An agreement was signed a few days ago in China between Icona Design Group, a global style company with headquarters in Turin, Hainan Engineering Consulting & Design Group (a Chinese state-owned company that deals with urban planning and architecture for the entire island of Hainan) and Hainan Design Week Co., an event that debuted in 2021 on the Chinese island of the same name with the aim of stimulating a creative economy and design business, promoting the meeting and interaction between international companies. The strategic collaboration aims to build the Hainan International Design Island.
Hainan is an island province in southern China with a tropical climate, seaside resorts on the coast and a mountainous hinterland covered with lush vegetation. Here, the provincial government is accelerating the establishment of a pilot zone in which to develop the country’s ecological awareness, a kind of free port with Chinese characteristics but strong international influences and contributions. Design will play a central role in this process, and this is why Hainan is referred to as an International Design Island, where every production and daily life reality will have to integrate ‘green’ and ‘low-carbon’ solutions. Hainan will be the first Chinese island where 50 nationalities will not need a visa to enter and a progressively high concentration of foreign companies is expected.
