events and exhibits

Throughout the course of the World Design Capital® year, Lille Metropole identified and developed a series of unique events that showcased the achievements of the local design community and demonstrated the region’s capacity for innovative design experimentation and collaboration.

World Design Street Festival

Over one weekend, across 4 towns and 60 venues, more than 200 designers and architects invited the public to explore the fields of culinary, graphic, textile and eco-design with exhibitions, workshops, performances, open houses, meet-ups and concept stores.

Design Week

Held from the 10-18 October 2020, Design Week began with the “Strange Night of Design”, a 24-hour event featuring 70 speakers from all over the world, including the United States, China, Korea, Latin America and Australia. Participants discussed the role of design in our societies, and the event was broadcast at the Tripostal and on social media platforms.

The Maison POCs and POC stakeholders also shared their initiatives with the public during Design Week in Lille, La Madeleine and Roubaix through free round tables, visits and workshops.

Le Tripostal, a key venue for WDC Lille, hosted more a variety of exhibits and events, including more than 40 students and young graduates from French and Belgian design schools, who presented their ideas for a world in transition on contemporary subjects such as artificial intelligence, multiculturalism, care and safety in public spaces. French sports brand Decathlon was also featured at le Tripostal, hosting a Sports Mate design exhibition.

Pecha Kucha Night

Pecha Kucha, which translates to “chit-chat” in Japanese, is a storytelling format where a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. As part of Lille’s Pecha Kucha Night, the POC project leaders and designers were invited to tell their stories and elaborate on their unique design processes.

Network of Cities Meeting

Lille’s Network of Cities Meeting was held virtually on 13 October 2020 and explored ​how to collaborate and use design as a tool for motivating citizens, help to build new economic models and draw up effective public policies.

Using this question as a springboard, former and future World Design Capitals shared and exchanged ideas in three key areas, namely WDC legacy management and enrichment, leveraging design and innovation to address the COVID-19 crisis and evaluating the role of design in achieving the UN SDGs.

Policy Conference

Held over the course of several days from 19 – 23 October 2020, Lille’s Policy Conference aimed to study design as a tool of resilience for democracy. Through a series of thematic sessions and roundtables focused on fundamental freedoms, transparency of public action and the future of democratic citizenship in a post-pandemic world, the conference explored and identified what design brings to the democratic process.

Exhibits

Review some of the notable exhibits from Lille’s World Design Capital programme: 

La Manufacture: A Labour of Love

Les Usages du Monde

Design Designer(s)

POC Awards

As the heart of Lille’s programme, the POCs (proof of concepts) offered a way to understand needs, imagine answers, experiment with ideas and deploy solutions. 

Determined to show the world the benefits it has observed after two years of design experiments and exchanges with designers, the POC Awards recognized 20 POC projects whose design integration and impact on society and the territory have been exemplary. Held on 13 November 2020, it was a virtual ceremony attended by POC project leaders, designers and users to honour their efforts and the added value of design.