Right. First establish the function and then the form. After decades of developing it’s economy, technology and other “hardwares”, China have created an international design industry basing from Beijing. Judging from the works already seen from Beijing design studios, the city will not only look prettier but become even more interesting then it already is.

The construction of China’s first design market was officially launched. Liu Qi, member of the Political Bureau under the CPC Central Committee and the secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC, participated in the inauguration ceremony of the China Design Market on June 29.

The China Design Market is expected to be put into operation in October 2010 and its total construction area is expected to reach 60,000 square meters including four areas—the transaction service area, the “Red Star Award” museum, the design investment area, and the brand agency area. It aims to create an efficient and convenient high-level international design market and service platform where recourses are gathered and people can trade actively. Efforts have also be made to gather more than 100 domestic and overseas famous design institutes and enterprises to promote the revenues of the Beijing design service industry to achieve 130 billion yuan in about three years. By continuously improving its level of internationalization, the design industry in Beijing has made considerable progress in recent years and has presented a picture of prosperity, said Fang Maotian, general secretary of the National Committee under the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO. He hopes Beijing can further promote the design industry development to become a solid foundation for Beijing to become a city of design worldwide via the construction of the China Design Market.Beijing currently has 20,000 various design institutes and enterprises with 250,000 employees. In 2009, the revenues of Beijing’s design industry exceeded 80 billion yuan and formed advantageous industries such as architectural design, planning and design, as well as design of integrated circuits.

By People’s Daily Online

Some images from Abitare International Design Magazine. They also have a Abitare China site, of course.

China Design Market, better known as CDM is a special project for the international design market undertaken by the collaborative efforts of the Center for Beijing Design Industry Promotion (BIDC) and Abitare Magazine. The main purpose of CDM is to create a platform for the Chinese industry to operate in the international design market. Partnered with Abitare group, CDM will be making history this spring by debuting Chinese designs at world’s most prestigious and largest design and furniture fair: Milan Salone del Mobile.