Cape Town (South Africa) – On 18 October 2014, the Taipei City Government launched the warm-up period for World Design Capital® (WDC) 2016 following the WDC Convocation Ceremony. The completely redesigned WDC Taipei 2016 official website will soon formally go online. The events calendar for 2016 is expected to be formally announced in October 2015.

The Convocation Ceremony on the evening of 18 October was the final official event of Cape Town’s WDC 2014 programme. Commissioner Dr. Wei-Gong Liou of Taipei City Government and the WDC Taipei 2016 Office led a group to Cape Town to attend the ceremony. Witnessed by Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille and 170 invited guests from the global design community, Dr. Brandon Gien, President of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid), formally presented the WDC Commemorative Plaque to Commissioner Liou.

Commissioner Liou said: “Over the last two years, since we began the application process to host WDC 2016, Taipei City’s efforts to embed design-led thinking into the public policy formulation of city government departments have given rise to many innovative proposals. At the same time, the enthusiastic response of locally based designers has helped our citizens to jointly explore ways to make our city a better place. We have discovered that through a combination of design, government resources and private-sector participation, we are gradually changing the face of Taipei City, and also changing people’s ways of thinking. This is a positive development. We hope that in the coming two years we can continue to push these efforts forward, to enable Taipei City to continually improve and change, and to truly become a people-oriented Adaptive City.”

In order to present the spirit and focus of Taipei’s coming tenure as World Design Capital 2016 to the international guests and the world’s media, the Taipei City Government organised a special pavilion on the theme of “WDC Taipei 2016 – Adaptive City” at the Design House Exhibition in Cape Town. The exhibits showcase Taipei City’s unique social design projects, enabling exhibition visitors to appreciate the difficulties experienced by various public service users, and to understand the improved designs.

The handover symbolises that the international spotlight of WDC will from now on be focused on Taipei City. The carefully planned programme of WDC Taipei 2016 will include many major international design events as well as activities for participation by international and local people.

For more information, please contact:
Wendy Chang
Director of WDC Programme Sector
World Design Capital Taipei 2016 Office
t: + 886 2 27458199 ext 468
e: yutong_chang@tdc.org.tw

Tara Walker
Icsid Project Manager
t: +1 514 448 4949 ext. 224
e: twalker@icsid.org


About World Design Capital® (WDC)

While there are many awards that recognise individual accomplishments in design, the World Design Capital designation is unique as it aims to focus on the broader essence of design’s impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens. The designation provides a distinctive opportunity for cities to feature their accomplishments in attracting and promoting innovative design, as well as highlight their successes in urban revitalisation strategies. The World Design Capital is an initiative established and managed by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. Past cities to hold the title include Torino (Italy) in 2008, Seoul (South Korea) in 2010 and Helsinki (Finland) in 2012. The City of Cape Town (South Africa) is concluding its programme for 2014 under the theme of Live Design. Transform Life., While preparations for Taipei (Taiwan, Chinese Taipei) are currently underway for 2016. Bids for the 2018 designation are currently being accepted through 31 March 2015.