WUHAN, A CREATIVE CITY OF DESIGN
Located along the Yangtze in the heartland of China, Wuhan is a national central city with a permanent population of 10.89 million people. Covering an area of 8596 km², Wuhan is the cradle of urban civilization in the Yangtze River basin, the “oriental tea harbor” of the Tea Road since the 17th century, and the scene of the 1911 Revolution that put an end to Chinese feudalism. In the circumscription of this historical city are 1,300 patrimonial remains and over 10 well-preserved modern industrial heritage sites. This is a great source of inspiration for the city’s 500,000 creative practitioners. Wuhan has 89 universities with over 1.3 million students, of which over 100,000 remain in Wuhan as entrepreneurs upon graduation every year. Creative design majors are opened in over 30 universities in Wuhan. Wuhan has a strong, global foothold in engineering design and urban planning: 50% of the world’s long-span bridges and 60% of China’s high-speed railways were designed by Wuhan designers, as was the Three Gorges Dam. Besides, animation, games, costumes, jewel, printing, wrapping and other creative design sectors of Wuhan are also of great importance in China.
We take creative design as one of the key drives for sustainable development and infiltrate creative design into culture, economy, society, life and environment of the city, which constantly brings new life to the old city. Wuhan Design Biennale has been successfully held for 4 sessions since 2011. Insisting on the coalescence of technology and artistry, the Biennale is a powerful platform for the world’s most prominent designers. Ecological Restoration Project of Jinkou Landfill, redeveloped in 2015 as the main meeting place for the 10th session of China’s International Garden Expo, benefited over 100,000 nearby residents by transforming a 0.47-km² MSW landfill, earning Wuhan the “C40 Cities Awards 2015”. In 2017, Wuhan won the award again by Wuhan Yangtze River Embankment River Beach Comprehensive Rehabilitation Project – Wuqing Embankment Section, making Wuhan the only award winner in China. The 2017 Douyu Carnival, China’s largest Comic-Con, attracted 350,000 people to the site and 170 million viewers online. Over 500 industrial design centers and enterprises came to Wuhan for the first session of China Industrial Design Exhibition in 2017 with more than 150,000 visitors. D+M town, the largest industrial design base in Central China impelled by the China Industrial Design Exhibition becomes the leading innovation and design platform with whole industrial chain in China.
In 2017, Wuhan started the Wuhan Entrepreneurship and Employment Project for College Graduates to support the innovation and entrepreneurship acts by launching new policies related to residence, housing, income, employment and entrepreneurship. We hope that the new policies could inspire young people with innovative ideas, infuse fresh blood of innovation and creativity to the city, nurture new generations for the creative design cities and consequently impel the sustainable development of the city. Meanwhile, through the UCCN platform, we would like to invite creative talents around the world to join in the creative design industry of Wuhan to share your experiences and cooperate with us to promote the common development of cultural and creative industries.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE NETWORK
Wuhan will establish 3 major platforms for the Creative Cities Network.
Communication platform for design and culture
- UCCN Members Exhibition Area will be established in Wuhan Design Biennale to promote further communication. We will also sign agreements and actively participate in designing events held by UCCN members.
- We will impel communication between the Great Rivers Forum and UCCN to encourage more great river cities to share their experiences and results.
Promotion platform for design education
- Connecting faculties, spaces, facilities and academic resources from 84 universities of Wuhan, the Wuhan Design and Innovation Institute will be established for design education and training. The institute aims at enhancing talent communication, scientific research and results sharing in the designing sector of UCCN.
- The Skill-Development Program for Young African Creative Designers will be implemented to subsidize 20 young African designers to study and intern in Wuhan within 5 years. The cooperation with Entebbe, Uganda will be continued in order to improve creative design and innovative and entrepreneurship capability of African cities and boost the development of UCCN in Africa.
Cooperation platform for design industry
- Wuhan supports the participation of UCCN members in projects such as 100 Creative Communities and Yangtze River Left Bank Creative Cities Demonstration Area. By infusing new life into the old city through design and innovation, we can get diversified experience and expand it in UCCN.