INTERNATIONAL representatives from two of Geelong\u2019s fellow Cities of Design have shared stories about how design has shaped their cities for the better.<\/p>\n
The City of Greater Geelong hosted the UNESCO Creative Cities event under the dome at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre last week.<\/p>\n
Geelong is Australia\u2019s only city with the UNESCO City of Design designation, and Thursday\u2019s event featured presentations showing how the designation was changing not only the built form but also attitudes in Dundee, Scotland and Kortrijk, Belgium.<\/p>\n
Leisure and Culture Dundee director Stewart Murdoch said Dundee, like Geelong, was an industrial city whose industry had moved elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cDundee is one of the early examples of how globalisation can change a city overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone through these shocks and we\u2019ve had to go through these reinventions, multiple reinventions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dundee City Council UNESCO City of Design lead officer Annie Marrs said her city had a long history of embedding culture in its urban regeneration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are benefiting from the work of people 30, 35, 40 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dundee City Council and the City of Greater Geelong are also partnering a project seeking feedback from people on what would make Geelong a more \u201cliveable\u201d and \u201cloveable\u201d city \u2013 head to loveablecitygeelong.com.<\/p>\n
DesignRegio Kortrijk president Dominick Calleweir said the chairs the event\u2019s attendees were sitting on \u2013 the famous .03, built by Vitra and designed by a Belgian, Maarten van Severen \u2013 made him feel at home.<\/p>\n
He said Kortrijk\u2019s historical location as a crossroads \u2013 it sits next to a major canal and is less than 10 kilometres from the French border \u2013 had driven the city and region\u2019s status as a \u201ctransformer, matchmaker and collaborator\u201d.<\/p>\n
Other speakers at the event included Tuba Kocaturk, Professor of Integral Design at Deakin University, Creative Victoria director Michael Hudson and City of Greater Geelong mayor Bruce Harwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cDesign is clearly not just about the built form; it\u2019s about how you think when you\u2019re trying to get the right outcome,\u201d Cr Harwood said.<\/p>\n
The event also included a workshop about the design of the city\u2019s civic accommodation precinct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INTERNATIONAL representatives from two of Geelong\u2019s fellow Cities of Design have shared stories about how design has shaped their cities for the better. The City of Greater Geelong hosted the UNESCO Creative Cities event under the dome at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre last week. Geelong is Australia\u2019s only city with the UNESCO City […]<\/p>\n