Hyderabad to host World Design Assembly in Oct

Hyderabad is set to host World Design Assembly (WDA), an international platform to promote and share innovation-driven industrial designs, on October 11 and 12, a senior government official said Thursday.

Under the theme "Humanizing Design," World Design Organisation's's 31st Assembly would be held in tandem with a five-day local design event "Hyderabad Design Week," IT and Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said.

The events are organised by the Telangana government in partnership with India Design Forum and WDO, an international voice which advocates, promotes, and shares knowledge of industrial design driven innovation for a better world.

"The Government of Telangana has been able to bring this event to India for the first time, to be hosted in our city of Hyderabad.

Therefore, this is a matter of great joy for us and we see this as an excellent opportunity to foster the design ecosystem in our city," the official told PTI.

A biennial event, the WDA has been hosted in many global cities such as Venice, Paris, Vienna, London, Moscow, Milan, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Sydney, Toronto, Seoul and San Francisco since 1959, he added.

As part of the selection process, WDO reviewed bids from around the world, evaluating each applicant city's capacity to host a large-scale international event, engage the wider design community, and create a parallel design event of both local and global relevance, Ranjan said.

The five-day "Hyderabad Design week" starting from October 9 would include various city wide installations, urban sustainability projects, exhibitions, design conference, tours and workshops that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives on the first two days which would be open to all free or at a minimal cost.

Ranjan further said the objective was to not only deliberate on important design issues but also bring these into the fore for local citizens by involving them in the local activities.

On the third and fourth days, important design issues would be addressed at a Design conference through celebrated speakers and important stakeholders from global design community, corporates, government bodies, educators, partner countries and NGOs, he added.