2016 WDC Taipei Timeline

Taipei officially announces its bid for WDC 2016 on the World Industrial Design Day

In the press conference responding to the World Industrial Design Day, it was announced that Taipei City would be actively expanding the incorporation of design into urban development, and the public were invited to collectively participate in carrying out a creative urban renovation project for the city’s bid for the title of World Design Capital 2016.

During the press conference and designer night activities, we also called on everyone to describe their views on design in one sentence. In response to World Industrial Design Day, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin wrote: “Beautiful Taipei, Creative Taipei;” whereas Liu Wei-gong, Director of Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, emotionally said: “Design is a way to fall in love with life.”

In addition, more than 30 good design stores were interlinked, including well-known design stores《VVG Something》, 《Dragonfly》, 《Haus》, and 《Nordic》, the aim being to allow everybody to easily seek out exquisite design corners in Taipei.

Hosting design promotion and exchange activities at Helsinki, Finland

In order to win the support of other international cities, we particularly went to Helsinki, the city awarded the World Design Capital title for 2012, to participate in their Design Week exhibition. In the exhibition, Taipei exhibited a number of impressive design products under the theme “24+ hours in Taipei” to convey the message to travelers visiting Taipei that you will always have the feeling that the 24 hours in one day are never enough.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin and Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen cosigned a “Friendship City Memorandum of Understanding,” indicating a commitment by the two cities to undertake indepth exchanges in the future with regard to promoting design in society, the economy, and sustainable development. Such a signed agreement not only added Taipei as an international friendship city in Europe, but also won over heavyweight international support for Taipei’s bid for the title of World Design Capital 2016.

Hosting “Design City by Governors” Credit Classes

A fundamental measure and tool for the redevelopment and planning of a city is the incorporation of “design thinking.” Design is not just about outward appearance, style, or sense of aestheticism, but more importantly is an analysis problem – a systematized method to solve problems. When design thinking is extended to urban planning to facilitate a tight integration between the city and design, then design becomes the nutrient for city growth and the driving force behind city development.

In addition, Taipei City pioneered a nation-wide first by creating a “Design Thinking Course Program” for senior officials in a position above department head (including government officials such as the city mayor, deputy mayor, and secretary general). The aim is to assist government departments to put to use the concept of “design thinking” and reflect anew on methods to communicate value from the point of view of the user. And with present and future demands in mind, propose innovative solutions and encourage connectivity between each government department.

Hosting “2012 Taipei Design & City Exhibition”

“Expectations, Taipei / Design Taipei” was the theme for the first “Design Taipei Exhibition” held by the Taipei City Government, in which we championed the concept of “Social Design,” with the aim of conveying the notion of “people-centered design.” The exhibition presented how each department of city government is incorporating design into municipal achievements.

Apart from the main exhibition areas at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a number of static exhibitions and forums were also organized. We further orchestrated efforts for special design events in four major districts of Taipei, including Chengdong Design District, Zhongshan-Shuanglian Design District, Tianmu Design District, and Nanhai Educational Park and Guling Street Design District. Through interconnectivity between local creative workers. a series of impressive lectures, guided tours, creative courses, and large-scale shows and activities were organized.

2012 Taipei World Design Congress

A city is a momentous interface for human culture and lifestyle. And today, because an increasing number of the population is living in a city of compact communities, to better present a city’s image, apart from functional elements such as architecture, landscape, and so on, it is also important to spare thoughts on how to completely reveal a complete picture of the city that embraces its humanistic style and features, its natural environment, and enables its residents to have a positive attitude towards life.

In order to explore the influence of design on urban development, we organized the inaugural Taipei World Design Congress with “Design for Values” as the theme, and invited a total of 20 designers, academics, and business executives from 12 countries to participate. Taking leads from the fields of branding, design, services, and innovation. an exploratory study of the possibility of creating new values in the practical aspects of industry and urban environment through design was pursued.

Hosting design promotion and exchange activities in Dutch Design Week (DDW) at Eindhoven, the Netherlands

In response to an invitation from Rob van Gijzel, Mayor of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Chen Hsiong-Wen, Deputy Mayor of Taipei City, led a delegation to visit Eindhoven for design exchange, observation, study, and exploration.

Apart from the four Taiwan designers Chou Yu-Run, You Sheng-Yao, Tsou Chia-Hao, and Wu Hsieh-Heng being specifically selected to exhibit works in the “Taipei International Design Exhibition” for the Dutch Design Week, and which won high praise from Europeans, an Evening of Taipei Design was also specially organized. Distinguished guests invited included Mr. Rob van Gijzel, Mayor of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Mr. Hans Robertus, CEO of Dutch Design Week, Mr. Robert jan Marringa, CEO of Capital D, and Li Kuang-Chang, Ambassador of the Taipei Representative Office in the Netherlands. The occasion also arranged for the four Taiwanese designers to share “My 24 hours” life experiences in Taipei from a design point of view, which successfully provided overseas public figures with a more in-depth understanding of Taipei, as well as the opportunity for the establishment of a network relationship.

Taipei Design Activity- My City My Voice

In addition to organizing design promotion activities and international exchange events, we also planned the first citizens’ collective urban-themed creations. More particularly, December 2012 saw the launching of “Taipei Tour Wishing Stops,” in which four “Taipei Design Activity – My City My Voice” activities were held in succession at Taipei Zoo, Chianti Square, Paradise Market, and New Beitou MRT Station. The activities included calling on members of the public to make a wish and leave a record of what their expectations were for the future development of Taipei, from which we accumulated more than 5,000 enthusiastic responses from the public.

On 24 March, the final wishing activity was held in the plaza in front of the Red House theater in Ximending. With Liu Wei-gong, Director of Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, leading the way, children from West Park Elementary School committed their wishes to stones. And upon completion, close on 6.000 wish stones had been arranged to form the words “WDC 2016,” creating a “World Design Capital” large-scale public art, while mustering up wide public support for Taipei in its stride towards the World Design Capital 2016.

Hosting design promotion and exchange activities at Cape Town, South Africa

As the host city for the World Design Capital 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, devoted itself to facing the challenges to improving urban problems through the use of design. To showcase Taipei’s commitment in its bid to host the World Design Capital 2016 and win the support of the international jurors, the “Taipei International Design Exhibition” was taken to South Africa’s largest design exhibition “Design Indaba,” where a variety of exhibits were put on display, attracting around 12,00 visitors during the four-day exhibition period. Overall, we learned valuable lessons from the trip through reviewing and studying the promotion activities undertaken by Cape Town as the host city for the World Design Capital 2014, and paying official calls on related organizers. In addition, we also established friendly relations with the city of Cape Town. thus adding to Taipei’s links with international friendly cities.

Activate Public Policy by Design Thinking

Collective participation will be a key factor in whether the urban regeneration of Taipei City can succeed or not. And in order to open up more opportunities for participation, Taipei City Government launched the “From the top down” “Public Policy by Design” program, with more than 20 Taipei City Government Departments taking part in the program. And through the use of an inter-department integrated platform, specialists from the three sectors of industry, government, and academia, as well as design workers were invited to carry out a comprehensive survey of Taipei City and the problems it faces with the aim to come up with design-oriented solutions. As a result, in 2013, a total of 17 design-oriented projects related to the areas of life quality and health, ecological sustainability, urban regeneration, and smart living were selected. Using a design workshop model, and combining industrial design, architecture, interior design, and graphic design, interdisciplinary designers together with local residents, the public sector, and related interested parties identified the problems facing the living environment from the user perspective. Collectively they came up with design-oriented solutions to be followed through with actual implementation of improvement initiatives by professional teams with practical design expertise.

Bottom-up! Launching Stir Design Plan

In order to encourage design workers to become more involved in the redevelopment of the city’s hardware and software, and motivate more designers to partake in the implementation of urban issues, the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs specifically launched a design stir-up program to rouse design workers from various disciplines and design enterprises to actively propose specific urban design redevelopment projects directed at urban issues such as the reuse of overbridges and underpasses, neighborhood parks, street public objects, surrounding areas of public transportation transit systems, the Youbike, and universal design to present the perfection and passion of the city. The aim was also to provide project subsidies, and actively facilitate mobilization, participation, and connectivity of the design world to broaden the role designers play in the city.

Holding International Design Workshop for emerging Taiwanese designers

Responding to the call for the 6/29 World Industrial Design Day, we organized a series of public participation activities including work camps, lectures, and forums.

The theme for this year’s Taipei International Design Workshop was boulevard – “Hsinsheng South Road Overall Design Project.” 31 young designers from various departments of Shih Chien University including the Department of Industrial Design, Department of Media Design, and the Department of Architecture formed an interdisciplinary team, and was accompanied by three heavyweight international lecturers, namely Professor Soon-In Lee, CEO of Seoul Design Center; Dr. Brandon Gien, current Chairman of the Australian International Design Award; and Brian Ling from Singapore, Design Director of Design Sojourn and winner of numerous major international design awards. Together they formulated new creative urban renewal proposals.

Connecting Denmark and Taiwan by hosting Design in Motion Conference

The “2013 Taipei World Design Congress ─ Connecting Denmark and Taiwan” was held in response to the 6/29 World Industrial Design Day as the grand finale in the series of related activities. This year’s Congress specially invited six prominent and heavyweight speakers from modern-day Taiwan and Denmark, including Nille Juul-Sørensen, Executive Officer of Denmark Design Center and board member of Index Award; Liu Weigong, Director of Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs; Jens Martin Skibsted, one of the founders of KiBiSi; Huang Chian-Chi, founder member of Miniwi;, Thomas Hammer -Jakobsen, co-founder of the Copenhagen Living Lab; and Chen Hsi-Kuan, Deputy General Manager of Compal Electronics Innovative Design Division. The speakers talked freely about how to maintain focus on a sustainable vision for the next decade from the perspective of social design, green living, and sustainable cities in order to develop and implement social design, and solve the various problems of urban development.

Meet Taipei: Design

in 2006, AGUA Design initiated the “City Yeast” project, using design as the cornerstone to develop a series of value-building lifestyle design programs. The main objective was to find the steps and actions that would get people to fall in love with their place of abode. The expectation is that people living in Taipei will have the design cells to become the DNA of the city, share with each other the nutrients that nurture their creative innovation, and exchange the energy that drives their passion for design. On being refueled, it is hoped that Taipei residents can continue to broaden their scope of influence and create a city culture that positively thrives on new ideas.
Starting in the year 2013, every summer the “City Yeast” project has unfolded the “Taipei Corner Meets Design” event in Taipei, bringing together close on 200 stores along the streets and alleys of Taipei, as well as the involvement of design and art groups. More than 20 activities were masterminded, including forums, performing arts, exhibitions, signboard renewal, and workshops, which, through inter-connectivity, allowed the public living in Taipei to meet up with design and take part in design on numerous street corners of Taipei. The event further further allowed the public to think about the influences design has on the city.

Hosting “2013 Taipei Design & City Exhibition”

Architect Kung Shu-Chang and the curator of Archicake Design accepted our invitation to the 2nd Taipei Design & City Exhibition, .

Taipei has a multicultural and mixed constitution. In order to highlight the unique charm of this city. we used the “perspective of citizens” to set the tone for the exhibition, emphasizing the integration of civil society and design. Design works under the theme of “Continuing change through citizen’s involvement” were displayed in the exhibition area. The theme stressed the importance of common people in city design as well as the organic interaction produced between the two.

In order to maximize the full range of thinking strategies reserved to present a Taipei – the “Adaptive City” in all its dimensions, as well as the city’s problem-solving abilities and values, in curating this exhibition, we further integrated design into public policy programs, design stir-up programs, Taipei neighborhoods, city street corners, design seeds, and a variety of social design participation programs. and used investigative interpretation of the different aspects of urban issues to dig out the spirit of Taipei social design hidden between the details.

Members of the Organising Committee of WDC visit Taipei

In the final selection stage of Taipei City Government’s bid for the title of World Design Capital 2016, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid)’s World Design Capital Organising Committee (WDCOC) representatives: Ms. Dilki de Silva, Secretary General, and Mr. Nils Toft, WDCOC Chairperson and Icsid Regional Advisor, paid a special visit to Taiwan to carry out a two-day exploratory visit.

The itinerary of the exploratory visit to Taipei focused on conducting site visits for the second selection phase, primarily to investigate the venues for holding the World Design Capital official events, review the various programs designed to highlight incorporating design in the city, and interact closely with the Icsid team to discuss planning issues for the World Design Capital 2016 series of activities.

WDCOC Chairperson, Nils Toft said: “The World Design Capital program aims to integrate the voices of designers and present the value of design. During the bidding process, Taipei has fully demonstrated the capacity of design, and we look forward to Taipei having the opportunity to become World Design Capital 2016.”

Participating in London’s 100% design exhibition

The London Design Festival is one of Europe’s major design events, and has a large number of visiting crowds. In order to promote Taipei’s design power, Zhou Yu-Run, the first individual from Taiwan to win the German iF Design Award. was responsible for curating Taipei’s exhibits. In the “100% design” International Pavilion exhibition area, 17 impressive works were put on display under the three major themes of social design, sustainable design, and design Taipei. Among which, Pegacasa’s bamboo lamp, and designer Wu Dong-Chi’s Cracked Vase were awarded Commendation Prizes in the Media Product category, and Quisdesign’s jellyfish lamp (Aurelia) was also selected for nomination.

Bamboo lanterns and LED lights were used as wall designs for the exhibition area, which further received glowing critical praise from the foreign media and visitors alike, and proved to be the most eye-catching exhibition area within the International Pavilion.

「idea TAIPEI」Creative workshop

No matter whether you are a local Taipei resident or an outsider who has come to Taipei to pursue your dreams, everyone wants to have a city life that brings a tiny sense of well-being while working in Taipei, living in Taipei, and walking in Taipei. Taipei needs more buildings with a sense of design, and a Taipei that is making progress while showing more consideration for everyday life! Do you have any ideas for improving the City of Taipei and life in Taipei?

The creative workshop “idea TAIPEI” event invited the participation of leading instructors in creativity, as well as trainees in design or non-design skills, city residents, even civil servants. The program of activities were held over three days and explored the theme of urban public issues by incorporating public demands into the discussions. Experts in various fields of creativity were invited to serve as lecturers and to guide everybody to use unlimited vision and way of thinking to re-observe and reinterpret their already familiar living environment. The aim was to seek out various proposals to provide a better city life, with the hope that creativity is not merely creating ideas. but that the proposals and programs can be actually put into effect, and are able to truly influence the urban space and living environment we call home.

WDC Taipei 2016 Signing Ceremony

Under the witness of Vice President Wu Den-yih, Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin and Icsid president Dr. Brandon Gien co-signed the World Design Capital 2016 “Host City Agreement” to formally declare Taipei City as “World Design Capital 2016”! Icsid president Dr. Brandon Gien, who has visited Taipei on many occasions, expressed that every time he visits Taipei, he can see the different changes the city has gone through, which is perfectly in line with the spirit of “Adaptive City.” And with Taipei being selected as the 5th World Design Capital in the world, everyone is looking forward to Taipei City striding forward and setting a new milestone in becoming an innovation leader!

At the same time, the representative color of purple for the identity image of “World Design Capital 2016 Taipei” was publicly announced. The choice of purple symbolizes a fusion of passionate vibrant red, cultural and creative yellow, and smart technology blue. This fusion communicates the view that Taipei is a World Design Capital formed from an intertwining of human culture, technology, and progressive improvements, and encapsulates the distinctive appearance of a city with diversified development and continuous adaptability.

Hosting the 2014 Taipei World Design Congress

The successive World Design Capital representatives Paola Zini, from Turin, Italy; Lee Chun Yin, from Seoul, South Korea; Pekka Timonen, from Helsinki, Finland; Richard Perez, from Cape Town, South Africa; and Liu Weigong, from Taipei, Taiwan; along with Dr. Beatriz Garcia, Head of Research, Cultural Policy and Impact at the Institute of Cultural Capital, University of Liverpool, were invited to Taipei to co-chair the morning session of the “2014 World Design Congress” under the theme “Blueprint for a Creative City.” Each distinguished guest publicly shared how the city of their respective country has created a unique cityscape through design, !

With the theme “Brave New World – Marseilles, France,” the afternoon session invited Sébastien Cavalier, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Marseilles, France, to share with us how Marseilles, France became European Capital of Culture 2013, and how Marseilles marketed itself as a city. And Lin Chong-Jie, Section Chief of the Taipei City Urban Renewal Section, used “Practice of Soft Urbanism in Taipei Urban Renewal” to share with the audience the urban renewal process and future development of Taipei.

Attending DesignEX In Sydney

Taipei City was the only exhibitor to promote city image design in this year’s DesignEX exhibition in Sydney, and participation in the exhibition also provided the opportunity for the official overseas debut of the main visual and image representative color of the “World Design Capital 2016 Taipei.” Attending this event was also part of the continuing strategy by Taipei City Government to promote international exposure of Taipei design following participation in the 2012 Helsinki Design Week, the 2012 Dutch Design Week, the 2013 Design Indaba in South Africa, and the 2013 100% Design London Design Festival Exhibition.

Apart from enabling visitors to view Taiwan calligraphy by master calligrapher Tung Yang-tzu, and illustrations by distinguished illustrator and writer Jimmy Liao, the design of the exhibition area was also matched with sofas embracing the cultural characteristics of Taipei. In addition, the exhibition area also included cultural and creative exhibits such as red turtle cake pillows that successfully and seamlessly incorporated the traditional elements of Taiwan, as well as the treasured Taiwanese floor lamp titled “Design poet” by designer Chen Jun-liang. In brief, creative energy was used to fuse Taipei’s old and new cultures and put on the absolutely perfect display!

Hosting “Open Doors” event to celebrate the World Industrial Design Day

A series of activities including the “Design Taipei Open Doors” and “Taipei City X Design Forum” were held in response to the 6/29 World Industrial Design Day in which Taipei residents were invited to join together to see Taipei Cit’s design power.

During this series of activities, the two international masters Justine Simons, Head of Cultural Strategy at the Greater London Authority, and Paul Owens, Managing Director of BOP Consulting, London, were specially invited to visit Taiwan for a mutual exchange of ideas and provide their professional guidance on matters related to the relationship between design and cultural thinking, urban development, and industrial economy.

The “Design Taipei Open Doors” event invited 22 design-related sites in Taipei City to open their doors and lead the public to explore the studios and idea generation bases of designers or scrutinize retail stores possessing unique design concepts.

2014 Taipei Design & City Exhibition

The Taipei Design & City Exhibition, which was launched in 2012, is being held for the third time this year, and continues to build on the results achieved by the previous two Exhibitions to share Taipei’s experience with the world. Having been designated as World Design Capital 2016, Taipei is seeking to use this Taipei Design & City Exhibition to build an international social design platform that can support exchange and cross-fertilization between the world’s most outstanding examples of social design, thereby helping to stimulate even greater achievements in this field.

The underlying principles behind the holding of the Taipei Design & City Exhibition emphasize the important contribution that design can make to contemporary urban development. At this year’s exhibition, there is a particular emphasis on leveraging the experience of different countries to showcase the ways in which social design can help to integrate and connect people with the cities in which they live. The bringing together of these exciting international case studies and stories in Taipei is expected to have a powerful impact, providing inspiration for future design projects and initiatives.

World Design Capital: Passing the Baton to Taipei City

The Convocation Ceremony on the evening of 18 October was the final official event of Cape Town’s WDC 2014 program. 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. The handover symbolizes that the international spotlight of WDC will from now on be focused on Taipei City. The carefully planned program of WDC Taipei 2016 will include many major international design events as well as activities for participation by international and local people.

Embracing WDC 2016：Taiwanese Design Shines in Dubai

Design Days Dubai is the leading fair in the Middle East and South Asia dedicated to collectible and limited edition furniture and design objects. 2015 “New Crafts－Taiwan contemporary craft transformation” is the first time Taiwan participate in the fair which shows design from leading international designers and galleries alongside up and coming design from across the world.

Taiwanese Design has actually been developing over the last 40 years, designers and artisans from all over Asia are drawn to the country to be inspired. Taiwan has many traditional crafts such as bamboo weaving and wood carving, in recent years Taiwanese designers have been blending these with more contemporary materials and manufacturing processes to create some very unique pieces. Through Taipei’s status as World Design Capital next year, the city aims to seize an opportunity to let the world see how Taipei’s brilliant creative energy can be applied to develop design both at home and internationally.

Eataipei. A sensory exploration of the 2016 World Design Capital at Tent London

Eataipei, a series of immersive culinary performances, will take place at Tent London this September, introducing Taipei as the World Design Capital 2016 through a diverse presentation of contemporary Taiwanese cuisine, design and architecture.

An experimental tasting menu of five dishes, curated by Taiwanese-born designer Shikai Tseng and architects Rain Wu, created by Taiwanese chef, Chung-Ho Tsai, who will lead the audience on a narrated journey exploring five fundamental aspects of Taipei: history, landscape, people, lifestyle and the future. The senses that are triggered through this experience – taste, touch, sound and smell – will provide the bridge between the act of eating and the design history of Taipei. In the tasting of this series of exquisitely crafted dishes, the audience will be led on an immersive and sensory exploration of the city.

WDC Taipei 2016 Shouts Out to the World of Professional Design in Gwangju

To represent World Design Capital Taipei 2016 (WDC Taipei 2016), the Commissioner of Department of Cultural Affairs of Taipei City Government Chung-Hua Ni leaded the team to attend the meeting.“We believe WDC Taipei 2016 will continue the great spirit of World Design Capital and create our own Taipei design experience,” said the Commissioner of Department of Cultural Affairs Chung-Hua Ni.

For promoting WDC Taipei 2016, Taipei is participating in the 2015 International Design Congress with Yu-Jui Chou being the chief curator. Yu-Jui uses the geography of Taipei city as an exhibition idea and to show the 5 major topics of “history”, “geography”, “lifestyle”, “Taipeian”’, and “future.” By showing these 5 topics, visitors from around the world will have better understanding about Taipei; at the mean time Taipei is ready to experience the power of design in WDC Taipei 2016.

The selected proposals of International Design Open call

Open Call for Design Project

The World Design Capital (WDC) Taipei 2016 calls for proposals for at least 6 collaborative projects with aims to enhance participation of design communities around the world and broaden the global reach of WDC Taipei 2016’s marketing and communications. By embedding social design and involving citizens in the design process, the proposed projects should be collaborations between local and international teams to resolve Taipei’s various urban issues with innovative and practical designs.

Through Open Call, WDC Taipei 2016 seeks to promote deeper engagement between designers, organizations, and enterprises in Taipei City and the international community. The six participant teams were selected by a ten-person international jury that included Han Wu, CEO of WDC Taipei 2016 (Taiwan) and Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, President of International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) (South Africa).

Members of the public are encouraged to interact with the Open Call workshops and seminars in Taipei between March and October this year, and teams will exhibit their research and outcomes at the International Design House Exhibition, running in Taipei from October 13-30.

 International Design Solution Design Gala

TAIPEI, Taiwan , Mar. 18, 2016 — At an International Design Gala held tonight, Friday, March 18, 2016, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei–a stunning red-carpet design showcase that is part of the year-long World Design Capital® (WDC) Taipei 2016 program–Warka Water, a unique water catchment system championed by Italian design studio Architecture and Vision, beat out two other social enterprise projects to be awarded the World Design Impact Prize (WDIP) 2015-2016.

 International Design House Exhibition

Centered around the theme “Improve the city with design”, the 2016 International Design House Exhibition highlights “Healthy Life”, “Ecological Sustainability”, “Smart Living,” and “Urban Renewal” across six pavilions. Local designers and international cities will showcase leading design and innovation from their respective design communities, all in line with the themes of WDC Taipei 2016.

 International Design Network Of  Cities Meeting

Network of Cities Meeting will welcome representatives from previous WDC cities and design-effective cities. It’s an important occasion for WDCs to discuss design, creativity, and public policies. It’s also an event to share best practices on urban governance and campaigns with design thinking. Interactions and collaborations among cities offer opportunities for design, cultural and creative industries in Taipei, and pass on experiences to subsequent WDCs.

 International Design Policy Conference

The World Design Capital (WDC) Taipei 2016 International Design Policy Conference brought together leaders in design thinking from around the world in Taipei to share their ideas on the future role of designers, public servants, and private firms in facing the challenges of urbanization and resource scarcity.

 International Design Week Forum

The International Design Week Forum brought together organizers of design weeks from cities including Beijing, Chiang Mai, Dubai, Eindhoven, Holon, London, Tokyo Paris, Sydney, and areas and countries including Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, and Taiwan. During the fruitful exchange, organizers shared ideas on how to overcome common challenges and developed strategies to share resources in future.

Convocation ceremony

 2016 CONVOCATION CEREMONY

The Convocation Ceremony, the last of the International Signature Events to take place as part of World Design Capital (WDC) Taipei 2016, was held this evening. During the ceremony, Taipei officially handed over the designation of World Design Capital to its successor, in preparation for WDC Mexico City 2018.