Press Release
Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
Jian Zhang honored for interior space and exhibition design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 22, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category for Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
Regarding Kangding Garden Space Design
Kangding Garden is a residential interior design project in Shanghai that includes a club and show flats. The club occupies 1,800 square metres on the first basement level and serves more than 300 residents. An entire wall of Italian Calacatta marble is framed by a tall arch at the entrance. A marble frame surrounds a view of a Chinese tallow tree in the sunken courtyard. Three-metre-high timber doors lead to a tea lounge and a private dining suite. Beige stone, dark timber and a recurring curved motif recall the character of old Shanghai.
Award Record
With this recognition, Jian Zhang is a winner of 3 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2024 - 2025 to 2025 - 2026 of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award
The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Entries typically include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. Awarded interior designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/interior
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/176210
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/176210
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!176210
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/356974
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ax1joQtDsUHR2ejoOKFL7w
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Kangding Garden Space Design
- Function
- Space Design
- Category
- Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Packaging & Retail
- Colors
- Black, Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Rosy Brown and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Jian Zhang
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #176210
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The project is not simply residential innovation, but a contemporary renaissance of retro aesthetics by transforming living spaces into three-dimensional indexes of cultural memory and redefining elegance for a new era. Led by DIA's Shanghai and Shenzhen design directors, Jian Zhang shaped the club and public spaces, while Feng Xue designed the show flats. Their work decodes Jing’an’s historic DNA through spatial storytelling, material dialogue, and color philosophy.
- Inspiration
- The essence of Jing'an District, Shanghai lies in its meticulous attention to detail. Named after the millennium-old temple, the district has long cultivated a philosophy of refinement. The club at Kangding Garden extends this tradition in this spiritual lounge for over 300 residents. Inspired by the Paramount Ballroom, the club resembles a series of cinematic stage sets, each space laced with metaphors for those who notice.
- Research
- Kangding Garden’s living philosophy finds its fullest expression in the daily rituals of its show flats. Unlike a merely personal notion of being particular, it is a meticulous, research-driven process rooted in empathy, highlighting precision that translates into palpable quality and quiet confidence.
- Challenge
- Ceiling and floor are clad in a bold pairing of black and dark gray. The interwoven grids patterns strike a dramatic contrast with the pale walls and soft furnishings. This chiaroscuro evokes the syncopated rhythms of the Paramount Ballroom, as if stepping into the monochrome frames of a vintage Shanghai film.
- Realization and Technology
- Descending to the 1,800-square-metre club on B1, guests encounter an entire wall of Italian Calacatta marble, framed by a soaring arch, which is solemn yet opulent. Beyond it, a marble picture frame captures the rare Chinese tallow tree in the sunken courtyard, turning nature into a living oil painting. It is an ever-changing focal point and the project’s most memorable anchor.
- Operation and Interaction
- The club entrance flows into the Writer’s Study, forming an extended ground-floor lounge. Two nearly five-meter-high square volumes are wrapped in beige stone and dark timber. A stone arch portal instantly evokes the memory of old Shanghai, yet its curves and junctions have been subtly deconstructed and reassembled through a modernist lens. This signature curve recurs in the reception desk and even the lamps, unifying the design language throughout.
- Project Duration and Location
- On Shanghai’s luxury real estate map of 2025, Kangding Garden emerges as a defining landmark. Positioned at the crossroads of Wuning Road South and Kangding Road, this heritage-inspired development sits less than one kilometer from Jing’an Temple, making it immersed in the global glamour of Nanjing West Road, yet embraced by the quiet poetry of century-old plane trees.
- Specifications
- Through three-metre-high timber doors lie a tea lounge and private dining suite available by reservation. These spaces are at once functional and emblematic of status. Here, the Shanghainese concept of fastidious refinement reaches its purest form: restrained luxury, quiet boldness, perfection distilled into the smallest detail.
- Keywords
- interior design, show flat, residence, club, DIA
