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State Govt sinks Adelaide’s bid to be World Design Capital

May 22, 2015
Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Adelaide’s behind-closed-doors bid to become World Design Capital in 2018 has been scuttled by the State Government at the final hurdle, InDaily can reveal.

The Olympic Games-style bid – submitted in late March and protected by confidentiality agreements signed by all parties – has been abandoned, despite months of work by the Department of State Development, Adelaide City Council, South Australian universities, BrandSA, national design, planning and architecture institutions, state cultural institutions and the Jam Factory.

Had the bid been successful, it would have brought a year-long festival of design to Adelaide, likely comprising hundreds of events around the city, including a design-themed New Years Eve party.

However, after the bid was submitted, the State Government decided it could not agree to the terms of its Host City Agreement with the body which runs the competition, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID).

“The Government of South Australia has been negotiating with the ICSID regarding the terms of the Host City Agreement as part of the bid process,” a spokesperson for the Department of State Development told InDaily.

“Regrettably, the conditions of the World Design Capital Host City Agreement were not accepted by the State Government and it has been determined that Adelaide’s bid will not proceed to the final stage.”

According to the ICSID website, a successful host city would have to spend about around $640,000 in administration and hosting fees.

However, it remains unclear which conditions were unacceptable to the State Government.

The government spokesperson told InDaily that: “because the Department of State Development is a signatory of the … non-disclosure agreement the department is prohibited from providing information about the bid”.

“The Department of State Development has been notifying representatives from the design industry, higher education and social innovation, stakeholders from the Department of State Development, Adelaide City Council, Brand South Australia and the JamFactory about the bid not being accepted, over the past week.”

The development of the bid was considered the most significant collaboration of South Australian design industry since the days of the Integrated Design Commission.

Lord Mayor Martin Haese said he was disappointed Adelaide’s bid would not go ahead.

“It is disappointing to learn that the bid for Adelaide to be the World Design Capital in 2018 will not proceed,” he said in a statement.

“However, I am hopeful that this hard work will not be in vain and that together we will find alternative ways to celebrate the importance of design in the social, cultural and economic life of our city.”

Jam Factory CEO Brian Parkes agreed it was disappointing, but said there was “already some strong potential for some legacy from the thwarted bid”.

“Why don’t we have a significant design week or design month, which has buy-in from the whole (design industry)?”

Former Integrated Design Commissioner Tim Horton, who was not involved in developing the bid, urged the government to reconsider its decision.

“There’s a good many who, having invested such energy in it, are at the moment furiously calling each other to find out if anything could be done to save it and give it one more go,” he told InDaily.

“There’s a whole lot of people who helped put that bid together who would love to give it another chance.”

South Australian design professionals involved in the latest bid – who are bound by confidentiality agreements – told InDaily Adelaide had been a “good contender” for the title, and had placed a “strong bid”, despite less resources than the city’s expected main competitors, Dubai and Jerusalem.

However, past national president of the Design Institute of Australia Joanne Cys, who was involved in another bid for Adelaide to be a World Design Capital, in 2016 (which was also abandoned, during the disbandment of the Integrated Design Commission) said that the Government had made the right decision.

“Rather than short-term events that are fleeting … we need some hard, practical attention on design,” she said.

“We don’t need any more events.

“I actually think in this instance they have made the right decision.”

According to ICSID’s World Design Capital website: “the next World Design Capital may not be the most well-known or most visited global capital”.

“An innovative, medium-sized city with a commitment to design has just as much chance at becoming the next World Design Capital as a high-profile national capital.

“… the label World Design Capital is not intended to be a status designator.

“Rather, it is appointed to those cities that have most effectively and, more importantly, creatively used design as a tool for progress.

“(It) is a city promotion project that celebrates the accomplishments of cities that have used design as a tool to reinvent themselves and improve social, cultural and economic life.”

The Australian Institute of Architects and the Planning Institute of Australia, which were each involved in the bid, declined to comment.

World Design Capital 2014 was Cape Town, South Africa. Taipei, in Taiwan, will take the baton in 2016.

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