The opening ceremony of the 2025 Shenzhen Design Week is held at the Gangxia North Metro Station on October 29. Hu Lei
The 2025 Shenzhen Design Week, a premier event in China's design calendar and a key cultural showcase for the city, officially opened on October 29 at the Gangxia North Metro Station, transforming the public transit hub into a creative stage adorned with design installations.
The 10-day themed event will run through Nov. 7.
A key moment of the launch was the release of the "World Cities of Design Blue Book," described as China's first such report on cities of design.
"The common thread in all design is that it must be 'people-oriented,'" said Qie Xuegang, chief designer of the Gangxia North hub.
"This Metro station reports nearly 400,000 passenger trips daily. Hosting the Design Week here allows it to showcase excellent design and communicate the city's underlying spirit of innovation to all sectors of society," he said.
Shi Danqing, vice president of the Academy of Arts and Design with Tsinghua University, addresses the audience during the opening ceremony on October 29. Hu Lei
Han Han, editor-in-chief of the blue book and director of the Design Strategy and Innovation Ecology Research Institute at Shenzhen University, stated that the report marks a beginning for gathering development models and global intelligence from innovative cities worldwide to support Shenzhen's growth.
"The blue book aggregates case studies from across three major cities from the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, combined with global thematic research, academic reports, and industry project practices," Han said.
The 2025 program includes the Global "Cities of Design" Roundtable Dialogue, the World Designers Congress, the Kunpeng Global Design Award, the Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talent, and a "Global Partners" initiative, alongside dozens of year-round creative events.
The much-anticipated awards ceremony for the Kunpeng Global Design Award and the Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talent was held this evening.
This year, the Kunpeng Global Design Award received 5,228 entries from 18 countries and regions. For the first time, it included an industry-specific category. Six works received the top gold prize.
The Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talent attracted young designers from 48 creative cities, ultimately selecting 21 international winning projects, including one grand award.
The gold winner in the industrial design (concept group) of the Kunpeng Global Design Award was the "Flight Wood X," a service system for teenage drone courses.
"Mortise and tenon joint is a traditional Chinese craft that shouldn't be forgotten in today's technological innovation," said Li Yang, a member of the award-winning team.
"Integrating the wisdom of traditional craftsmanship into modern innovation, especially in tech, is a crucial mission for our generation. Our entry aimed to fuse tradition and modernity, applying ancient mortise and tenon wisdom to drone structural design, allowing young people to be exposed to these advanced techniques with traditional roots," Li told Shenzhen Daily.
Li also praised Shenzhen's environment. "Our experience with the Kunpeng Award has been immensely rewarding. Shenzhen strikes me as an incredibly inclusive, innovative, and cutting-edge city. We are a design team from the mountain city of Chongqing, and I believe we have much to learn from Shenzhen."
