New projects and creation of the working group

The management team of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 has taken advantage of the weeks under lockdown to work on the next stage of the project. This begins with the implementation of structural projects that will have a bearing beyond 2022, coordination with institutions, schools and centres to finalise agreements and collaborations, the activation of participation by residents and the consolidation of the Organizing Lead, the first step of the organisation and management team of the project that, with Xavi Calvo as general manager, will shape the programme to be developed between now and the end of 2022.

The Design Capital begins its selection of the first projects with the introduction of various structural initiatives which, implemented from Valencia but with a national outlook, may be useful tools for professionals, companies, institutions, schools and training centres and society in general.

Valencia World Design Capital 2022 works to serve as an instrument of competence to reinforce the design sector, and therefore the first steps consist of the implementation of its own projects with the aim of consolidating design culture in Spain and making the country the focus of world design, beginning with Valencia. The aim of many of these projects will be to present the resources of the design sector to companies, public institutions, businesses and the public in general, to facilitate access to professionals or serve as a contact with the administration.

“We have to be useful. Therefore, we are working on structural projects that change the way we include design in society. We are not just referring to exhibitions or activities to be included on the agenda, but the implementation of mechanisms that are able to change the way we do things in industry or administration in order for design to be present in processes from the beginning.

We want to generate tools that provide a service to the sector, as well as to other fields that wish to include design. We have the opportunity to incorporate design in the national reconversion of our productive fabric and we are working with all the agents involved to contribute ideas, strategies and paths for unity,” explained Xavi Calvo, director of the Capital project.

The last few weeks have been vital to establishing the Organizing Lead of Valencia World Design Capital 2022, a committee recommended by the World Design Organization as the first step of the management of the project. Xavi Calvo is joined by seven new positions: María Lapiedra, communication director; Amparo Balbastre, finance director; Víctor Aguado, sponsorship director; Silvia Flórez, Design Community Engagement Manager; Miguel Arraiz, project director; and Corinna Heilmann, programme director.

The selection committee, as well as the director himself, highlighted the high profile and quality of all the candidacies received, over one thousand, which will be used for future selection processes and incorporations.

Thus, the full team will be established provisionally at the Valencia Marina, temporary headquarters of the World Design Capital, where it has worked since June on these structural projects and, in September, on activities and contents for Feria Hábitat Valencia and the Valencia Disseny Week, the design week organised by the Association of Designers of the Valencian Community.

In forthcoming weeks, a means for participation will also be opened so that professionals who wish to develop a project aligned with the aims of the design capital may do so within a framework of cooperation. According to the different themes approached in 2022, any professional or individual can participate by contributing respectively projects or ideas in calls that will be announced by the organisers, where a committee will decide on the viability of the different initiatives.

We want to channel the ideas that may arise from different points and implement them with our teams, but also with the existing professional network. To this end, as well as opening the door to participation, we are beginning to define collaboration agreements and pacts for forthcoming years with institutions such as design schools, national and international organisations that share our objectives of implementing design in society,” explained Xavi Calvo.

Furthermore, we are working on the official website of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, which will enable us to centralise all the tools for management, communication, agenda and participation, the development of which will be undertaken by the Valencian studio Néctar, selected via a Call for Projects launched at the beginning of the year. And the forthcoming actions for internal organisation together with the World Design Organization will include the creation of the International Advisory Committee, an international committee of experts who will participate in the World Design Capital Valencia 2022 both in the choice of the major events of 2022 and in the schedule until then.

During the weeks of lockdown, work was also performed from the World Design Capital Valencia 2022 on the web portal #EstoPasará, a platform that emphasises the initiatives of creativity that have arisen throughout Spain in the field of design to facilitate people’s lives. A web that brings together projects, from industrial deigns that have arisen to create medical material and protective equipment to the hundreds of professional illustrators and designers who have worked to raise awareness of the situation. Some twenty videos with national and international designers have been made as capsules, spreading a manifesto in favour of the need for design to be a key to the social, health and economic recovery of the country.