In recent days, the streets and alleys of Beijing's Fengtai District have quietly undergone a transformation. This was revealed at the "Meet Fengtai, Gather Beijing's Splendor" 2026 "Fengcai Urban Art Season" innovation conference held today.
Since the launch of this year's art season, nearly 300 public art pieces have been installed across Fengtai District, covering 26 subdistricts and towns, as well as three major park scenarios. Concurrently, three creative competitions—urban painting, urban furniture, and urban landscape design—have been initiated. Over 80 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in Fengtai have seen children become "city painters," using school walls as canvases to create a continuous, childlike facade. This flowing "outdoor aesthetic education corridor" now stretches through Fengtai's streets. In the Beidajie Beili community on Fengtai Street, residents have cleaned up their hallways, decorated their balconies, and gathered in the community garden for casual chats. At the Beijing 10th Line Youth Creative Village in Yuquanying Street, industrial park and creative park resources have been systematically integrated, transforming once monotonous industrial walls into themed painted murals.
"Good street spaces can also become paths that illuminate the way to school for others," said Yue Kaijian, a doctoral student at Tsinghua University's School of Architecture and a Fengtai Street resident, standing in front of the "Future Home" themed wall painting at Fengtai No.5 Primary School. On Fengtai Street, the 868-square-meter "Student Gallery" has become a new check-in spot for nearby residents. A Fengtai Street official explained that this gallery involved collaboration between universities and primary and secondary school students, with every step from design sketches to wall painting including resident participation.
Addressing the essential question of urban governance, the Fengtai District Urban Management Committee has issued a "task document" for improving the quality of the district's public spaces. This plan focuses on advancing six major projects, six vibrant scenarios, and one "most beautiful" commercial street, all infused with Fengtai's cultural characteristics, green ecological texture, and modern vitality. The goal is to create a new paradigm for enhancing urban public spaces that is tangible, replicable, and explorable, moving the "Beautiful Fengtai" initiative from blueprint to reality. The key projects will target urban infrastructure construction, district-level urban renewal, and the improvement of "golden corners and silver edges" (small, underutilized plots), with comprehensive spatial quality design emphasizing systematic style unity and multi-functional overlay, thereby strengthening the hardware foundation for a livable public space system.
Fengtai District has simultaneously established two long-term collaborative mechanisms. The initial batch of "Urban Art Partner" units includes not only universities and professional institutions but also cultural industry enterprises and online influencers. They will deeply participate in creating public art sites, shaping street landscapes, promoting public aesthetic education, and publicizing the art season. Additionally, Fengtai District has formed an expert think tank of art commissioners, appointing industry experts to serve as art commissioners. These experts will work directly with street-level communities, fully participating in project planning, creative guidance, and creative evaluation, ensuring that works are tailored to urban development, possess creative value, and highlight local heritage.
Comments