On October 31st, 2012, the opening ceremony of Shanghai’s first Angry Birds activity park was held in Tongji University. The chubby little “birds” from the globally fashionable game settled down in their new home at Tongji University International Design Factory.
The Angry Birds activity park was donated by Lappset and Rovio. Companies representatives, teachers and students from Tongji and Aalto Universities jointly participated in the design work of the park, which not only serves as a game park, but also a creative factory within other functions. As the strong link between all participators, Sin-Finnish Centre provided a creative and practical platform for the overall planning and implementation of Angry Birds activity park, as well as effective support, more ideas and possible patterns promoting future collaboration. The park differed from traditional parks, emphasizing more on the real participation and superexcellent interactive experience. As a non-profit project, the park is open to residents.
On the opening ceremony, Ms Johanna, the chairwoman of Lappset, company that took part in design and equipment provisions, gave a speech. She said Lappset had a dream to invite people from all around the world to outdoors. Ms Johanna expressed her sincere thanks to the collaboration between China and Finland, and invited people from all ages to experience the fantastic creative ideas of Angry Birds activity park.
Mr Paul Chen, GM of Rovio China, showed his hope and confidence in the park’s future development. He viewed the park as a good example of a new generation, which combined Chinese culture and history together with Angry Birds.
Jin Xingming, deputy secretary of CCP Yangpu District, pointed out in his speech that the Angry Birds activity park is located in the first design industry agglomeration in China. The 2012 Radical Design Week represented the history and traditions of design in Finland, and it brought Finnish creativity to Yangpu and would call on more enterprises to gather here. He also expected the collaboration between Tongji and relevant design companies would be strengthened.
President Pei Gang from Tongji University said the Angry Birds activity park indicates how Chinese universities like Tongji train the best students and try our best to promote the design and innovation of China. This also shows strong tie between China and Finland. Most importantly, it’s a great cross-culture event, angry birds fly thousand miles to China and find a warm home, he believed angry birds have already become happy birds.
Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland, Mr. Häkämies delivered a speech. He said that the Angry Birds activity park combined many functions together, such as learning, having fun, spending time with your loved ones, meeting new people, making new friends and establishing social networks. He showed great confidence in the future development of the park’s functions.
After the speeches, delegates from both sides threw toy angry birds to pigs, using this interesting and creative way to announce the opening of the Angry Birds activity park, equipments combining Finnish original ideas and localized design were put into use. The Angry Birds activity park leaves great space for follow-up design, which means Sino-Finnish Centre will continuously instill energy, innovation and ideas to the park’s sustainable development, together with boosting collaborations in areas of education, technology and design between China and Finland in the near future.
At the end of the ceremony, organizers invited all the audiences to interact with Santa Clause and enjoy the special charm of Angry Birds in the joyful interaction.
