When a scooter becomes art

Series Off Series is an ongoing exhibition on modern Italian design at the National Museum of China.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The container has a flat shape so that it is easy to transport. It can absorb ultraviolet and infrared rays from the sun, which destroy bacteria, viruses and worms in water. It provides a low-cost solution for people who only have biologically contaminated water to drink.

Italian designer Alberto Meda, 72, says he was motivated to create the bottle in 2000 during a business trip to Ethiopia. There, he saw an emergency situation in which some 1.2 million people had no potable drinking water.

It took Meda six years to find a purification method. He worked with Argentine industrial designer Francisco Gomez Paz to choose the ideal materials for the bottle.

Meda says it is the duty of a designer to impart to industry a consciousness of environmental repercussions, and the designer should also be involved in a company's strategy planning so that he can indicate a direction for sustainable growth.

Some other objects on show celebrate the core value of Italy's high artisanship, which Sequi says "shares similarities with China's cultural lineage and therefore will have resonance among Chinese audiences".

The old Silk Road traders took delicate silk clothes woven by Chinese artisans to the Roman Empire and brought Roman-style glassware to China.