Design Shanghai Elevates Chinese Design
Design Shanghai returns for its 13th edition from March 19-22 at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre and will spotlight Chinese designers and brands in addition to featuring over 500 design brands representing over 20 countries.
Design Shanghai, Asia’s leading international design event, opens its doors on March 19th for four days of contemporary design, engaging programming, events and new partnerships. The buzz of Design Shanghai started earlier this month with its Design in the City Programme (5-22 March), that connects culture, design and lifestyle across Shanghai.
For two-weeks, Design Shanghai transforms the city into a dynamic design destination, with a Design in the City, a city-wide celebration that includes exhibitions in galleries and showrooms, installations, hospitality interventions and additional highlights that show the energy of Asian design. In partnership with Design Shanghai is the @Xintiandi Design Festival, that delivers more than 200 installations, and the City Design Guide.
Design in the City includes four curated design districts and over 60 design hotspots, 20 public events and 15 open studio days, a new initiative for 2026, which offers the unique opportunity for people to visit local designer studios. The City Design Guide is the key to unlocking all of the special events around Design Shanghai. The curated guide offers insight about the local design scene, from the best brand showrooms to unique hospitality spaces. The Design in the City program also helps elevate the city as a design-destination, reinforcing its unique place in the work. Shanghai is home to more than 70 regional headquarters of Global 500 companies and it is China’s only officially designated City of Design.
In addition to activating the city, Design Shanghai helps support local design talent and position Chinese creativity within the global conversation. With programs including TALENTS, Made in JDZ, Beyond Craft, Collectible Design & Art, and Materials First, new and established talent are given a platform to share their work. Shanghai-based brands include 12h, Shang Xia, Past to Now and Chen Yanfei, show the diversity of styles and approaches found in the city. The Talents under 35 programme brings to the forefront the younger, emerging designers and will centre on the theme of “About Time.” As the curator of Talents, Frank Chou explains, “Product designers have long played a key role in shaping cultural consensus. From early environmental discussions to critiques of consumerism, many ideas originated within design discourse itself. TALENTS therefore seeks to spark broader cultural reflection. “Time” refers not only to chronology, but also to an era, personal experience, and macro narratives. We hope to view time as an important yet often overlooked design material – one that speaks to how design records its era and the meaning and value it carries across time.”
Made in JDZ, curated by Ryan Ran, brings together ceramics, metalwork and lacquer art, with a focused on Jingdezhen’s historic heritage, to explore the intersection of contemporary design and traditional craftsmanship. In this same way, the Beyond Craft programme will celebrate Japan’s craft and design heritage. The section will feature a selection of designers and brands working in jewellery, paper, rope, glass, scent, furniture and light, who are using traditional craft techniques with innovative design solutions that connect to today’s needs.
In the Collectible Design & Art section, Yiqian Zhao has curated the Re-Art Room that brings together 20th century furniture with 10 contemporary artists, emphasizing the physical experience of materials, textures and form.
Design Shanghai opens on Thursday, March 19th and runs through Sunday, March 22nd. For more information visit:
For more information and to purchase tickets visit: Design Shanghai.
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