Cape Town is the 2014 World Design Capital. The mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille was in Taipei in October 2011 when the city’s winning bid was accepted by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). She pledged to use the award to use design as a tool for transforming the city and for promoting development of areas of the city that had been cut off from development before.

Previous winners of the title of World Design Capital have experienced increased visitor numbers to their cities. Torino had more visitors in its title year than it did in the year that it hosted the Winter Olympics. Seoul held the title in 2010 with Helsinki taking over the title in 2012. The ICSID selected Cape Town, Dublin and Bilbao as the finalists in the competition to become the 2014 World Design Capital.

The competition recognises cities that use design as a catalyst for ‘development and reinvention’ and for improving their social, cultural and economic environments.

Cape Town’s bid was an energetic effort led by the Cape Town Partnership as part of the City of Cape Town’s ‘Creative Cape Town’ programme. It was supported by local and provincial government and many of the individuals and companies that make up the creative industry. This included the Central Improvement District and the Cape Town Design Network.

The bid was driven by the concept of ‘Live Design, Transform Life’ and had three main aims:
• Rebuild Cape Town through community cohesion
• Reconnect Cape Town through infrastructural enhancement
• Reposition Cape Town for the knowledge economy

Cape Town’s creative industries include the film industry, the performing arts, visual arts, advertising and media sectors, cultural tourism and arts and crafts. Each of these sectors has been experiencing growth since the end of apartheid as the world discovers Cape Town and as Cape Town explores international markets.

The Cape Craft & Design Institute exists to support the craft sector, to inform policy decisions and the tertiary education sector where relevant to the sector. The Cape Film Commission promotes the Western Cape as a destination for film investment and development.

Future plans
An area to the east of the CBD has been designated as The Fringe: Cape Town’s Innovation District. The Provincial Government of the Western Cape, through its Cape Catalyst programme, is a supporter, as is the City of Cape Town and the Faculty of Information and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The main campus of CPUT falls within the district.

Companies setting up in the area will have access to strong broadband capabilities and creative workers in the area will interact with other people with similar interests and skills. One of Cape Town’s most prominent young designers is architect Mokena Makeka. His Makeka Design Laboratory was the lead architect in the joint venture that transformed the Cape Town Station in time for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.

Together with Rory Williams, Mokena writes a weekly column in the Cape Times that highlights design issues affecting the city and its citizens. When he won the Johnnie Walker Celebrate Strides in Design Award, Mokena decided to use the money award to set up an institute of creative excellence. He has conceived it as a living museum and named it the Museum of Design, Innovation, Leadership and Art, MoDILA.

He wants MoDILA to be housed in a building but he acknowledges that the realisation of that goal might take some time. Ideas for aspects to be included in the future building include a creative academy, a space for design workshops, space for resident artists, a sculpture park and an office for innovation. The work of the institution has already started in the shape of photography workshops and high school design mentorship programmes.

Cape Town’s deft designers
Every time a company completes a financial transaction safely over the Internet, it can thank the design competence of a Cape Town IT entrepreneur. Patients around the world have a Cape Town doctor to thank for the CAT scanner and MXit was designed by Herman Heunis down the road from Cape Town in Stellenbosch. Children donning Naartjie Kids clothing in the US, the Middle East and North Africa might not know that the fun clothing line was founded by Anne Eales in 1989 in Cape Town.

London’s famous underground would not have been possible had it not been for the Greathead Shield, a tunnelling device invented by Bishops old boy James Greathead. And now Cape Town’s status as a design city has been formally recognised.

Cape Town 2014 World Design Capital: www.capetown2014.co.za