DUBLIN’S BID to be designated as World Capital of Design for 2014 was launched yesterday with a frank admission by city manager John Tierney that it “isn’t recognised as a centre for world-class design” yet.
World Design Capital status is awarded biannually, following stiff competition, by the Montreal-based International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.
Seoul is this year’s capital and Helsinki will be World Design Capital in 2012.
“Becoming World Design Capital in 2014 would strengthen Dublin’s economy, contribute towards job creation and innovation and improve our ability to think, create and grow as a leading city of the world,” said Lord Mayor Gerry Breen.
At the launch in City Hall, the Mayor said his colleagues in Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county councils were “fully behind the initiative”. He called on people in Dublin and around Ireland to back the ambitious bid, which is branded “Pivot Dublin”.
The bid strategy envisages the city as “a pivot point, through which there is a continual flow and exchange of knowledge, skills and resources”. It will involve “leveraging the networks and connections of Irish designers at home and abroad”.
EU commissioner for research, innovation and science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has announced her support for the Dublin bid, saying that design skills and design industries “are fundamental to achieving a vibrant society and economy”.
Mr Breen said it would be an “amazing achievement” for Dublin to win the competition, but “whatever happens, the overwhelming value will be found in the process of making the bid because it will allow us to build the city’s design capacity”.
Mr Tierney said Dublin would be competing with at least 50 other cities. Although Dublin was not yet in this category, it had the “ambition, imagination and resources” to be a world leader.