Saint-Étienne, France

UNESCO City of Design

Saint-Étienne is the first French city appointed as UNESCO City of Design on 22nd November 2010.

With an outstanding history related to industrial modernity, Saint-Étienne, land of creators and inventors, is a city under constant transformation, driven by a dynamic which links arts and industry.

Overview of the Cité du design. © F.Geilpel/G.Andi

Thanks to concrete initiatives such as the creation of the Cité du design and the International Design Biennial, Saint-Étienne has adopted design as an agent for urban transformation and a leverage for economic development. Relying on the creativity of its territory and the engagement of both the public and industrial sector, the city is reinventing itself, leading its numerous small and medium-sized enterprises to innovation, and improving the quality of its citizens’ urban living environment through design.

The research developed by the Cité du design on new ways of life establishes the city as the laboratory of French design and an innovative, sustainable and supportive city. Saint-Étienne wishes to share its experience and skills with the UNESCO Cities of Design to confront the changes in our societies and the central questions cities face in the 21st century.

Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2013

The Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne was created in 1998 by Saint Étienne’s Fine Arts School (now Saint Étienne Higher School of Art and Design) and has become a key event in the field of design in France, for professionals and the general public alike. The Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne 2013 will be held around the whole Saint-Etienne district and territory. It will feature more than fifty exhibitions, conferences and events. Its program will include several tours adapted to a variety of audiences: scholars, professionals, general public.

Empathy, or “the experience of the other”, is the principal theme of this 2013 edition of the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial.  Through exhibitions and events, it will address the various stakes of an empathic society and its capacity to build our future environment, the aspirations it contains, but also the excesses that this notion can potentially hold. The aim will be to understand how design question and answer this approach.

Contact: Josyane.franc(at)citedudesign.com

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