new member | shanghai academy of fine arts (SAFA) (china)

24.01.2025 Announcements

ICoD is pleased to welcome New Member Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (SAFA), Shanghai University (China), a multidisciplinary design working at the nexus of concepts: “Culture inheritance and rebirth”, “Placemaking and remodelling”, “Digital innovation and convergence”.

ABOUT

The Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (SAFA), Shanghai University which inherits the Shanghai Art Spirit of Shanghai Fine Arts School founded by Liu Haisu in 1912 is the only comprehensive art school in Shanghai. The Academy has been committed to promote the seamless integration of knowledge transmission, skills development and value guidance, fostering talents who can inherit the Shanghai ethos design heritage, address urban life design, frontier theories and problem-solving research, with a global perspective design theory and practice. In 2024, SAFA becomes one of the three universities within China with complete doctoral programs in both theoretical and practical concentration in design.

SAFA students of design at the 2023 Shanghai Design 10x10 Global Design Summit

International Bamboo Creation Design Workshop (2016) at SAFA (China) 

SAFA Yanchang Campus

COUNCIL CONNECTIONS

Along with the development of the design discipline, the Academy has developed Shanghai Design 10×10 Global Design Competition and Summit, which involved World Design Organisation, International Council of Design, and other design institutions with a global-level influence. In addition to strengthen the professional capability, the Academy has always dedicated to the development of Shanghai city, including having completed the integrated space design for 11 metro lines in Shanghai as well as more than 80% of the public art works in the Shanghai metros. Meanwhile, the Academy hosted intangible culture heritage training organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which involved more than 400 inheritors from all over China, and resulted in over 100 pieces of works and over 40 research topics.

2023 Shangai Design 10 x 10 Global Design Summit with Past President Ting Xu (fourth from the left)

SAFA students of design at the 2023 Shangai Design 10 x 10 Global Design Summit

DEPARTMENTS AND PROJECTS

Adhering to the educational philosophy and the target of formulating a futuristic Chinese modern design paradigm and system, since the Academy was authorised, as the first institute in Shanghai, to set up doctoral degree of Design in 2011, it establishes three directions of “Culture inheritance and rebirth”, “Placemaking and remodelling”, “Digital innovation and convergence”, for both undergraduate and graduate programs. The Faculty of Design boasts a team of 52 experienced teachers, and 15 professors (including distinguished professors) are PhD supervisors. The research fields of faculties cover environmental and social design theory, visual and digital interaction design and theory, fashion and craft design and theory etc. There are approximately 453 students with 39 international students from 30 countries studying in the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in the Faculty.

Faculty of Modern Design

SAFA Design Department at the Shanghai Academy of Department of Fine Arts at SAFA

VISION

As an academic institute rooted in Shanghai, the cradle for Chinese modern design education, the Faculty of Design of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University has been reviewing and re-examining the centurial historical context and characteristics of Shanghai design, so as to find the unique style and orientation of the design with new Shanghai ethos. By utilising the resources of comprehensive university, the Faculty of Design experiments on the multidisciplinary integration, facilitating Shanghai’s construction of “World Capital of Design”.

At the main campus the Wusong Innovation Project is a sprawling modern design

LINKS

ICOD Member page for The Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (SAFA)

The Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (SAFA) Official website