ICSID World Design Congress 2009 Singapore

The 50th Anniversary Icsid World Design Congress Sets to Make a “Design Difference” in the Future

Four keynote speakers and nine symposia leaders will invite participants to map out a design vision for the world of 2050

The 50th Anniversary ICSID Congress will be held in Singapore from 23 to 25 November 2009. The congress, subtitled “Design Difference: Designing our World 2050”, will involve participants helping create and debate potential design solutions to some of the key challenges facing the world of tomorrow. The solutions which are developed will have a life beyond the conference, as they will be shared with other design groups and with stakeholders such as governments around the world. Already delegates from 25 countries have confirmed their attendance.

The event itself embraces the future by featuring “Design2050 Studios”, inter-active and participative mini-symposia, led by world-renowned creative experts, including Chris Bangle of Chris Bangle Associates, and Stefano Marzano of Philips Design (refer to Appendix I for a full list of Design Leaders). In the months leading to the Congress, each of the Design Leaders will head up a team of four to six individuals from multi-discipline backgrounds to create a Design2050 proposition, by imagining, conceptualising and visualising a desired future. Participants at the Congress will be invited to transform these ideas into practical realities.

The nine confirmed symposia leaders and their studio topics are:
1. Chris Luebkeman, Arup Group: NetZero 2050
2. Bill Mitchell, MIT Media Lab: Reinventing the Automobile 2050
3. Richard Hassell and Wong Munn Sum, WOHA: Architects save the World
4. Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba: Protofarm 2050
5. Chris Bangle, Chris Bangle Associates: Personal Emotional Mobility 2050
6. Stefano Marzano and Clive van Heerden, Philips Design: Healthcare 2050
7. Feng Zhu, FZD School of Design: Entertainment 2050
8. Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Prof, of Architecture at Harvard University:
Blindspots of Design 2050
9. David Nelson and Stefan Behling of Foster + Partners: Sustainable Cities 2050

Confirmed keynote speakers for the conference are:
1. Emily Pilloton, founder and executive director of Project H Design, a non-profit
organisation that enables product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and
Happiness, and author of "Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People" (release
date Sept. 2009).
2. Ged Davis, Co-President, Global Energy Assessment, advisor to international
institutions and companies, director of Low Carbon Accelerator Limited, governor of the
International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, and a member of the INDEX
Design Awards Jury.
3. Thomas Heatherwick, Honorary Fellow of the RIBA and a Senior Fellow at the Royal
College of Art in the UK. Heatherwick has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and in
2004 was the youngest practitioner to be appointed as a Royal Designer for Industry.
4. William Halal, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology & Innovation at George
Washington University. Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of the Future ranked Prof. Halal among
“The World’s 100 Most Influential Futurists”, a list that includes the likes of H.G. Wells, Sir
Arthur C. Clarke and Daniel Bell.

Panel discussions at the end of each of the three days of deliberations at the congress will be chaired by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Prof. Carlos Hinrichsen, Icsid President said: “The experience of the keynote speakers and their combined backgrounds in government, industry, and the non-profit sectors, further strengthen the purpose of the Congress – to stimulate a dialogue about the discipline of design and how it has and will continue to shape the future of the world.

“Attendees will contribute to this discussion, and should be prepared to be engaged in a thoughtprovoking, and creatively-enriching experience. The congress will be a wonderful occasion for all those inspired by the power of design to deliver a better world.”

Dr Milton Tan, Director of DesignSingapore Council, and Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of the Congress said: "This year's Icsid World Design Congress will be different. Nine international design leaders will be in Singapore not simply to give speeches but to make visionary design propositions for the year 2050. Anyone concerned about how we should live in the future, and what we can do about it, should feel compelled to be here!"

More information on the Icsid World Design Congress, the Design2050 Studios, speakers and registration is available at: www.icsidcongress09.com. The deadline for the special discounted “early bird price” is fast approaching. To be eligible one must book prior to the 9th of September.
The Congress will be held during the biennial Singapore Design Festival (20 to 30 November).