Barcelona hosts a series of events during Beijing Design Week 2014

One of the most important events taking place during this year's Beijing Design Week, the Barcelona Pavilion opened on Saturday night at 751 D. Park in Beijing's 798 Art District.

As the guest city of honor for Beijing Design Week, Barcelona is offering five exhibitions, 17 conferences and more than 20 activities for the general public to enjoy, including the BB Make project and the Barcelona House series of exhibitions. One of the main exhibitions, Barcelona: A Future Inspired by Design, will be held through to October 3.

A giant installation, the Magic Horse of Barcelona, has been selected as a symbol of the Beijing Design Week this year, a reference to this year being the year of the horse in Chinese zodiac. A giant mechanical mobile structure created by the Antigua i Barbuda theatre company, this is the Magic Horse's international debut.

Xavier Trias, mayor of Barcelona, introduced his city as one of "culture, knowledge, creativity and innovation" at the opening celebrations for Beijing Design Week.

"Barcelona is a benchmark in architecture, design and urban planning, and one of the aims is to show what has been done in these three fields in recent years, without forgetting movements and figures from the past that have helped to build up a certain concept of the city, such as Modernism or Gaudí," said àlex Susanna, director of the Institut Ramon Llull.