your case, my case | 2019 Beijing Design Week
Everywhere around the world, no matter the location, we face common challenges. Through design, we aim to create and solve. But all too often the design process faces geographical or cultural boundaries. Therefore, at this year’s Beijing Design Week you can join us in crossing these boundaries. During the Dutch workshops, hosted on September 12-16, you will be invited to step into the world of cross-cultural design and uncover how it enables us to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
The Sino-Dutch workshops will be hosted at 751D·PARK and other locations in Beijing. Together with six Dutch and six Chinese partners, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will facilitate several workshops to explore cross-cultural design possibilities. The designers will take suitcases with them, filled with items which serve as metaphors for their design process. In joint workshops, the Dutch and Chinese designers will be offered a challenge: to create a common suitcase, which enables participants to find ways to cooperate together successfully.
The cross-cultural gap
Many Dutch designers are already finding their way to China, especially in the fields of architecture and graphic design. Innovation is a mutual language for both Dutch and Chinese designers, though the accent and emphasis varies. For Dutch designers, reframing existing patterns and reinventing social challenges has always been key. What materials can be used, how can we make our society more sustainable, how can design play a role in everyday society? Meanwhile, in China, the quick moving society has created a generation of designers constantly innovating with the latest technology, with a drive to continuously reinvent design.
By hosting these workshops we aim to tap into the potential synergy of Dutch and Chinese designers. We facilitate equal dialogue to define new cross-cultural working methods and find solutions for the challenges of today. This year, we’re happy to confirm the participation Dutch designers the Pink Pony Express (interactive playground), Iris de Kievith & Annemarie Piscaer (smogware), Frank Havermans, Gerald van der Kaap (responsible city) and Justus Bruns (Vouw).
The Netherlands & BJDW
The Netherlands attaches great importance to creativity and innovation in general and to the creative industries in particular. Dutch Design never stands on its own. By creating together we can come up with smart and creative solutions to global challenges such as plastic waste, urbanisation or technology. In order to do this, the Dutch creative sectors creates cross-over solutions with social impact, for instance by using recycled materials. The Beijing Design Week allows for the joining of Chinese and Dutch creative minds.