Design Shanghai, Asia’s largest international design event series, has released details about its upcoming event and is set to shine spotlight on new Chinese talents.

Set to begin from 8 to 11 June, 2023 in Shanghai, Design Shanghai will celebrate its 10th anniversary wik additional features, while a focus will be more on new Chinese talents, design community and craftsmanship in China.

World Architecture Community is official media partner of Design Shanghai 2023 and this news is brought to you as part of World Architecture Community-Design Shanghai media partnership. Read more about our first story about Design Shanghai here. 

This year, the event expects to welcome over 70,000 visitors over the four days and will showcase more than 600 local and international brands from 40 countries and regions. 

Design Shanghai celebrates a wealth of creative accomplishments and is set to share new ideas from both the world’s rising stars and industry tastemakers.

In 10 years, Design Shanghai has become one of the biggest design shows in the world - attracting over 2500 world-renowned design brands from over 40 countries. Design Shanghai has been dedicated to identifying and nurturing emerging Chinese designers and brands, providing them with a global platform to showcase their work. 

Over the past decade, Design Shanghai has witnessed and contributed to the unprecedented growth of numerous young designers, many of whom have even become pillars of contemporary design in China. 

The highly anticipated event will once again attract leading international and Chinese manufacturers, design-led brands, global industry leaders, architects, collectors, interior designers and design enthusiasts, alongside dynamic cultural programming unique to the city. 

It is comfortably the most significant international design show in Asia. Showcasing curated exhibitors, features and talks, it brings together integrated and innovative design from China to the global stage.

Features from 2023 Design Shanghai

The event will house a new area, called Feature, and it is designed to celebrate the best up-coming designers, the evolving design community and craftsmanship in China.

Talents 2023

Talents

Since its inception, Design Shanghai has celebrated Chinese talent and tapped into new young and local designers, giving them the platform to gain a reputation domestically and internationally. 

Curated by Frank Chou, Talents section focuses on the localization of Chinese design, upholds the brand value of people-oriented design, focuses on people through design, discovers potential young designers, and gives them professional career guidance. 

In 2023, Design Shanghai Talents will be back with 22 groups of Talents, linking China and the West in the form of a "banquet", interpreting "Chinese characteristics".

Neooold

Chen Min, the Chinese industrial designer and founder of Chen Min Office and curator of neooold, has invited famous architect, Chen Hao Ru, to create an exhibition space with the theme of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the Forest". 

The vortex-like exhibition space was created with a bamboo forest and a winding path to recreate the Jianghu dream. 

The curved exhibition route is designed to lead visitors deep into the bamboo forest, with this year’s neooold feature mimicking the "walled city" of Jianghu.

Metal Forest by Xu Yanhui, Róng Weaving Design Exhibition

“Róng - Weaving" Design Exhibition

Róng is a process of creating contemporary design language, deconstructing traditional handicrafts and reintegrating them into design and the Weaving Design Exhibition will display the works of 27 designers, who for the past two years have worked on pieces that bring traditional weaving into the future.

Disappearing Borders

Disappearing Borders is a special curation by renowned industrial designer Jamy Yang, that seeks to explore and gain insight into the involving relationship between people, objects, and nature in the digital age. 

Yang encourages designers to adopt critical attitudes towards the technological and societal changes and strive to create innovative designs that embrace and transcend the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds.

Interlude, by Chi Wing Lo

Interlude

Chi Wing Lo’s art installation Interlude not only embraces all coming to the Design Shanghai, it is also a bridge connecting people and their ideas. 

Its realisation is made possible by the woodworking expertise of IWOODSTORY and the electronic innovation of MOORGEN Smart Technology, as well as by their generous sponsorship and sheer commitment in every detail. Composed of a series of screens that meander, fold and define a semi-exclusive chamber, this musical and spacial interlude offers visitors a moment of detachment and reflection, a place to reorientate and rejuvenate.

Design Street

Design Street

As a new section of Design Shanghai 2023, Design Street is curated by the well-known design platform Design Burger. The innovative exhibition format will showcase a curated selection of renowned design studios from across the globe, including Barney Mason, Objact, X-ZOO, YIMU ART, Beta Design Office, Leon Krythin Design, ICOO and NOIN STUDIO, offering a glimpse into the creative minds behind the products we admire. 

Design Street promises a captivating and immersive event experience, allowing visitors to explore each product from every angle and fostering meaningful conversations through their "door is always open" design philosophy. 

This unique space will serve as a direct connection between independent design studios and brands, while also highlighting China's thriving design industry.

New product Launch

Design Shanghai has always been the best stage for brands to debut their new products. This year, Design Shanghai has collected nearly 80 new products from all exhibitors and carefully selected 46 pieces to create the New Product Launch gallery in Hall 1. 

This area will serve as a physical showcase for the best-selected new design pieces.

Design Forum

Design Shanghai’s Kohler Exquisite x Design Shanghai Design Forum programme has carved a reputation as the leading global platform for design thought leadership and one of the best attended and comprehensive seminar programmes in Asia. 

The Kohler Exquisite x Design Shanghai Forum theme for this year is "Beyond Sustainability lies Re-Creative Design – Design for Wellbeing". 

"The past few years have provided us with a greater awareness and understanding of our health and wellbeing, our ability to apply it to the design of our interiors, buildings and most importantly to apply it to ourselves," stated Design Shanghai. 

"We engage with nature in a more authentic manner, materials are natural or derived from nature, spaces are created that generate serenity and refreshment. Alongside the role of the natural world in design, AI and the Metaverse have set out whole new parameters for us to live by and a re-think of our relationship to physical space, but of the way we see and create ourselves." 

Expect talks from Ben Wu, CEO & Design Director of W DESIGN, Yimeng Yu, Designer, Artist and teacher of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Jason Ren, Senior Director & Deputy General Manager (Guangdong) of Ronald Lu & Partners, Xie Ke, Founder of Signyan Design, Cheng Gong, Studio Director China of Snøhetta, and Xiang Li, Founder & CEO of X+Living Architectural Design. Alongside international icons such as Ross Lovegrove, Michael Young, Aldo Cibic, Zandra Rhodes, Satoshi Ohashi and Stefano Piontini.

Clover Bench

Chinese Exhibitor highlights

Design Shanghai has established itself as an event that champions Chinese designers and brands, celebrating the culture, traditions and craftsmanship of the country. 

To celebrate 10 years, Design Shanghai has expanded by 50% this year, alongside Hall 1 (Furniture & Lighting) and 2 (Kitchen & Bathroom Design and New Materials & Applications) the event will debut Hall 3: Living & Lifestyle Design Hall, a brand new offering for the homewares, interiors and accessories industry in China and from international suppliers.

Highlights include: Frank Chou Collection, which will be showcasing Lento Armchair, Orbit Sofa and its latest collection the Stand Coffee Table. 

Singchan Design, the studio focused on furniture and lighting, creates objects that connect the past and the present. Cement brand NANCHOW has developed a contemporary sense and aesthetics on the traditional craftsmanship, devoting to enhancing the quality of cement tiles and endowing with new aesthetic values. 

ZSPACEPLUS, Dasso, Nula, Young Song Design, Donxi and Kun Design are among other brands who will be showcasing at this year's event.

Emo Chair, Young Song Design

New Product launch highlights

Stellar Works is the contemporary design brand which brings together East and West, heritage and modernity, as well as craft and industry, inspired by the idea of bringing about a renaissance of the traditional motifs and forms of Asian design heritage with European styles. 

Stellar Works will present the China debut of the ‘Utility Lounge Chair Two Seater’. Over the past two decades, FULI has been dedicated to exploring the Chinese heritage and innovation of handcrafted carpets, particularly in the digital era fueled by technological advancement. 

FULI has collaborated with Dame Zandra Rhodes, to present the global debut of the tapestry Lipsticks, an evolution of the lipstick pattern from 1968 is one of Rhodes’s classic print designs.

Lipsticks, by Dame Zandra Rhodes, in collaboration with FULI

Benwu Studio is a multi-disciplinary design practice that has worked internationally with clients such as Hermes, Isabel Marant, BMW, Swarovski, Perrier Jouet and the V&A Museum. 

Benwu studio will be launching the global debut of the ‘Triomphe Floorlamp’, by Hongchao Wang. For the official launch of the brand Chen Darui they will be presenting the ‘China Chair’, the design reflects the characteristics of this era, one of constant reconstruction.

China Chair, Chen Darui

VINEKO, Junse and SEEDDESIGN are among other brands who will be presenting in this year's event.

Design Shanghai will be held from from 8 to 11 June, 2023 at Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Centre in Pudong.

You can register to the event on this page. 

Top image in the article: U+, courtesy of Design Shanghai.

All images courtesy of Design Shanghai.

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Design Shanghai event exhibition fair