Home / Activities

Print

Send document

BCD drives, along with 22@Barcelona, the new Cluster Design 

The D-Day, for Design, event organized in the frame of the 35 anniversary of BCD held last July 24 at the Casa de Mar Llotja, has been the site chosen to announce the new Cluster Design, a project driven by BCD, along with 22@Barcelona, which will be located in the district of innovation of the city, 22 @.

The event, chaired by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, was attended by over 300 people, among whom were Miquel Valls, Chairman of the Board of BCD, Pau Herrera, Chairman of the Executive Committee of BCD, and other authorities, personalities and professionals from the political, business and the world of design.

Besides celebrating its 35 years of existence, during this event BCD showed its strategic vision of design and its crucial role in today's world. Its strategic plan includes several activities that should attract designers, corporate design centres and companies, as well as other actors in the world of business and design. With this purpose, BCD, in conjunction with the 22 @ Barcelona, is driving the Cluster Design.

Yes to Cluster Design

The Cluster Design is a project of business excellence and innovation with international projection which it is being modelled like the other clusters that are already in process in the area, facilitating the strategic concentration of the main entities from the institutional, educational and innovation sector. The aim is to strengthen the brand Barcelona Design and turn the city into a centre of innovation reference in this field, at an international level.

Miquel Valls did a recognition of the founders of BCD and took the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of innovation for businesses. On the other hand, and according to Pau Herrera, "BCD's challenge is to develop the Cluster Design with an entrepreneurial approach aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises."

In this context, it is noteworthy that the cluster design is primarily aimed at:

  • Quantify, stimulate, enhance the value and qualify the design activity in Barcelona.
  • Stimulating traditional industrial sectors, but also the service sector and emerging sectors.
  • Adding value to the brand Barcelona Design.
  • Connect business with the System Research and Innovation through the System Design.
  • Enhance the value of the chain activity in the cluster.

The innovation district helps to develop the project given that 22@ holds the knowledge about the process of creation of clusters, and it is one of the main areas of the city in terms of business and economic projection.

The Cluster Design include various actions:

  • Integration projects: design + aviation, design + tourism, design + nautical, design + textile, etc..
  • The synergies with other clusters in the 22 @, such as the Cluster Media or the ICT Cluster.
  • Attracting design activities in Barcelona: business (Corporate Design Centres), investment and talent.
  • The synergies between the different entities and university-business interaction.

Currently, the area from 22 @ Barcelona already has the presence of design services companies such as those located in Palo Alto (Estudio Mariscal, Morera Design, Architecture + ADD, Alex Gasca + Train01, Duch Claramunt, Fernando Salas Studio, GEC - UOC Group, Laiguana, Pasarela, Puresang or Sans Visual Studio), or Ruiz+Company, Torres & Towers, Estudi Arola or CDN; the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Pompeu Fabra University and the BAU College of Design, or the Tech Center LEITAT , among others.

The Design Cluster joins other cluster that are being consolidated in the district of innovation Barcelona - Cluster Media, ICT (Information Technology and Communication), Medical Technologies and Energy - which have to boost Barcelona as one of the main platforms for innovation and knowledge economy at international level.

"We are obliged to make the best design cluster in Europe"

The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, showed during the "D-Day, Design" a strong commitment to this project, expressed with phrases such as "We are obliged to make the best design cluster in Europe." In this sense, as pointed by Hereu, "Barcelona wager on cluster strategy, which has already been implemented in 22 @ Barcelona, in order to turn Barcelona into a world reference design".

12 months of celebration

Acts of the 35th anniversary celebration will last until July 2009, during which time BCD will keep working for design, within the Cluster Design, as well as all other projects such as Barcelona Design Week, the programme ExID, the Plan Cambra innovation, the Design Management Europe, and others, always aimed at fulfilling one of its main objectives: turn design into a factor of competitiveness for businesses and strengthen Barcelona's international leadership in the field of design.

The celebration of the "D-Day, Design", together with the recently launched new corporate identity and appearance in the Parliament of Catalonia last June 11, marked the start of celebrations among which stands out the edition of a book on the 35 years of the entity, the Barcelona Design Week or the Meeting Barcelona Club of Design Managers.