"Design To Wonderland" - The Overseas Exhibition of WDCC 2023 by Shanghai Design Week, Launched in London

16 Sep, RSVP ONLY

17 Sep, 20-24 Sep, 27-29 Sep, 11:00-18:00

Address:

China Exchange, 32A Gerrard St, London W1D 6JA

WDCC2023 Overseas Exhibition | London SHDW｜Design to Wonderland

Shanghai Design Week (SHDW) is pleased to present "Design To Wonderland", the overseas exhibition of the World Design Cities Conference 2023 (WDCC2023), hosted in London. Comprising an opening ceremony, exhibitions, design forums and special activities, "Design to Wonderland" will examine the role design plays in facilitating the international development of the consumer goods industry, serve as a new global platform for Shanghai consumer brands, and connect leading minds in design from around the world. The exhibition programme will focus on Brand Ecology, Sustainable Design and Chinese Cultural Aesthetics, exploring the power of design to drive industrial innovation, improve quality of life, and to boost urban and social development.

Bringing together time-honoured, iconic brands that have celebrated their centennials, with rising young brands boasting fresh perspectives, the exhibition will be host to 33 multi- disciplinary design brands from Shanghai, 168 exhibits, and an exclusive unveiling of 5 global launches to be made as a joint debut in London. It is curated to showcase attending brands' diverse approaches to design, including the use of traditional craft skills such as by Heng Yuan Xiang which integrates woollen embroidery into its products, and creative sustainable product design, as exemplified by herbeast, which systematically recycles discarded ceramics and marbles into reformed product containers. Spanning multiple design topics, the works at "Design To Wonderland" will provide a window into current trends and dynamic changes within China and beyond, and insight into the creativity that arises from exchange and collaboration between global design cities.

In 2023, Shanghai Design Week will join hands with the London Design Festival to build a "Design Friendship City", promoting the role of design in contributing to valuable economic development, a higher quality of life for citizens and efficiency in urban governance, as well as exploring the path to sustainable development. Design Friendship City is a programme for building global and creative, design ecosystems initiated by Shanghai Design Week, which will continue to invite leading international design organisations to establish long-term partnerships and promote bilateral design exchanges and development.

"Design to Wonderland" will serve as one of the events at the London Design Festival 2023 to connect with the international design community. The exhibition opens on the 16th of September and runs until the 29th of September (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays).

Exhibition name

WDCC2023 Overseas Exhibition | London SHDW｜Design to Wonderland

Organisational Structure

Organiser: Shanghai Design Week

Design Friendship City: London Design Festival

Supporting Organisation: London & Partners Special Presentation: Shanghai Fashion Week

Co-organizers: IP SHANGHAI, The Architecture Society of Shanghai China, Wallpaper*（卷宗）, alimama, UKIIC

Exhibition Overview

「Design to Wonderland」Curatorial Concept

3 semicircles, rotated, form the shape of the「Design to wonderland」. Convey a message of friendly connection, cooperation and inclusion.

Circumference is the Latin root of Circum - to surround, emphasising the sense of containment.

The world as we know it is spatially bounded by the heavens and the earth, creating a complete "circumference". But we do not stop at what we know; beyond the circumference, there is an infinite amount of time and space and uncharted territory beyond human vision. The expansion of the known into the unknown, consisting of basic graphics, natural imagery and design visions, forms a long-lasting and sustainable ecosystem, which is precisely the meaning of Shanghai Design Week's establishment of a global creative design ecosystem.

Like a halo bridging the finite and the infinite, the interconnection is constantly changing and expanding, bridging the gap between the known and the unknown.

「Design to Wonderland」Exhibition consists of three areas: 鲜地 FRESH, 设集 D STAND,东西 DONGXI, with a Special Presentation from Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) named "ULIO by SHFW".

鲜地 FRESH is an exhibition space for sustainable design, showcasing fresh perspectives and technologies that transcend the boundaries of imagination. The co-curation team

PLANTAGRAM selected recyclable materials for the exhibition space design and created installations that explore the correlation between future planting technologies and traditional urban cultural spaces.

Integrating immersive brand and retail experience, 设集 D STAND brings together leading brands and products of great design, connecting brands with the diverse global ecosystem. By introducing the concept of flow in traditional Chinese philosophy, the design from the cu- curation team SLT presents a coherent sense of flow, and combines with sustainable materials to create an environmentally friendly exhibition space with Chinese cultural power.

Focusing on artisanship, 东西 DONGXI presents the contemporary innovative representations of Chinese culture and aesthetics in design. In this exhibition space, the co- curation team COMO uses logistics crates that transported design pieces from Shanghai to London, combined with new media technology, for a reimagined and integrated design, expressing our understanding of 'DONGXI' at different levels.

ULIO BY SHFW -- Special Presentation from Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) Curatorial Concept from SHFW:

In Chinese, ULIO means "powerful" and is also a resonance of "making good use of materials". ULIO is Shanghai Fashion Week's testing ground in the field of sustainability in the fashion industry, showcasing the sustainable and innovative work of Chinese fashion designers and promoting inspirational exchanges with design talents from around the globe through carbon reduction, recycling, and green supply chains.

Shanghai Fashion Week is participating in DESIGN TO WONDERLAND Program, which aims to showcase the design concepts and achievements of China's new generation of fashion design talents from a sustainable perspective, linking them with each other through design, and creating a sustainable future together.

Press Contact
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About World Design Cities Conference (WDCC)

Shanghai joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2010 and became a "design city". In this new stage of development, Shanghai is comprehensively promoting design empowerment for high-quality economic development, high-quality life of citizens and high- performance urban governance, in its bid to build a world-class "design city". Organised by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and supported by UNESCO and China's National Commission for UNESCO, the WDCC 2023 will take "building a global platform for design collaboration and communication, exploring the path of design-led high-quality development, promoting the infusion of design into every aspect of cities and daily life" as its mission, and bring together heavyweight guests and leading brands, to build itself into a world-class design trend leader, fount of innovation and showroom of debut products.

About Shanghai Design Week

In 2010, Shanghai joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was awarded the title of "Creative City of Design". SHANGHAI DESIGN WEEK (SHDW) made its debut in 2022. It is a pivotal milestone not just as an ambitious urban development initiative for Shanghai but also as a testament to the vital importance that design plays as a new primary driver in the evolution and resilience of our global city. Organized and guided by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, SHDW will be acting as a multidisciplinary design event organizer that fosters and celebrates the industrial transformations of excellent designs. It will also be an integrated design platform which visualizes an inclusive, innovative and integrated city of Shanghai.

Media Contact: LU BAI, [email protected], 07463077291

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