Cao Zhen

    caozhen0806@126.com

    THE Design Society, a new cultural hub that will include China’s first design museum, will open to the public in 2017 in Shekou, it was announced at the Sino-U.K. project’s launch ceremony Saturday in Shekou.

    Founded by China Merchants Shekou Holdings, in association with founding partner the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) from London, Britain, the Design Society will be located inside the Sea World Culture and Arts Center, which is under construction beside the landmark Nu Wa Sculpture.

    The Design Society will include the Shekou Design Museum, within which the V&A will have a dedicated gallery, a theater, a multi-purpose hall and Shenzhen Guanfu Museum. “The Design Society will also include learning and public event programs to create synergy. It is a comprehensive and open platform, empowering the inter-connectivity between design and industries,” said Zhang Lin, deputy manager of the China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co. Ltd., at the ceremony.

    Ole Bouman, former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the creative director of the 2013 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen), is the founding director of the Design Society. He said: “The Design Society expresses the potential of how design can positively impact the social, cultural and environmental challenges of our age. We plan to reach out to local communities to develop programs for the public.”

    Shenzhen is home to 6,000 design companies, employing 60,000 people, and was named the City of Design by UNESCO in 2008. The Design Society project is the first cooperation between a Chinese enterprise and a British museum based on a five-year contract. The V&A is giving curatorial advice to support acquisitions and training in operations.

    According to Tim Reeve, deputy director and chief operating officer of the V&A, its gallery in Shekou will display the 20th and 21st century international designs and examples from earlier historical periods. Two major touring exhibitions will also be held in 2017 and 2018. “The V&A will consider how values drive design, and how design is valued. The highly diverse selection of objects in the gallery will be drawn from the V&A’s major collections,” said Reeve.

    With a footprint of 26,000 square meters and a floor space of 71,000 square meters, the Sea World Culture and Arts Center was designed by Japanese architectural studio Maki and Associates led by Fumihiko Maki. In addition to the Design Society, the Sea World Culture and Arts Center will also have a Baoku Art Center, the Baoku Treasury, restaurants and shops.

    The center is part of the broader redevelopment of the Shekou Industrial Zone, originally a base for oil exploitation in the 1980s. “There’s a big vision for the renewal of Shekou, as not just a neighborhood in Shenzhen but as a symbol of Shenzhen. It’s for us to think about how to carry on Shekou’s tradition of pioneering and experimenting when re-launching Shekou,” said Bouman.