"Ordinary Carbon Bike" made of carbon strands dipped in epoxy, by Tjeerd Veenhoven

The fourth stop on a year-long traveling tour, Connecting Concepts is an ambitious exhibition exploring sustainable creative networks through the lens of craft, design, national identity, technology and ecological impact. After a tour through India (stopping in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore) and picking up projects on the way, the thirty objects on display survey work from as early as the '80s and are interdisciplinary in nature— but there is a powerful story told when shown as a collection. In it's Beijing iteration, Connecting Concepts has added two Chinese projects—work from the graphic design studio To Meet You and an online pop-up shop hosted at Tao Bao and curated by the Guangzhou-based arts space Vitamin. We take a look at three of our favorite pieces from the show.

To Meet You is Guang Yu and Liu Zhizhi, a Beijing-based graphic design duo known for their unexpected design solutions for clients including Adidas, Dior, Vogue, Coca Cola and the artist Ai Wei Wei. The studio is pioneering a new language for Chinese design that is not linked to a specific aesthetic, but rather draws its unique strength from the process of mixing icons of everyday life and modes of expression within the larger framework of contemporary graphic design.

Layouts for Vision Magazine

Identity for Mao

Identity for Shenzhen Biennial

Layout and design for Boundless

Identity for CIGE Beijing

Ahmedabad-based Achal Bakeri and Studio Korjan created the Symphony air cooler based on a traditional technique of cooling hot Indian homes and the more modern solution—an air conditioner. In 1987, Bakeri bought an air conditioner to cool his office and disliked it so much that he decide to develop a less expensive alternative based on the practice of sprinkling water on vertical mats made of khus grass and forcing hot winds to pass through. Although similar machines had been on the market, the work of Studio Korjan created a more functional, upgradeable and simple product that poised the Symphony for the mass market.

Industrial designer Tjeerd Veenhoven admired the sleek carbon-fibre reinforced frames popular in the Netherlands but felt that the exorbitant cost was unjustified. As a response, he built the Ordinary Carbon Bike by soaking carbon strands in epoxy resins to string together fundamental parts of the bike. As the designer explains, the primitive construction was also an attempt to explore new forms for a traditional bicycle: Carbon in itself is not a very complicated material, often it is the weave that makes it high tech. Many of these woven materials are used in high tech products, to provide a better strength vs weight ratio. Of course this brings much joy to engineers and provides consumers with many more options. However in this case the carbon is not parse intended as an high tech material, but more as a material that is real easy to apply giving more freedom to create.

The result is a product that not only demystifies the material process but also stands as a beautiful exploration of craft.

The exhibition travels to Turkey and then back to The Netherlands for it's final showing.

Connecting Concepts Curated by Ed van Hinte (Premsela) Dutch Design Generator On View in Beijing through October 3rd

751-D Park Building A, No 4. Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District Beijing