Open Heart Design Alliance (OHDA) and Beijing Wholis Creative Township are launching the Wholis Design Fest 2017 during Beijing International Design Week, adding a brand new venue for this annual event.

The Wholis Design Fest is hosting various programs exploring an innovative urban-rural township development model, among which is the Nordic and Beijing Day. It features OHDA Challenge, a social design innovation camp, connects design, finance, education know-how, site-specific public art installations, music, film screenings, meditation sessions and an experiment to create a pop-up futuristic community in an "urban-meet-rural" scenario.

The program is not only an exhibition and celebration of creativity and mindful design, it also provides learning and community-focused models that help the further development of the Wholis creative township.

The Nordic and Beijing Day opened Monday at the Green Tea House with a musical prelude that simply captures the Nordic lifestyle: Simple yet elegant, and natural.

The theme of Nordic and Beijing Day is the "Art of Sharing."

Curator Duan Yanling said the event will be a unique experience of learning and sharing for Sino-Scandinavian cultural influencers and change-makers who are committed to participating in China's sustainability.

A full day of talks and conversations highlight "Scandinavian Know-how with China Relevance."

In the neighboring Wholis venue, an urban design experimentation lab, is curated live by OHDA and its hundreds of partner members.

The project addresses nine social concerns, including dining, living, and entertaining.

The two-week-long design challenge is unfolding as an experiment for a new urban-rural development model for China's creative township movement.

When asked about what makes good design, Danish designer Johannes Torpe said that there is no good or bad design, just different styles. For Scandinavian design, functioning comes first, then manufacturing, last beauty.

This model home is a work in progress on the culture and social trend of the “single household." Designers propose design solutions for a nurturing space to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs of single household dwellers.

The organizers are also seeking design solutions to raise awareness for gender-neutral ecological toilet facilities to maximize space utility and efficiency.

This is in line with two experts' comments. Magnus Ekholm, a Swedish expert on waste collection and management, pointed out the importance of showing results to the public when carrying out a plan even if it is a small one. And Dr. Cheng Yiheng, an expert on Circular Economy, agreed that successful enforcement of a CE can be seen as a way for China to tackle its urgent problem of environmental degradation and source scarcity.

During the Wholis Design Fest, hundreds of co-creation workshops and mentorship programs will be hosted, accompanied by live music performances, eco-topic film screenings and participatory site-specific art creation.

A pop-up community is being tested and built by visitors. The whole program will serve as an academy of social design and innovation. Successful challenge projects could potentially receive investment funding and turn their pop-ups into real creative ventures to be launched in the Wholis community in 2018.