Department of Cultural Affairs

By Psyche Cho
Staff Reporter

Design adds value to a country and Taipei is a pivot for gathering local design talents, said Taipei Mayor Hau Long-bin June 29 in Taipei as he officially launched the campaign to bid for the title of 2016 World Design Capital (WDC).

Initiated by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the WDC title is given biennially to recognize a city's effort in dreaming up creative and innovative solutions to primary urban development issues such as culture, economy and social life.

Some examples for designs to escalate the efficiency of municipal affairs, pointed out Hau, are things like garbage collection and handling, the Bopiliao reform project, and online medical treatment and health care as well.

Realizing that contemporary municipal administrations are under a pressing need to introduce design concepts. the WDC project can serve as a mass, lifestyle-related and aesthetic movement for city evolvement, as well as a way to fulfill our promise to build a better life for citizens, according to Taipei City Government.

Four major aspects are outlined as initial steps as a means striving for the honor, including intellectual life, ecology sustainability, life health and urban rebirth. Brainstorm meetings over the issues have been frequently organized to map out a comprehensive design blueprint for the city.  

"It's an innovation in the administration of a city," said Taipei Cultural Affairs Commissioner Liu Wei-gong. Through participating in the project, "we bring design workers to the center of municipal administration."

"Thus, social or reform movement will really link to practical solutions," he said, adding that "innovation makes a city wonderful." Liu stressed that effort to refine the capital will continue whatever the result in the WDC selection may be.

So far, the honor has been given to Torino of Italy in 2008; Seoul of South Korea in 2010; Helsinki of Finland in 2012; and Cape Town of South Africa in 2014.