and heavy rains, and serious river pollution. How can design address and inspire the water challenges of Shenzhen? As the host, the Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality will present successful cases of the management for The Shenzhen River, the Maozhou River, the sponge city and the Dongjiang Water Source project, describe the future planning of Shenzhen's water construction, and demonstrate the spirit of Shenzhen being awarded the title of "demonstration zone".

Maozhou river after treatment

Dongjiang pump station

During the SZDW, special attention will be given to the historical legacy of the Dutch water tradition, and to the specific situation in China. This will include a webinar series to strengthen the Netherlands-Shenzhen partnership, and to create an in-depth understanding of the Pearl River Delta challenges and opportunities and invest in a deeper future dialogue with the water and creative sectors of Shenzhen.

Though events of the SZDW turned online due to the unexpected pandemic, interactions from both sides through webinars and lectures will be held, enabling the public to experience how design can solve problems with a multiplier effect.

*in random order

Water as Leverage for Sustainable Development: a Call to Action by Design!

2020 Shenzhen Design Week – Guest country exhibition

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.

Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality is the country's first urban water affairs bureau established in 1993. It is a government department in charge of the city's water administration. Its key responsibility is water affairs management, including water planning and construction, water supply, water saving management, water pollution control, comprehensive river management, drainage management, water ecological construction, water administration law enforcement and smart water construction. It is in charge of the city's river chief system, lake chief system, sponge city construction. It directs the water affairs of each district, and manages the industry of the city's water affairs enterprises.

Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality thrives to meet the high-quality water demand for a better life of the people in the new era. It closely focuses on Shenzhen’s new positioning and mission as a “first demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics and an example of a modern and powerful socialist country”. Taking the major opportunity of the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Greater Bay Area, it aims at becoming the comprehensive implementation of the river/lake chief system, water pollution prevention and control demonstration city; the national sponge city construction demonstration city; the national smart water demonstration city; the water technology innovation and industrial incubation test city. It targets at becoming an international, innovative, livable, ecological and charming bay area. In order to stand at the forefront of the national water affairs field, Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality has comprehensively benchmarked the world's highest standards in various fields, aspects and elements, and dared to demonstrate first to provide a strong ecological, healthy and safe water guarantee for Shenzhen's reform and innovative development, and to create a beautiful and ecological environment with clear waters and green banks.

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