Design Shanghai Showcases Chinese Material Innovation at Material Matters London 2025
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As Asia’s leading international design event, Design Shanghai has long been committed to promoting global design exchange and innovation. From 17 to 20 September 2025, Design Shanghai was invited to present a special exhibition at Material Matters during the London Design Festival. The showcase featured 12 representative works by Chinese designers and material brands, presenting cutting-edge material design from China through an international lens and fostering stronger connections between design communities at home and abroad. Looking ahead, as a strategic partner of Design Shanghai, Material Matters will also contribute a curated section to Design Shanghai 2026, further deepening this two-way dialogue and advancing global collaboration in design and materials innovation.
The exhibition was curated by Chris Lefteri Design, the curator of Design Shanghai 2025’s feature ‘Material First’. Works were carefully selected from participating brands to highlight the creativity and diversity of Chinese approaches to material application, demonstrating Design Shanghai’s distinctive role and influence within the global design context.
Design Shanghai x Material Matters
Rooted in Eastern philosophy, MOVED’s The Petal incense series is crafted from solid brass, merging sculptural form with function to bring traditional culture into modern living. Qianru Huang’s Stellarum series for Reartier connects fragments of Song and Yuan shadow-green porcelain with beads, exploring the balance between fragmentation and wholeness through rhythmic bead embroidery and copper wire. Wang Chunmao’s Cloud Pour-Over Coffee Pot combines handcrafted metalwork with ebony and rattan handles, blending traditional craftsmanship with contemporary lifestyle. Huihui Xu’s Weightlessness Garden evokes a surreal sense of suspension, fusing heritage techniques with contemporary art to reveal poetic imagination and refined craftsmanship.
Top left: MOVED – The Petal; Bottom left: Reartier – Stellarum; Center: Wang Chunmao – Cloud Pour-Over Coffee Pot; Right: Huihui Xu – Weightlessness Garden
The ZHUFU perfume series draws inspiration from Eastern cultural imagery, featuring the NANA, MASTER, and DONGLIN TEMPLE collections. Through woody and herbal notes, the series evokes a tranquil, meditative, and harmonious sensory experience. The GLIM lighting series, created by Realize Design Studio as TRASHAUS’s first design collaboration, combines 3D-printing technology with minimalist aesthetics. Emphasizing modularity, repairability, and sustainability, it embodies a balanced dialogue between form and function, expressing the rational romanticism of future living.
Left: ZHUFU; Right: Realize – GLIM
The UK-based design team Zié Object(s) presents works including the Grid Snack Tray, Spring Egg Cup, Desk Lamp, and Ashtray, which merge function and aesthetics through metal welding and spring structures, offering a poetic expression of interdisciplinary craftsmanship and product design. CYNICS explores social and cultural issues through experimental design in functional furniture and products. Its Asterisk* lighting series reconstructs the digital-era symbol “*” using hollow PP panels, serving as an ironic reflection on the transience of consumer goods and the paradox of discarded materials finding new life through design.
Zié Object(s)
CYNICS – Asterisk*
Founded by Lu Xiang, Atelier Lu+Architects presents 24 works using materials such as coral skeletons, foamed aluminium, and translucent concrete, highlighting material texture and structural aesthetics through cutting, compositing, and 3D printing. DECO·DECO showcases its Recycled Magic Stone and Five-Colored Stone series, combining renewable materials and handcraft to create unique colours and light effects that reflect sustainability and Eastern aesthetics. PEELSPHERE® uses non-food agricultural waste to develop biodegradable plant-fibre textiles; its exhibited Golden Gourd Pendant and other products combine hand weaving and innovative techniques for durability, sustainability, and style. Studio RE+N presents the Lunar Gleam series, a modular mortise-and-tenon design in recycled aluminium and 3D-printed materials with smart LED lighting, functioning as both individual lamps and spatial installations that extend architectural language into adaptable, sustainable design.
Top left: Atelier Lu+Architects; Bottom left 1: DECO·DECO; Bottom left 2: PEELSPHERE® – Golden Gourd Pendant;
Right: Studio RE+N – Lunar Gleam
Through this cross-disciplinary curatorial initiative, Eastern and Western design languages came together in London, where tradition and contemporary practice resonated across the dimension of materials. Design Shanghai not only showcased the contemporary expressions of Chinese design but also facilitated deeper dialogue and collaboration on a global stage, advancing innovation in both design and materials.