This week we were almost 100% Design Shanghai. Jen Renzi's daily diary ventured beyond the show to get a glimpse of pre-Olympics Shanghai as well as what we expect will someday be a major design center. How so? China's 400 design schools are churning out 10,000 grads a year, China manufactures almost everything and China has thousands of years of art and culture to draw inspiration from. More to come. The highlights:

+ The bamboo garden: designer scaffolding
+ The press conference, where the show came to life
+ Richard Hutten's green house
+ The show's It Bag
+ A tour of the Bridge 8 complex
+ Party on the Bund, no explanations necessary
+ Book launch on the Bund, despite the rain
+ The launch was all about the three P's; panels, politics, and practicing architecture in Shanghai
+ A pow-wow with the creative directors...
+ ... and a panel discussion on Branding China

But it wasn't ALL about Shanghai this week:

+ London presents New Designers 2008
+ Uli Rapp's Charm Necklace made a statement from the Netherlands
+ Fresh MoCo featured work from Italy, Mexico and Poland
+ Mag Reviews: nico, Wallpaper* and FRAME
+ This Week from Tokyo: Plus Minus Zero's new collection and pens by Naoto Fukasawa
+ Wooden angles from Martin Sprouse
+ This Week at Art MoCo - Valerie Green catches people in the act ... of shopping
+ and new work from Eastvold Custom, Christopher Yue and Asssaf Israel - reclaimed timber, hanging up the mess and tidy juicing

Above: Simon Dennehy's ergonomic Perch chair and desk set for schools, "Schools are the offices for children. They spend a large amount of their youth attending both primary and secondary schools and during that time are likely to be sitting at a desk. A drastic change to the standards, which dictate measurements for furniture in schools, is required.". We couldn't agree more.