Suzhou Design Week, which aims to promote the city's new cultural economy that reflects the Yangtze River Delta integration strategy, was held between Oct 30 and Nov 6. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In a forum titled Human to Human, People to People, more than 10 designers, architects, artists and academics in various fields from around the globe expressed their thoughts on how design plays a role in promoting and shaping human interaction.

With social distancing and viral isolation, physical contact is now more restricted, and people are increasingly relying on computer screens to communicate with one another. Experts discussed the role of design in cultivating new ways of creating or promoting intimacy and communication.

Since Suzhou Design Week was inaugurated in 2018 it has adhered to the positioning of "city of design and city of industry", focusing on the three core topics: urban regeneration, industrial innovation and life aesthetics. [Photo provided to China Daily]

With the help of scientific and technological means and artistic expression, Bao Xiying, a graduate student in service design of the Royal Academy of Art, created an immersive experience device that can translate individual emotions for Wuhan urban communities. She hopes this helps in rebuilding personal emotions and interpersonal communication damaged by the epidemic.

Lucy McRae, a visiting professor from the Southern California School of Architecture in Los Angeles, a science fiction artist and film producer, presented an art installation drawing attention to the way interpersonal communication is conducted in the digital age: with a lack of physical contact.

The advent of the epidemic has accentuated the differences in the way we all live and at the same time revealed new ways of living that are emerging.