When it comes to international design cities, the names that immediately spring to mind would generally be Helsinki, Copenhagen, Zurich and others, though not Dublin. Our capital has never been highly regarded as a design centre by any real stretch. The proud traditions of international excellence we have achieved in our cultural and literary heritage have never been realised, or rather acknowledged in design fields. In that regard, however, the change has already begun.
Not being immediately considered one of the great international design cities has not been for a lack of effort and, indeed distinction on the part of designers in Dublin albeit individually. Now though, a coupling of resources and expertise has thus far proven very successful in Dublin’s bid to be the World Design Capital for 2014. Dublin was last month selected as one of the final three candidates, along with Bilbao, Spain and Cape Town, South Africa, to succeed Helsinki. A team of designers called PivotDublin were assembled including architects, graphic designers and other design professionals to coordinate the bid.
Deputy City Architect Owen O’Doherty explains how Dublin had to first acknowledge how it functioned as a design community before a distinct identity could be realised. “We started on this nearly two years ago, but the actual competition only really stated in October of last year.” A major workshop in March 2012 which got people from across the range of fields established that the fragmented design community didn’t know what each other were doing. On realising this, they could move forward and build on each other’s collective resources. “As City Architects – we were conscious that we didn’t know enough about the other design disciplines. We wanted to learn and get further and further away from our comfort zone.”
The judges were in Dublin in July visiting various sites in the city. Wary that this is still a competition, creative director of the bid Bob Grey of Red & Grey Design last month said: “We can’t say what we’re doing and what exactly we have lined up for them but it will all based around people, places and stories. We feel that you can’t do anything big in such a short space of time. We have to just focus on what the bid focused on. Our ability as a nation, as a city is being humorous, conversationalist, we are story tellers. We’re an empathetic nation, an empathetic city and we need to focus on this and highlight these things.”
A successful bid will focus on how design can be used for the betterment of society in the city, and across the country. According to Owen O’Doherty, the design culture is already here it just needs to grow. “Design has a visible face on it in Helsinki and Copenhagen, but in Dublin if you look, you see deep design culture, but you have to scratch the surface a little. We’re working on developing a series of seed projects to help scope out what were going to do in 2014, at moment were working on how we get these started, building partnerships and developing networks within design first and then move on to the other elements of society.”
Winning is the ultimate goal for PivotDublin, but it wasn’t the only one. “We want to win!” Bob Grey assuredly confirmed but added, “Our goal from the beginning was a change of mind, we wanted to let me people know that design isn’t about a grand statement, it’s about how it can change every day lives. The bid proves we have the resources to do able to do this. It’s up to us now to start planting the seeds and to think about the future and how design impacts on our lives.”
The jury will make their decision in August but our fate will not be known until mid-October. Win or lose, the collaborative effort of the bid team ought to ensure a bright future for Dublin as an international design city.
(for the Social - August 2011)
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