Twelve years ago, the very first edition of Design Shanghai took on the unique task of bridging the cultural divide between Chinese and Western design. At that time, the emergence of the consuming classes in China had created massive demand for western-style products, interiors and buildings. Which is why western companies flocked to exhibit in China, and ‘big names’ in western design and architecture were eager to address Chinese audiences, seeing huge opportunities in a comparatively untapped market.
Half a generation on, we are looking the other way. Now it is China that is leading the world in innovation, ingenuity and invention, and the west wants to engage at an ever-deeper level. It’s no accident that the world’s greatest architecture practices are building in China, or that China’s ‘Big Name’ architecture practices are building in the west – or indeed that the most exciting and groundbreaking design work at any level right now is happening in China.
For a generation, the imperatives of climate change, sustainability and carbon reduction have been gripping the world generally, and China specifically, with its own characteristic speed. But hard on the heels of the need for regenerative design and construction, re-useable components and materials and circular economics, has come the surging thrust for humans not just to buy and use differently, but to behave and to live differently. We won't survive if we don't change our tune from competition to collaboration.
This is why, as we proudly announce the transformation of the Design Shanghai Forum into ‘Design for Humanity’, the Design Shanghai Global Design Conference, we focus on what design can do not only to change the world, but to change ourselves; to change our own behaviour. Those writing and talking about sustainability for more than 30 years now have said: ‘This is what we must do’ ... but not said how. Design for Humanity explores how we can re-design design, how we collaborate instead of competing, how we turn our efforts for the greater good; how we design ourselves – and what will always protect us from being taken over by the machines.
With Design Shanghai’s established global reach and reputation, we enter a new, exciting and challenging time for Design. There is no better platform in the world to discuss, explore and arrive at a consensus about where we are going and what to do when we get there.
Design for Humanity, the Global Design Conference, 4 – 7 June 2025. You simply cannot afford to miss this.
Aidan Walker,
Design Shanghai Forum Programme Director
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