Unveiling Ceremony of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub and Opening Ceremony of China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition Successfully Held in Milan, ItalyPrint

Post Time：2018-04-20来源：TusHoldings

On April 17, 2018 local time, unveiling ceremonies of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub, an innovation base jointly built by Tsinghua University and Politecnico di Milano, and Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan was held in Milan. This is the first education and research base in Europe built by Tsinghua University, indicating an important step of Tsinghua University in its implementation of global strategy in Europe. At the site of the ceremony, opening ceremony of China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition, unveiling ceremony of Tsinghua University Alumni Activity Center in Italy, and unveiling ceremony of China-Italy Industrial Design Innovation Cooperation Park were held at the same time.
 

CHEN Xu, Party Secretary of Tsinghua University and Chairperson of the Council of Tsinghua University, attended the ceremony and gave a speech. SONG Xuefeng, Chinese Consul General in Milan, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, Ferruccio Resta, President of Polytechnic University of Milan, Giuliano Noci, Vice President of Polytechnic University of Milan, Alessandro Mendini, a famous Italian designer, architect and design commenter known as “father of postmodernism design in Italy”, HAN Jingyang, Vice Chairperson of the Council of Tsinghua University, LU Xiaobo, Dean of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, ZHENG Hong, Director of International Cooperation Center for Economics and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, and YUAN Wei, President of TusHoldings, also attended the ceremony. More than 300 representatives of all circles from China and Italy jointly witnessed this historic moment.
 

In her speech, CHEN Xu expressed that: last February, jointly witnessed by XI Jinping, President of China, and Mattarella, President of Italy, Tsinghua University and Polytechnic University of Milan signed a cooperation agreement in Beijing on joint construction of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub; last November, the initiation ceremony China-Italy Design Innovation Hub and the unveiling ceremony of Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan were held solemnly in the beautiful campus of Tsinghua University; just 5 months later, China-Italy Design Innovation Hub was formally opened, China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition was solemnly held, and Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan was unveiled; this indicated the further deepened cultural exchange between the two countries and further deepened educational and research cooperation in the field of design between the two universities, represented an important step of Tsinghua University in its implementation of global strategy in Europe after the establishment of Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) in Seattle, and became an indelible mark  in the new hundred-year blueprint of “more innovative, more international, and more humane” Tsinghua University. 

CHEN Xu also presented that: relying on the knowledge advantages of Tsinghua University and Politecnico di Milano, China-Italy Design Innovation Hub would earnestly serve the “Belt and Road” initiative, effectively link the design innovation resources in the two countries, build a design innovation center of global influence, and explore a new path for commercialization of design result and enterprise incubation; Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan would integrate the high-quality education resources in the two countries, promote exchange and cooperation between the two universities, become a studio and work base for teachers of Tsinghua University in Europe and an overseas practice base for students of Tsinghua University, and cultivate top-grade innovative talents with global competence. She believed that the Hub and the Institute would open a window of “design-driven innovation” of China and Italy to the world, present the latest concepts and fruits of the two countries in design innovation, and make positive contributions to the exchanges between the two countries in education, research and culture.


SONG Xuefeng, Chinese Consul General in Milan, expressed sincere congratulation on behalf of Consulate General of China in Milan. He said that: the friendship between China and Italy had a long history, and the two ancient civilizations always attracted and added radiance to each other; in these days, with deepened comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, it is expected that more Chinese enterprises could realize innovative development by virtue of the platform provided by China-Italy Design Innovation Hub; at the same time, it is expected that Tsinghua University will make more contributions to the transformation from “Made in China” to “Created in China”, and Consulate General of China in Milan will provide comprehensive supports for the development of the hub.
 

Giuseppe Sala expressed in his speech that the government of Milan would work closely with partners such as Tsinghua University and provide assistances and suggestions during the development. “We hope, by virtue of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub and China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition, we can gather more innovation fruits, scientific and technological enterprises and talents in Milan and build close, deep and comprehensive cooperation relations with more Chinese cities. We wish a better development of the Hub!” he said.
 

Ferruccio Resta, President of Polytechnic University of Milan, expressed: “this unveiling of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub indicates a new era of the cooperation between Tsinghua University and Polytechnic University of Milan. We think highly of the cooperation with Tsinghua University and China, and consider it an incentive and responsibility to guide us to jointly create new history of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub, and new histories of China and Italy!”
 

CHEN Xu, SONG Xuefeng, Ferruccio Resta, Giuliano Noci, LI Jinliang, Director of International Cooperation and Exchange Department, Tsinghua University, LU Xiaobo, Dean of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Silvia Piatti, Director of Design Department, Polytechnic di Milano, and YUAN Wei, President of TusHoldings, jointly unveiled the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub.


At the ceremony, CHEN Xu, SONG Xuefeng, LU Xiaobo and LI Gongqiang, Party Secretary of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, jointly unveiled the Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan.
  

During the event, Tsinghua University Alumni Activity Center in Italy was established and unveiled, China-Italy Industrial Design Innovation Cooperation Park was unveiled, and the first China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition was opened.

After the ceremony, the participants visited China-Italy Design Innovation Hub and China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition. As one of the main activities of Milan Design Week 2018, China-Italy Design Innovation Exhibition took the theme of “Smart Life Evolution” and the key words of “design”, “innovation”, “smart” and “technology”. At this exhibition, nearly a hundred high-tech exhibits from nearly 40 scientific and technological innovation enterprises in China and Italy were presented, involving more than ten fields such as cultural creativity, smart commuting, Internet of Things, and UAV. The exhibits from China brought “Chinese Technology + Design” to the world famous platform of design exhibition. 
 

During the event, President YUAN Wei, had a talk with Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, in the city hall of Milan on April 16th, and the two parties exchanged opinions on the future development of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub and some other matters.


Additional news: At the night of April 18, Marco Nereo Rotelli, a world famous light show performer, made a light show music performance upon the invitation of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub. Mr. Rotelli is an artist who has performed themed light shows for several Olympic Games.
  

Further Reading

China-Italy Design Innovation Hub (“the Hub”) is located at 39 via Durando Street, Milan City, near the Bovisa Campus of Polytechnic di Milano. The premise of the Hub, designed by Alessandro Mendini, a world famous architect, consists of 6 buildings in 3 building complexes. With a total building area of nearly 25,000m2 (including 2 underground floors that contain 160 parking spaces and huge storage space), it integrates science and technology, innovation and fashion into a whole, and can meet diversified functional needs of teaching, research, innovation park, and exhibition. It has complete community functions and associated attributes. 

As another business card of China-Italy cooperation in scientific and technological innovation, launch of the Hub indicates a firm and important step of Tsinghua University toward a “more innovative, more international and more humane” world-leading university after Global Innovation Exchange (GIX). The Hub will take talent cultivation as the core, rely on the knowledge advantages of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University and Design Department of Polytechnic University of Milan, and build an international comprehensive platform of design innovation cooperation covering innovation research, exhibition, incubation investment, R&D headquarters, and resource link-up. At the same time, it will set several “cloned bases” in China, make effort to build good design innovation ecology, cultivate leading enterprises in design innovation, make positive contribution to the exchange between China and Italy in education, research and culture, earnestly serve the “Belt and Road” initiative, promote the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacture, and help to realize the transition from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.

In addition to research and education, the Hub also has many other functions in design innovation service such as enterprise incubation and exhibition. These functions will be realized by TusHoldings, a leading enterprise run by Tsinghua University, together with global resources such as Industrial Design Association of Italy, by means of innovative governance mode and operation mechanism as well as close cooperation with industries. In future, the Hub will build and run several “mirror-image bases” in China. Tongzhou District of Beijing and Tianfu New Area in Chengdu have signed cooperation agreements with Tsinghua University and TusHoldings and become venues of the first batch of the “mirror image bases”. 

“After more than 20 years of development, TusHoldings has basically realized some of its dreams made at the beginning of operation. Now TusHoldings persists in its original intentions, and will make great efforts in construction, operation and development of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub,” said YUAN Wei, President of TusHoldings. In the future, the Hub will build an innovation incubator at Politecnico di Milano and an innovation incubator at TusStar to promote commercialization of excellent design work. In addition, many enterprise innovation centers and government service windows will be built in the Hub to provide a platform for domestic enterprises to go global and participate in international exchange and competition and to enhance industrial design abilities of enterprises. Besides, the Hub will actively cooperate and interact with local governments in China to realize comprehensive cross-border exchange of elements such as international high-end designers, high-end design resources and scientific research findings, and to help the design innovation and smart manufacturing enterprises in China to go global and join the international market.