Kids Design Week 751 D Park Event and Exhibition Design

Beijing, China

Photo © Xu Cheng

Photo © Hai Qing

Exhibition Halls

Architects: Crossboundaries

Location: Beijing, China
Year: 2016
Team: Binke Lenhardt, DONG Hao, Andra Ciocoiu, HAO Hongyi, Sidonie Kade, Tracey Loontjens, Jessica Luo, Ruo Fang, Mini Liu
Graphic Design: LAVA

A, larger than life ribbon took children and adults alike on a fun and adventurous journey in the first Kids Design Week Beijing exhibition - “Grow Down, Shrink Up”. Curated and co-organized by Crossboundaries, the world was turned upside down for a week interactive dialogue with kids and for kids.

FANTASTICAL DIALOG WITH KIDS, FOR KIDS

In 751, one of Beijing’s former industrial parks, now a hub for the creative business community, Kids Design Week set stage for an interdisciplinary communication platform, bringing together parents, educators and psychologists, as well as designers and child industry professionals to exchange perspectives and change their conventional ways of thinking.

The theme “Grow Down, Shrink Up” invited children and grown-ups to swap roles, split into workshops & activities, salons, exhibitions & art installations, across a variety of topics, for which Crossboundaries’ developed a framework that linked space and program. The open space, rigidly ordered by a grid of concrete columns was reimagined as a fantastical play-scape for kids and adults.

A pure white ribbon drew visitors in the space with spiral-like movements, changing directions it turned into a path forming a succession of activities, games and discoveries at each step. Out of the path, the ribbon re-emerged in key moments, sometimes becoming backdrop for art, other times defining partitions for functional areas.