On the morning of December 9, Guangzhou Design Week, together with Tucson High-end Custom Home Furnishings, jointly advocated and launched the “Sustainable Design Practices Program” with several international organizations concerned about sustainable development, which was officially released and launched at 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Opening Ceremony and N3 Annual Conference! During the same period of the exhibition, a series of design practices related to sustainable development were presented, which became one of the biggest attractions of this year’s Guangzhou Design Week!

As the concentrated venue for the core highlights of each year’s Guangzhou Design Week, the Opening Ceremony always brings together the most exciting points of the exhibition, the latest thinking on design trends, and the interpretation of the latest values of the Design Week, and the release of “Sustainable Design Practices Program” is one of the most important parts of the Opening Ceremony.

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「Sustainable Design Practices Program」Launch Ceremony

In recent years, the topic of global sustainable development has been mentioned more and more frequently, and many countries around the world have been discussing it more and more deeply. 2020 is the year when our country formally proposed the goal of “achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060”, making a solemn commitment to the world on global sustainable development.

Guangzhou Design Week introduced the “Climate Cooler, Design First” exhibition in 2007, which is the earliest platform to promote “low carbon design” and advocate sustainable design practices in China. In December 2021, Guangzhou Design Week joined hands with Tucson, a high-end custom home furnishing brand with a number of green organizations around the world that are concerned about sustainable development and continue the tradition of Guangzhou Design Week to launch the 「Sustainable Design Practices Program」.

◎ Guangzhou Design Week「Sustainable Design Practice Program」Main Visual

◎2021 Guangzhou Design Week Opening Ceremony

He Wenguang, CEO of Guangzhou Design Week, expressed in the launch ceremony that the “Sustainable Design Practices Program” is an inheritance and innovation of the “China Low Carbon Life Design Award” in 2010. The project will implement the concept of sustainable design through three major sections: design curation, design competition and forum activities, and design competition content. The “Sustainable Design Award” will be officially released in early 2022 and will focus on sustainable design through the selection of works, people, workshops and forums throughout the year.

Afterwards, He Wenguang, CEO of Guangzhou Design Week took the stage together with representatives from embassies and consulates and representatives from Tucson companies to launch the new strategic project of Sustainable Design Practices Program! Guangzhou Design Week’s exploration of sustainable design will start again and once again lead the industry trend!

◎Mr. He Wenguang, CEO of Guangzhou Design Week

◎ 「Sustainable Design Practices Program」Launch Ceremony

Launch guests: He Wenguang, CEO of Guangzhou Design Week; Carlos Giralt, Consul General of Mexico in Guangzhou; Michiel Bierkens, Consul General of the Netherlands Consulate General in Guangzhou; Peleg Lewi, Consul General, Consulate General of Israel in Guangzhou; Adam Bralczyk, Consul General of The Consulate General of Poland in Guangzhou; Vanhpheng Saisomphou, Consul General of Laos consulate General in Guangzhou; Martinos Mandalidis, Consul General of The Consulate General of Greece in Guangzhou; Kunjan Shah, Consul General, Consulate General of Nepal in Guangzhou; Dmytro KAMKOV, Consul General of The Consulate General of Ukraine in Guangzhou; Ruben Espinoza, Consul General of The Consulate General of Peru in Guangzhou; Diyar Khan, Consul General, Consulate General of Pakistan in Guangzhou; Leslie Phung, Deputy Consul General of the Australian Consulate General in Guangzhou; Joachim Boittot, Cultural Consul, Consulate General of France in Guangzhou; Celeste CHEW, Vice Consul for Commercial Affairs, Consulate General of Singapore in Guangzhou; Paul Penaherrera, Commercial Counsellor, Consulate General of Ecuador in Guangzhou; Luis Alciturri, Commercial Officer, Guangzhou Economic and Commercial Office, Spanish Embassy in China; Roxanne Hamel, Vice Consul and Commercial Attache, Consulate General of Canada in Guangzhou; Jacques Menezes, Consular Officer, Consulate General of Angola in Guangzhou; Tucson marketing division director Lili Huang.

As an advocate of the 「Sustainable Design Practices Program」, Tucson’s high-end custom home furnishings aims to put into practice the national mission of “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” in the home space. At the launch ceremony, Tucson Executive Director and President Wang Weiyang said, “Every December we will release Tucson’s second year sustainability plan to gradually reduce carbon emissions per unit of production value, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, 20 years earlier than our national carbon neutrality plan!”

◎ Video message from Tucson Executive Director and President Wang Weiyang (unable to be there for epidemic control reasons)

Finally, Guangzhou Design Week CEO He Wenguang was entrusted by Tucson’s Executive Director and President Wang Weiyang to invite representatives of Tucson’s distribution partners from all over China to the stage to read the Tucson Sustainability Declaration. As Mr. He said, sustainable development is not a slogan. It needs solid practice, and more people to join in and put the “plan” into concrete action.

◎ Tucsoner read the Sustainable Design Practice Advocacy Declaration together

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「Tucson of Tucson」2021 Tucson Sustainable Design Practices Exhibition

2021 Guangzhou Design Week sustainable design practice heavyweight content – 「Tucson of Tucson」 Tucson sustainable design practices exhibition, by Tucson in conjunction with Guangzhou Design Week, Germany Crestron, the United States Xuanwei Paint, such as the shadow of intelligence and many other brands, in the form of curatorial space together to create a low-carbon home life.

「Tucson’s Tucson」, the first “Tucson” means to take the materials from nature and enjoy nature, and the second “Tucson” means to yearn for the forest and give back to nature. The theme of the exhibition is “Low Carbon ‘Forest’ Living, Enjoying Green Future”. The whole exhibition aims to achieve carbon neutrality in home space through three aspects: sustainable energy, sustainable materials and sustainable technology, which is also the strategic goal of Tucson’s sustainable development.

Energy sustainability: Tucson and Ruying Intelligent created a sports space, through the futuristic design of the speedy light wheel, the energy generated by the intelligent AR bike movement can be collected and stored for use in home electrical equipment, home sports, energy sustainability is not a dream.

Sustainable materials: Tucson collaborated with Crestron and Xuanwei to develop and use new sustainable materials to present a “water-based bio-based paint” display area to reduce carbon emissions at the source. In addition, Tucson, in collaboration with Zhejian Design, used 100% recyclable cardboard to build the pavilion façade and guide table, which is not only easy to build and dismantle quickly, but also recyclable. In addition, Tucson, together with Baber Group, recycled plastic bottles into yarn and woven fabric into wall finishes and screens. The recycled fiber, which is high value, high quality, multi-functional and low carbon, will be widely used in various markets.

Technology sustainability: Tucson joins with COLMO, a high-end AI technology home appliance brand of Midea, to create an intelligent kitchen system that uses Huawei’s Hongmeng operating system to scientifically save electricity and water, avoid wasting resources, and shape a high-quality low-carbon home life.

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Origin Land Art Festival,

the first outdoor installation exhibition of Guangzhou Design Week

The second component of 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Sustainable Design Practice, 2021 Origin – Earth Art Festival, is the first major outdoor exhibition of installation art held by Guangzhou Design Week, positioned as an experiment ground for youth creativity.

The exhibition is jointly planned and presented by Guangzhou Design Week and teachers and students from the Department of Art, Design and Creative Industries of Guangzhou Southern College, and curated by Liang Yiyun, a full-time teacher at Guangzhou Southern College. Under the name of “Origin”, the exhibition expresses what young “future artists” have in mind, and each public art installation is a youth manifesto.

◎ Origin – Earth Art Festival Exhibition Site

Teachers and students from the Department of Art Design and Creative Industries of Guangzhou South College innovatively used a variety of recyclable and environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo, wood and sunflower fans to jointly complete 15 sets of large-scale installation artworks. The selection of waste and renewable materials drove the public to enhance green awareness and advocated the design concept of energy regeneration and low carbon living. At the same time, it also undertakes the mission of inheriting intangible cultural heritage art. The personalized public art installations make the outdoor exhibition space more ornamental, activate the vitality of urban space, and bring art into life.

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Hi! Some Art Festival

600㎡ creative Hi!Some amusement park

The third component of 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Sustainable Design Practice, Hi!Some is curated and presented by Hema Design and Qinghong Art, with a recyclable Hi!Some curatorial approach, taking inspiration from the concept of natural ecological sustainability, attracting many excellent brands to join, breeding a creative business community and creating a 4-day Hi!Some amusement park.

◎ Hi!Some Exhibition Site

The exhibition area is more than 600 square meters, divided into three themes of Hi!Some Mountain, Hi!Some Sea and Hi!Some Forest, the exhibition content includes cultural and creative IP, non-foreign heritage culture, home decoration, art sculpture, Hi!Some concert, etc. The exhibition is intended to incubate a youthful Hi!Some business model oriented to the creation of life by nature.

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“City Expressions”

China City Design Elite Installation Design Exhibition

The third content of 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Sustainable Design Practice, China City Design Elite Installation Design Exhibition, the first creative art installation exhibition with city symbols created by the main group of designers in China, was surprisingly presented in the same period of Guangzhou Design Week exhibition.

The works are “Phantom Change” from Chengdu, “Everything and Bridge” from Chongqing, “Floating Away Feather” from Dongguan, “You Rong” from Nanjing, “Forbidden Fruits” from Ningbo, “Develop KEY TO” from Wenzhou, “Come and Sit” from Wuhan, “Phantom Land – Phantom City” from Xi’an, “Process” from Changsha and “Li-Zheng” from Zhengzhou. The 10 groups of works were all inspired by the unique characteristics of their cities and expressed their love for the natural and humanistic charm of the cities they live in through art installations.

◎China City Design Card Installation Design Exhibition Site

The exhibition also held an award ceremony for the China City Design Elite Installation Design Exhibition. 10 groups of installation creators from all over China shared their themes and thoughts on their installations with the audience. Mr. Chen Fangxiao, the founder/creative director of Chen Fangxiao Design Institute (CDI), and Mr. Shen Jinfu, the founder of HOWONE MAX Design Studio, attended this event.

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Sustainable Development Summit Forum on Active Building “Carbon”

The fourth content of 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Sustainable Design Practice, the Active Building “Carbon” Solving Sustainable Development Summit Forum – Guangzhou Station, was successfully held in the morning of December 9 in Hall 5 of Guangzhou Poly World Trade Expo, with many industry experts contributing to the forum and expressing their views, causing 10,000 people to watch online and offline.

Anja Villefrance, Consul General of the Kingdom of Denmark in Guangzhou； Zhao Jinyan, Founder of Active House China, Chairman of the Construction Working Group of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, CEO of VELUX (China) Ltd； Carlos Gomez, President of the AIA Beijing Chapter, Founder/Partner and Director of CRG Architectural Consulting Ltd. in Spain, and General Director of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Asia; Yanhua Chu, expert of AH International Alliance, director of AH Active Building Academic Committee, expert advisor of AH Industry Alliance, president of AIA Beijing Chapter; Mika Woll, founder/general manager of M5; Gao Weixian, Vice President of the Environment and Health Branch of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences and Deputy Secretary General of the China AH Industry Alliance. The 6 guests brought wonderful speeches and sharing on the topics of Copenhagen Carbon Neutral Construction, Future Home – Sustainable Thinking under Unsustainable, Active Sustainable Design, Active House China Sustainable Practice, Nordic Sustainable Practice, etc.!

◎ Forum Speakers

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「DUTCH STRATEGIES」Dutch Design Series

The fifth component of the 2021 Guangzhou Design Week Sustainable Design Practice, the Dutch Design Series, was presented at the same time as the 2021 Guangzhou Design Week exhibition.

During this year’s Guangzhou Design Week, the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Guangzhou and a number of Dutch creative designers and companies launched the “Dutch Strategies” series of events, from architecture, space, products, materials and other creative fields, in the form of video exhibition and forum dialogue, to explain the Dutch design. Dutch designers have been with the concept of sustainable, and wiser use of valuable space and better materials. This series of events built an open platform for dialogue between Dutch designers and Chinese counterparts.

◎Dutch Design Series Live Event

The exploration of sustainable design is never ending, and the results of Guangzhou Design Week 2021 are still the beginning and the beginning. With the official launch of the 「Sustainable Design Practices Program」, Guangzhou Design Week will be more determined and convinced to let the concept of sustainable development be implemented in design and contribute to the national goal of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality with the power of design!

The 2022 Sustainable Design Award will be released later this year, and designers who are interested in sustainable design are welcome to participate in the competition!