The World Design Cities Conference opens in Shanghai

The 2025 World Design Cities Conference (WDCC 2025), co-hosted by the Shanghai government and UNESCO, officially opened in the city on Thursday.

The event, which runs until September 28, features a series of policy announcements and awards recognizing excellence in the design industry.

The conference highlighted Shanghai's growth in the sector, with an annual industry output of 1.6 trillion yuan (US$222.2 billion).

The city has cultivated 21 national-level industrial design and 200 municipal-level design innovation centers.

The annual "Shanghai Design 100+" initiative has promoted outstanding designs with an accumulated industrial conversion value of over 250 billion yuan.

Several government bureaus announced measures for promoting high-quality cosmetics industry development. The goal is to help more "Made in Shanghai" cosmetics reach a more global audience.

The 2025 "Shanghai Design 100+" competition announced its four annual grand prizes, highlighting AI empowerment, cultural heritage, and green sustainability design trends.

The winners were selected from over 2,600 submissions from 17 countries and regions, including the US, UK, France and Italy.

Alibaba and MiniMax's AI-generated content platforms, Unitree R1 humanoid robot, CCTV AI Sports Tactics Analysis system, Shanghai Lao Feng Xiang's Tang Dynasty-style jewelry, and the Shanghai Greenhouse Garden are among the winners who are exhibited in an independent exhibition zone.

The 2025 Frontier Design Prize went to John Thackara, a sustainable design expert and Fellow of the (UK) Royal College of Art, and Zhao Yunyang, a student from Tianlin Third Middle School in Shanghai, who designed a Beidou-powered fire alert system.

Speakers at the opening ceremony focused on the central theme of "ecological design." Among those who spoke at the event were Wang Jinnan, Chairman of the World Green Design Organization and a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician; Jimmy Choo, international fashion designer; Gunter Pauli, author of "The Blue Economy"; and Lou Yongqi, President of Tongji University.

An exhibition highlights Shanghai's creative vitality with projects like the Bosideng Shanghai Headquarters and new products from brands like IM Motors, L' Oréal Paris, and ICICLE, and platforms like RedNote and Dewu. They demonstrate the city's status as a burgeoning hub for design and fashion.