The Arting 2024 "city__happy" project is the 12th edition of the industrial design competition aimed at sustainable design. The topic is the question about the city, its space, infrastructure and finally its inhabitants. We ask this question to designers who strive for a balance between the matter and the soul of the city in their projects.
The idea of this year's edition of Projekt Arting is to use design thinking methods and the potential of industrial design designers for the development of the city of Bielsko-Biała. We hope to obtain design solutions and establish cooperation in the areas of innovation, education and new technologies. Activities that may influence the development of the city as a good place to live.
The attitude of the city authorities should be appreciated here, consciously supporting all searches aimed at improving social well-being. A tangible expression is the honorary patronage of the Arting Project and the funding of the main prize by the Mayor of Bielsko-Biała, Jarosław Klimaszewski.
In 1994, when the City of Bielsko-Biała organized the Arting Project, it was supposed to be a platform for cooperation between designers and entrepreneurs from Bielsko. The competition topics then concerned specific needs reported by companies. This formula worked well at first, but then less and less. Today, after many years, we are trying to reactivate it by introducing two new competition categories: "Bielsko-Biała" and "challenges". We are counting on good results.
Each edition of Projekt Arting also includes thematic research material prepared by invited experts. It will be presented at the scientific conference accompanying the opening of the exhibition, and published in the form of articles in the magazine. A video recording of the conference will be available on the competition website.
The Arting 2024 "city__happy" project has an expanded formula because, in addition to the competition exhibition and conference, we organize a several-day series of workshops, seminars and exhibitions in several places in the city. One of such activities is the "11/11 project." dealing with the topic of revitalization of 11. Listopada Street in Bielsko-Biała. The increased organizational scope accompanying new projects requires the establishment of a new mechanism operating alongside the two-year Arting Project cycle. We want it to be a kind of design laboratory with the motto "let's design the city together." The adopted name is "BB Design Lab" and the headquarters will be located in the building of the People-Innowacje-Design Foundation. We invite everyone who sees the sense of joint design in the city space to cooperate.