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News • Helsinki • Finland • 2012-12-04

World Design Capital title shifted from Helsinki to Cape Town

The WDC Helsinki 2012 closing summit and evening ceremony was held in Helsinki on Thursday, 29 November 2012.

At the events, all eyes was on Cape Town as Helsinki passed on the title of World Design Capital.

The aim of Cape Town’s year as Design Capital is to use design to create a more harmonious city. During the year, Cape Town will place emphasis on socially responsible design, durability and innovations.

A delegation of seven representatives from Cape Town participated in the WDC Helsinki 2012 closing summit and evening ceremony, including Mayor Patricia de Lille and the World Design Capital 2014 project manager Richard Perez.

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) conferred the title of World Design Capital on Cape Town at an evening ceremony at Helsinki City Hall. A plaque containing the title World Design Capital Cape Town was presented to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille.

The Mayor of Helsinki, Jussi Pajunen, received the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 plaque in Seoul in December 2010. The plaque has been located at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport and, after the turn of the year, it will be relocated to a spot allocated by the City of Helsinki.

Closing summit discussed significance of design in changing cities

The international World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 closing summit was held at Finlandia Hall on 29 November 2012. The summit summarised the impact of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 year and reviewed the importance of themed years to the city.

Four topics were discussed at the summit: Roots for New Growth - Demand for Design, Global Responsibility - Designing the Future, Open Helsinki - Creating Cultural Change, and Design Destination - Transforming the City. Debating these topics were top Finnish and international speakers such as Ravi Naidoo, Judy Dobias and Michael Thomson.

The summit ended with a panel discussion involving the Mayors of Cape Town, Taipei and Lahti, the Chair of Stockholm\'s city council and representatives from Icsid, UNESCO and the IBM Smarter Cities network. The panel considered what kind of cities are design-led cities, and what the challenges of design are in modern cities, as well as touching on other topics. The summit was moderated by strategic design manager Marco Steinberg from Sitra.

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