China Academy of Art and Xiaomi 2025A8416

China Academy of Art and Xiaomi team up for student project

Students at the Chinese Academy of Art recently paired up with Xiaomi for a new joint project

Freddie Holmes

Published 6 May 2025 - 12:56 Modified 2 July 2025 - 15:28

Last April saw an unlikely pairing between Alfa Romeo and the China Academy of Art. Strong results showed the importance of OEM involvement as students go through their studies, and this year the school has teamed with Xiaomi.

Yes, this is a Chinese brand, but on the face of things the collaboration is perhaps even more left-field. This is a company best known for consumer electronics, and that changed only recently as it revealed its first product on four wheels at the end of 2023 – bringing Chris Bangle on board for design consultancy no less.

With that in mind, what did the project set out to achieve this year? Operating under the wider theme of ‘Alive’, the brief considers the intersection between human, car and home. Specifically, students were asked to create a complete exterior and interior concept that would fit in with the wider Xiaomi ecosystem of consumer electronics and appliances, “expressing Xiaomi’s future brand potential and technology innovation.”

From the university side, students were supported by dean of the Transportation Research Institute, James Hope; from Xiaomi help came from head of design Li Tianyuan who joined in 2021 after a fair stint with BMW. ”I would like to express my thanks to Xioami Design and Mr. Li Tianyuan for their support and engagement during this collaboration,” Hope told CDN. “The students’ passion, hard work and talent is evident in their creative and diverse projects.”

“As Xiaomi is not a conventional car company, this offered the students a unique challenge to consider the full product portfolio of Xiaomi and explore how technology could be adapted to the user experience beyond the vehicle itself,” Hope continues.

At a practical level, Xioami has hands-on with the students throughout the project with support and feedback as needed. At the same time, students were left to shape their own individual projects freely. Hope believes Xiaomi’s “unique product background” led students to consider the broader influence of “technology, innovation and freedom in comparison to legacy automakers – with their more established heritage – resulting in the unique interpretations of their concepts.”

As we have come to expect from today’s car design students, the product is just one component to a broader presentation. There is a deeper story being told and presented through razor sharp visuals and compelling narrative, not to mention 3D and physical models. Indeed, the top five projects were developed into 1:3 scale models.

Let’s take a look at the projects below, listed in no particular order.