red dot on tour - Professor Dr. Zec as design and economy expert in Dubai

The exhibition with which red dot is currently presenting itself at the International Design Forum in Dubai has turned out to be a great success. It is well received by organisers and speakers alike. Even H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the Executive Council of Dubai and patron of the International Design Forum, insisted on visiting the exhibition of award-winning products and talking to Professor Dr. Peter Zec, initiator of the red dot design award and member of the Design Advisory Council of the International Design Forum, about the red dot design award when paying a short visit to the Forum.

As a design expert, Zec is giving presentations on a variety of different topic such as “Economies of Design: A Competitive Edge”, “Put Your Finger on the Next Industrial Revolution”, “Institutions of Design” and “The New Globally Designed World: Living in a Connected World” at the conference.  

red dot online talked to Professor Dr. Zec about the involvement of red dot in Dubai and the challenges posed by design in and for the Arab world.

Professor Dr. Zec, Dubai is a city which has become a boomtown in the last years and which still has enormous development potential. What challenges and opportunities do you see in this development?

Prof. Dr. Zec:

Dubai has virtually been created out of nothing. This makes it free from any form of industrial tradition. Hence it offers the opportunity to design the future completely from the present. This is the chance as well as the challenge. In my opinion, the chance lies in being able to begin completely anew without having to take into account already established forms or developments. The challenge lies in having the courage to take a really new path. In this process, the temptation of simply copying an existing model and not trusting one’s own new possibilities is of course very high.

How do you rate the significance design has previously had in the Arab world? How high is design consciousness and what measures are necessary to further increase design consciousness?

Prof. Dr. Zec:

Design has not yet been understood in an authentic way in the Arab world. It is only bought from the West, without creating a design consciousness at the same time. But you can sense that the time is ripe for the Arab world to develop a design consciousness of its own. 

In your opinion, how can Arab design be really innovative and modern while respecting the cultural traditions of the region?

Prof. Dr. Zec:

That won’t be easy. Particularly in times of globalisation regional cultural traditions often fall by the wayside. But that is not what it’s about in Dubai. The city has been reinventing itself for more than thirty years. Unlike our cities, this is not at all about preserving what exists, but about creating something new in itself. The things that were once are not able to serve as a foundation for the future. For us this is unthinkable. In the Arab world, however, this is the reality. Therefore the future of this world looks so different from what we can imagine.

You have been actively involved as a design promoter on an international scale for many years, and the field of design training is a subject particularly important to you. What measures should be taken in your opinion in order to actively support young Arab designers and guarantee an internationally competitive design training?

Prof. Dr. Zec:

The best thing would be if it was possible to think design completely anew, namely future-oriented! In this world simply anything is possible, which is often not the case in our world due to tradition. Similar to how Bauhaus started from scratch and created a completely new aesthetics of industrial culture, one can and has to start anew from scratch here. This means, that design has to re-invent itself with the development of new industries. For this purpose the best visionaries should be brought to the region. Dubai has the chance of becoming an El Dorado for the creative people of our world, because here you can start anew again. This, by the way, not only applies to the design training, but also to any other future-oriented degree course.

Your first project as Icsid president was the “World Design Capital”, a competition which is held every two years and in which cities from all around the world can take part that have successfully used design to restructure and reconfigure their city. How do you rate Dubai’s chances to win this title?

Prof. Dr. Zec:

If Dubai pushes ahead the design development with the same earnestness as in previous years, the city will have the best prerequisites to be in one of the top places in the next or the next but one round.