WDC 2016 Events

We open WDC Taipei 2016 with A New Year’s Eve celebration at the Citizen Square, where we will host a concert of well-known musical artists, a “Light Up the World Design Capital”ceremony which includes a firework show that announces the coming of 2016 and the year of WDC events to come.

An award ceremony will be held for the World Design Impact Prize and the Special Award of the Golden Pin Design Award – Social Design to convey the message of the importance of design to the environment, society and urban development.

According to a UN estimate, 9.7 billion people will become urbanized by the year 2050, which will come with the associated foreseeable challenges. With that in mind, we will invite cities across the world to take part in this exhibition, to showcase the influence of design on urban life and real life examples of solutions to social problems. In addition, the underpinnings of design process and practice will be used to vividly recount how Taipei as a city has developed.

Mayors and their representatives from cities worldwide will be invited to explore the issues they face in urban development, discuss how they use design-based methods to resolve such issues, and explain their visions for the future development of their cities. The meeting will provide a platform for urban development policymakers to exchange views, and will connect cities together in an urban development design network.

Experts in policy making, industry and academia from design driven cities around the world will particicipate in this international conference and discuss cases and examples where design policies have changed their city.

We will invite representatives from design weeks world wide to join us here in Taipei, with the Forum opening withthe particular way that each city developed, followed by sharing of experiences and insights on current trends in design, and how we can ignite the creative economy of a city and thus create urban brands of the future.

In this ceremony, we present the achievements of WDC Taipei 2016, and officially hand over the honor of hosting next WDC in 2018 to Mexico City.

By embedding design thinking and involving citizens in the design process,the World Design Capital (WDC) Taipei 2016 calls for proposals for collaborative projects. The proposed projects should be collaborations between local and international teams to resolve Taipei’s various urban issues with innovative and practical designs.

Set up in 2013, this project is the first government funded program to emphasize“transforming the city through design”. It hopes to create even more projects that will have an impact through social design and urban transformation.

The event aims to enhance citizens’ participation and knowledge of design activities, and will include new store signs, reconstructed menus, designers’story booths, design in schools, and collaboration with community stores.

Since 1845, with the establishment of the first association of crafts and design (Svensk Form, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design), Sweden has ambitiously aimed to become a global design center. This exhibition will introduce Swedish design thinking, and show know-how of building connections among design, industry and consumers. The exhibition will lead the audience to think about how to make commitments to society through design in their daily lives.More Info:http://goo.gl/UemFwk

Creative Expo Taiwan (CET) is a triple-venue exposition held concurrently in Huashan, Songshan and the Expo Dome, where we integrate resources in space, talent, markets, brands and services. In connection with neighboring vendors, stores and activities, the Creative Expo Taiwan 2016 will showcase the Taiwanese lifestyle, conveying the message“the city is the exhibition, the exhibition displays lifestyles.”The Creative Expo Taiwan 2016 will also exhibit the improved and refined lifestyle of the modern Greater Chinese Community.

This will be a showcase of design thinking in educational practices from high school and elementary school students, which will provide residents an opportunity to understand how the city has implemented design thinking into school curriculums. This event will broaden the scope of the core value of WDC into every high school and elementary school campus of Taipei City.More info:http://2016k12.wix.com/2015

YODEX (Young Designers’Exhibition) is the world’s largest design exhibition especially oriented to students in Asia. During the 4 days of exhibition, visitors can witness the dynamic power of young designers in various design disciplines, such as fashion design,industrial design, visual communication, interior design, multimedia design. YODEX provides an excellent opportunity for students to interact with one another, and builds a platform for the international exchange of creative ideas.

Activities with the aim of upgrading citizens’ cultural knowledge. The Taipei Culture Passport has allowed citizens to explore the city’s unique culture through an extensive selection of fun-packed cultural events, such as urban tours guided by specialists, speeches on life aesthetics, lectures given by experts from different industries, screenings of documentary films, handson workshops, concerts, music performances, tea and coffee, gourmet food, and poetry reading. Taipei City Government hopes that, regardless of whether you are a tourist or a Taipei resident, the activities of Taipei Culture Passport will provide the opportunities to experience a different Taipei.

Since 2004, when the Taiwan Design Expo was first held, Taiwan has witnessed the development in the design environment, which has enabled the continued staging of creative exhibitions and activities all over Taiwan. In 2016, Taiwan Design Expo will cooperate with Taipei City to explore the undiscovered features and glamour of developed areas to create a new design movement in the city.

Israel, a far country located at the Middle East, is mysterious and unfamiliar for Taiwanese. Design is the secret key helps them reverse their unfavorable circumstances . The curator, Alon Razgour who has created numerous victories of design exhibits in the world gathers the souls of Israeli culture . He picked the keyword: Material Creativity as the spirit of Creative Roughness – Contemporary Israeli Design Exhibition in World Design Capital Taipei 2016. The showed creations are made by more than 30 Israeli designers who have undergone excellent international collaborations. They transform the real conflicts into design motivations. A great diversity of materials are merged to create impressive designs in numerous fields including industrial design, furniture design, jewelry and fashion design. The transboundary applications of technology and design concepts make Israel have become the leader in medical design and hazard mitigation design. It is a valuable reference for Taiwan. The comprehensive design thinking is also expressed in this event.