On September 25, “Shanghai Design Week 2015” was successfully unveiled at Shanghai Exhibition Center (No. 1000 Yan’an Road). With the theme of “all design·new normal ”, Shanghai Design Week 2015 focused on design and fashion life, design and intelligent technology, design and traditional crafts, as well as design and green ecology. Shanghai Design Week 2015 aimed to present up-to-date achievements and new trends in terms of cross-disciplinary integration, collaborative innovation and sustainable development of modern design through exhibitions, forums and other series of activities.

“Fashion CEO Northern Europe” Exhibition, an important part of Shanghai Design Week 2015, was curated by Tongji University College of Design and Innovation (D&I), which showcased the respect for nature and care for human well-being. The curator believed that, basic concerns about design partially consist in the good appearance, while it is the function that makes design products outstanding. Design should carry on many responsibilities, one aspect of which is to reflect on the sustainability development of environment, resources and the society and to find out related solutions. The pursuit of common good and “green” sustainable development, rather than fashionable appearance, is the core factor that makes Northern Europe design remarkable and recognized by the world.

The “Fashion CEO Northern Europe” Exhibition put on display works that represented the designers’ understanding of ecological design and sustainability with appeal to various reference frames like material, assembling and technique. These design works included: Kola chair of AVARTE OY, Lunette menstrual cup, Iittala tableware of Taika, CAPISCO chair of HÅG, RBM, RH, TABURET ottoman of Askman, and curved-wood stapler designed by D&I student WU Bobei in collaboration with UPM, a renowned material corporate in Finland.