Chinese Creative Cities Economy map

A marathon of interventions, exhibitions, and dialogues was promoted by the Chinese Creative Cities to invigorate the dialogue among the Chinese, Italian, and international design communities.

In 2023, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Chinese presence returned in grand style to the Milan International Furniture Fair with a series of events sponsored by the Cultural Office of the Embassy and the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Milan. The event and exhibition, curated by DONTSTOP at Piazza del Cannone, hosted the capitals of Chinese Design, including Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hainan, and Wuxi, which showcased their prestigious Design Weeks and featured distinguished guests such as Master Zhu Xiaojie. Innovative projects, companies, excellent local products, and services established a fruitful dialogue with the vibrant Milanese design community, opening up new prospects for collaboration and friendship. The evening was masterfully concluded with an engaging DJ set by Marcobaleno and a buffet, providing a more informal moment to wrap up the event.

The island of Hainan is currently planning to transform Lingshui into a model of low-carbon development, recognizing that this transformation will take time. To facilitate this process, a continuous exhibition program is being proposed to showcase the entire transformation journey over time. The Low Carbon District, located on a 15-hectare land adjacent to the Lingshui amusement park, will focus on biodiversity, sustainable energy production and management, smart city networks, electric and lightweight mobility, community building, phytodepuration, and sustainable tree planting. The district aims to become an experimental hub for the implementation of new sustainable technologies, attracting leading companies in the industry from around the world.

A system of actions proposed for the “slow route” between Pergusa and Piazza Armerina is developed over three territorial areas that coexist in the territory and have interconnected environmental, physical, social and symbolic characteristics. The project aims to inhabit and equip the greenway of the old railway and to create a “walkscape” that dialogues with the landscape, imaginative and historical dimensions of Central Sicily. The mythological metaphor of the Rape of Persephone guides the development of the project areas, creating a system of cross-references and punctual interventions to connect, enhance and implement the natural and anthropic elements of the route.

Bergamo Prossima is an urban regeneration project that designs a new space for the city: a place for citizens to meet and for families, the elderly, and students to live. The commercial area on the ground floor is developed inside the preserved buildings while the residential volumes and the RSA draw two large connected green courtyards creating an urban and environmental axis along the north-south axis, which ends in the gardens of Via Martiri di Cefalonia crossing the building that houses the student residence. The project maximizes the use of the existing volumes for an SL of 25,000 sqm, reducing the footprint and increasing the green and social spaces.

The XPORT VILLAGE project is a connecting space between the local inhabitants and the global network of innovators and creatives from all over China and the world. The rural dimension of the village suggests a “slow” lifestyle suitable for the contemporary creative profession, but which is able to dialogue and stay in touch with the “fast” pace of the city and its creators, operators, communicators, companies and international public. The spaces are articulated in open courtyards facing the natural elements and are developed along the waterway and on the northern edge of the village. The three open courtyards are linked by two elements that create a distinctive urban sign: the portico and the archives system. A structure that makes the tradition and cultural background of local and global knowledge available to the innovators living in XPORT VILLAGE, and at the same time is able to communicate and transmit it worldwide.

The design for the R8 compound interprets the architectural type of the courtyard block, envisaged by the masterplan, developing a volumetric articulation that reacts to the context with height variations and opening towards the wide park. This strategy allows us to arrange the 28,000 square meters of housing required, creating a city fragment that incorporates linear buildings and towers of various sizes and which sets the experience of living in a rich system of landscape and open spaces (public, semi-public and private). The outcome is a typically urban scenario but enriched with strong natural values.

The project is based on reflections on the relationship with the natural world and the slowdown in life that comes with it. The architecture is located on the roof of the “City on the Sky” building complex, occupying the top floor with other pavilions, creating a flexible space between the artificial and natural dimensions, creating an oasis where people can escape from their hectic lives. The café and restaurant are located along the walkway crossing the entire complex, while the hotel with its rooms and services is built-in height. At the top of the building, the lobby, guest reception, and outdoor areas are arranged in a flexible building with a large garden surrounded by lush nature. In addition, real forest houses suspended wooden modules, equipped as accommodation rooms surrounded by greenery, with spectacular views. A system of wooden bridges and footbridges connects all the functions, creating unexpected paths, immersed in greenery above a breathtaking skyline.

The project for the new headquarters of the judicial offices of Catania, designed with Progetto CMR, treats building and public space with a holistic approach, thus establishing an indissoluble relationship between these two elements together with the urban and natural context. A city waterfront embedded between the sea and Etna.  The shape of the open courtyard reinterprets a building typology typical of Catania’s historical center and declines it in the site by opening the block towards the landscape and lifting part of the volume from the ground. To the simple composition of volumes corresponds a clear organization of the program, designed to be extremely functional and meet the needs of efficiency, safety and separation of the public flows from those of the employees. Taking advantage of the topography of the site, courtrooms and gardens are arranged on terraces sloping down towards the sea. The strong integration of the building with the landscape and with the public space gives a new aura to the exercise of justice: while maintaining its authoritative and institutional profile, it is deprived of the most intimidating aspects by emphasizing its civic and collective value. 

On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile in Milan 2018, DONTSTOP architettura presents the project “Il Cortile” of BASE, within the former Ansaldo factory, in Milan. The site is today dedicated to creativity in all its declinations, through one of the most striking urban regeneration projects in Europe.

The project involves a vegetalization of the external spaces of the cultural center, the design of the bar with a refreshment area, the stage for the events and a new graphics on the ground that characterizes the flooring.

The strong agricultural vocation of the island of Sant’Erasmo, which in the recent past could be seen as a threat to the survival of the territory and a limit to development, today becomes the engine for the rediscovery of new social, economic and educational models. DONTSTOP architecture works towards the rediscovery of these values ​​thus outlining a model for the development and conservation of global periurban rural territories.