News: only one city has submitted a bid for World Design Capital 2016 - meaning Taipei is likely to be awarded the title.

This week the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) in Canada announced that they had received a single submission from the city of Taipei for the World Design Capital 2016 designation. Last time around there were just three contenders.

The World Design Capital selection committee said that they are not discouraged by the lack of submissions to this fifth edition and will "leverage this opportunity to focus its assessment on the viability of the application".

Taipei's application has passed the first evaluation phase. ICSID and WDC officials will conduct a two-day visit to the city to assess if it qualifies for the title, which will be announced in September. It's not yet clear what will happen if Taipei fails to qualify.

Two projects underway in Taipei include Agora Garden, a plant-covered twisting tower by Vincent Callebaut and Taipei Performing Arts Center, designed by architects OMA.

World Design Capital was established in 2008 to "focus on the broader essence of design's impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens".

Watch Taipei's bid video here:

Next year the city of Cape Town will become the World Design Capital 2014, following previous winners Helsinki, Seoul and Turin. The South African capital beat off competition from shortlisted rivals Bilbao and Dublin to be named World Design Capital back in 2011.

Earlier this year at the 2013 Design Indaba conference non-profit organisation Cape Town Design launched a call for event submissions for the city's stint as World Design Capital.

Read more design in Taipei »
Read design and architecture news from Taiwan »

Image of Taipei city courtesy of Shutterstock.

Here's a full press release from ICSID:

In its first round of evaluation towards the selection process of the next World Design Capital (WDC) designated city, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) announced on 6 August 2013 that members of the Selection Committee identified the City of Taipei as the only municipality to move on to the next phase in the process towards becoming the WDC 2016.

The Selection Committee convened on 5 August to discuss the merits of the application brought forward by the City of Taipei with the aim of evaluating its contents against the stringent criteria that awards this designation to a qualifying city on a biennial basis. Having passed the initial scoring, it was decided upon careful consideration that the application would move on to the next phase, which would involve a two-day onsite evaluation.

The site visit will enable further information to be gathered in an attempt to provide the WDC Selection Committee with a more thorough understanding of the proposed programmes, as well as aim to address questions raised during the first round of evaluation.

The 2016 designation will mark the 5th cycle for the WDC programme established by Icsid as a year-long platform demonstrating the value of design when utilised by cities to empower revitalisation strategies from a social, cultural and economic perspective.

The WDC Selection Committee was not discouraged by the one bid submitted but rather leveraged this opportunity to focus its assessment on the viability of the application. The same rigour will be applied to ensure that the proper evaluation metrics are enforced to determine whether the City of Taipei will meet all criteria.

A comprehensive report on the findings will be compiled by members of Icsid’s WDC Organising Committee and shared with the WDC Selection Committee following the city visit. The final deliberation and official announcement is expected to take place in September 2013.