Shanghai lays on design extravaganza at world cities conference

Innovation and inspirations for designs lie in every corner and moment of life, crossing national, cultural and functional boundaries, according to designers and experts at the World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) 2025, which concludes in Shanghai on Sunday.

This year's WDCC, which is taking place on the 15th anniversary of Shanghai being designated a UNESCO City of Design, has attracted around 500 exhibitors from across the world to demonstrate their latest offerings and ideas.

Blending Chinese culture and innovative technologies, Chinese sporting goods brand Li-Ning is showcasing its new shoes during the event. While a series inspired by war horses in traditional Chinese culture is aimed at the outdoor sports and fashion wear sectors, another series named "UltraLight2025" featuring lightweight designs and high performance has impressed many visitors. 

"This series is much lighter than the other professional basketball shoes in the market," said Xu Yao, a professional basketball shoe designer at the company, who added that the shoe series was inspired by vintage sports cars.

"We applied our featured Super Boom technologies and Boom Fiber on it, minimized the number of shoe components in design and streamlined the production process as much as possible. So it is environmentally friendly, cost saving but with high performance for both professional players and non-players."

Xu said he saw Shanghai as a very inclusive city, with diverse and interesting possibilities. As a designer, he said he has enjoyed seeing different innovation and designs in a wide range of sectors at this year's WDCC, as well as taking inspiration from them.

Food culture is prominent at the event, with Kieferzapfen Design, a creative design agency established by Wang Yang in 2006, exploring the combination of art, design and technologies to offer immersive and interactive dining experiences. 

With projection technologies, the Kieferzapfen team digitalized the flower, bird, butterfly and fish elements in traditional Chinese paintings, which diners can interact with through gestures or movements.

"We noticed that many people are now pursuing more than the food or ingredients in the dining process and food culture," said Wang, who also founded the immersive restaurant LiangShe in Shanghai. 

"They hope to get immersed in a certain environment for an entertaining experience — or what we say is 'emotional value'."

In the exhibition area of Donghua University, the concept of "hyper fashion" connects textile and fashion, materials and energy, intelligence and fitness. The high-performance fiber materials converted from lunar soil and the fluorine-free jacket marked technological breakthroughs. A soft tufting rug designed for people with autism can illuminate and play music to help them relief and express emotions. Meanwhile, its "China Cool" project collaborating with luxury brand Coach turned into recycled bags into new fashion products featuring Chinese cultural elements.

"Fashion essentially means continuous updates," said Xia Tian, a lecturer at Donghua University. 

"We hope to transcend the disciplinary boundaries and inspire innovative designs. We may used to see design as a specific academic category but, as we can see at the WDCC 2025, it is rooted in every aspect of our life."

On Thursday, the university also announced a collaboration with the Royal College of Art, one of the world's most prestigious institutions for art and design, to co-establish the Royal College of Art Shanghai Centre. The two sides are expected to jointly explore education and research, better connecting China's creative industries, innovative talents and design communities with the world.

"The whole exhibition at the WDCC 2025 is fantastic," said Ken Neil, RCA's pro vice-chancellor.

"It is international, open-minded and outward looking … Shanghai is one of the leading global cities for design-drive innovation … Donghua is our first partner, and we are very interested in stepping from the center to collaborate with Shanghai city and with China at large. 

"We are very excited about that."