Cape Town has been named the World Design Capital for 2014.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in Taipei, Taiwan, by the International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress.
Other cities in the running for the 2014 prize were Bilbao (Spain) and Dublin (Ireland).
The accolade, says the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), "celebrates the accomplishments of cities that have used design as a tool to reinvent themselves and improve social, cultural and economic life".
It is awarded every second year, with previous recipients being Torino (Italy), Helsinki (Finland) and Seoul (South Korea).
The bid was led by the Cape Town Partnership (CTP). Member of the bid committee, architect Mokena Mokeka, says although they had hoped to win, it wasn't expected.
Mokeka says: "We didn't think it was in the bag. We always thought it was going to be 50-50.
"[The ICSID] could have rewarded a city that already has a strong design system or they could have given [the prize] to a city with potential."
He says: "Our government is still learning what design is all about... Design is about transforming lives. We're gearing towards socially-responsible design."
Mokeka says he thinks Cape Town won because the city embraces Western design sensibilities as well as African.
"Very few cities are able to bring both sides of the world together, the first world and the third world," he says.
Mokeka says what is needed now is for the state to not only embrace design, but to fully understand its functionality and its ability to transform society and speed up service delivery.
"Politicians need to look at design as a tool, not just as a way to make projects look pretty," says Mokeka.
If quality design is encouraged from the beginning, such as when building RDP houses, the work of the state will be lessened and citizens' lives will be made easier, says Mokeka.
He says: "This is a fantastic opportunity for the city. It should help us have a more critical outlook on society. The public must take this mantle that the designers have fought for and say, 'We demand good service delivery'.
"The design challenge is not behind us - it's ahead of us."
For more information on the award and design projects around Cape Town, visit:
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