Hasta La Ideas

Good design is the result of foresight and planning, often undertaken years in advance, and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design is now laying the groundwork for 2016. Yes, it’s that time again: Following this week’s Helsinki-to-Cape-Town handover of the World Design Capital title—Cape Town’s got it for 2014—the application process is now open for the next city in line.

Helsinki was deemed a success, with ICSID President Soon-in Lee reporting that “Record-breaking tourism levels and initiatives such as the Design ROI project from the Finnish Design Business Association and Aalto University are direct answers to the objective of how we can increase the understanding of design’s role as a promoter of business life and economics.”

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille was optimistic about her city’s prospects. “Cape Town’s approach to the World Design Capital 2014 will support the premise that excellence in design is using what you have to realise what you want,” she said at the convocation ceremony. “What we hope to do is design the change we want to see in our city, using the very building blocks of which our city is comprised.”

Assuming a fairness in rotation continues, the next WDC will presumably be in Australia, North America or South America, the remaining continents that haven’t yet had a go.

ICSID closed the convocation ceremony with a video highlighting the first four cities to win their WDC bids: Torino in 2008, Seoul in 2010, Helsinki for this year and, of course, Cape Town:

Download the application for the 2016 bid here.

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