The first World Design Cities Conference officially opened in Shanghai on September 15. With the theme of "Vision in Perspective," the four-day conference aims to build Shanghai into a world-class "city of design." Wang Siwen has more.

Showcasing the latest design and products, under the theme of "Vision in Perspective," the first World Design Cities Conference made its debut in Shanghai to promote the establishment of world-class "city of design."

The four-day conference will demonstrate cross-sector integration trends, innovation-driven development, and empowerment of design.

The event will also showcase Shanghai's integration into the global creative network.

One of the highlights of the conference is the evolution of design over the years, and the combination of design and city life.

CHENG XUESONG Director, School of Design Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University "When I studied design in the past, our teachers taught us design is to solve problems, but now, design has crossed many boundaries. It's getting more and more important to break some boundaries that we originally set for ourselves in our minds, sometimes it is ourselves, sometimes it's from our background, education, or management mechanism and so on."

WANG SIWEN Shanghai "With over 100 exhibitors, the conference aims to promote Shanghai as a hub of international design, expand the city's influence in design concepts, and accelerate the transformation of Shanghai as part of the UN's "Creative Cities Network."

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was established in 2004. UCCN promotes cooperation with cities that have identified creativity as a factor for sustainable urban development. The network listed 43 "cities of design" from 29 countries. Shanghai joined the UN's "Creative Cities Network" in 2010 and has rapidly grown its design industry.

In 2021, Shanghai's creative and design industry output reached 1.6 trillion yuan or $232 billion dollars, a figure that is expected to hit more than two trillion yuan by 2025.

PROF. LOU YONGQI Vice President, Tongji University Fellow "China has several advantages. Firstly, the 5,000-year-old splendid history, which has not been fully taken advantage of. Secondly, we have taken technological and industrial progress seriously and combine it to the design industry, such as artificial intelligence and metaverse. We hope Shanghai will not only contribute to the design in the existing industrial context, we hope design can promote the emergence of unprecedented industries."

Shanghai has a blueprint for building a "city of design," according to conference organizers, by 2030, it will further enhance its international competitiveness and reputation to build a world-class "city of design." WSW, CGTN, SH.