Art mimics life

The Fotile Sink Dishwasher is one of the winners of the Design Intelligence Award, an addition to Beijing Design Week this year.[Photo by China Daily]

Beijing Design Week focuses on work that connects with people's daily reality, Sun Yuanqing reports. Sun Yuanqing For the past seven years, Beijing Design Week has been a celebration of every facet of design. But now it is increasingly involved with real-life issues.

The Design Intelligence Award, the latest addition to its agenda, was the highlight of this year's focus on industrial design.

As part of the 2016 Beijing Design Week, the DIA Excellent Works Exhibition Tour opened at the World Art Museum at the China Millennium Monument, the main venue for Beijing Design Week, on Sept 25. The exhibition runs through Oct 7.

As for the award, which was instituted jointly by the China Academy of Art and the China Industrial Design Association, it is referred to as "the first academic award of industrial design in China".

The prize was given to around 100 pieces of work, which were selected from a pool of 2,511 entries spanning 30 countries.

The entries covered areas like "cultural innovation, living wisdom, industrial manufacturing and leading technology".

The first DIA Award Ceremony was held in May in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

Based on the theme of "Collective Wisdom, Intelligent Future", the winning pieces were divided into two categories: life and culture; industry and future.

The organizers said that the inaugural year of the award was challenging, as they had to recruit not only strong candidates, but also a top-notch jury.

The judges included Brandon Gien, Michael Young and Gordon Bruce, says Hang Jian, vice-dean of China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.