WDC Pavilion in Darmstadt 02 – 20/09

grafik mit rosa elementen

Design Policy Days

The Design Policy Days serve as the four-day closing event of WDC 2026 and a central forum for exchange between design, politics, science, and society. The goal is to generate momentum for the sustainable shaping of cities, regions, and democratic community life. Three conferences in Wiesbaden, Offenbach, and Frankfurt are dedicated to the themes of public administration, stance, and politics—exploring how design can act as a catalyst for addressing social and political challenges.

The common thread running through the event is the Design Action Plan Frankfurt RheinMain, which is already being developed collaboratively. Serving as our political legacy, it outlines a roadmap to ensure the WDC year yields lasting structures. As a political tool that establishes frameworks for embedding design across policy, administration, and the wider region, it will be handed over to the region during the Design Policy Days.

The event concludes with the Design Assembly at St Paul’s Church in Frankfurt: it brings together the international network of World Design Capitals with regional actors and opens a dialogue with regional policymakers—where the Design Action Plan will be formally presented to politics and society. During the subsequent Convocation Ceremony, the WDC title will officially pass to the next World Design Capital: Busan, South Korea.

3 conference days

grafik mit rosa elementen auf braunem hintergrund

When Public Service Is Designed

Heimathafen Wiesbaden, German Design Council, Service Design Network (SDN)

Practitioners from the public sector, politics and business with international service design experts come together. The focus is on how citizen-centred services can be further developed in Hesse, the RheinMain region and beyond – and what a creative, citizen-focused bureaucracy needs to achieve this.

Heimathafen Wiesbaden

Grafik mit rosa Elementen auf grünem Hintergrund

When Form Becomes Attitude

Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach/Main, Board of International Research in Design

How can design take a stand and why this is needed now more than ever? It combines project presentations on interventions in urban space with an international symposium. The focus is on design that is not treated as a service but as an independent stance, one that must assert itself in public space.

Offenbach University of Art and Design

Grafik mit rosa Elementen auf blauem Hintergrund.

09:30 – 20:30

When Design Gets Political

Deutscher Designtag e. V., Forschungszentrum „Normative Ordnungen“ der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

For anyone who views design as a political force. In collaboration with the German Design Day and the Research Centre for Normative Orders, it focuses on institutional politics: how can design be integrated into political decision-making processes methodologically, structurally and normatively – and how can politics itself be understood as a field of design?

Casinogebäude der Goethe-Universität

The events on Saturday

Die Spitzen der Frankfurter Hochhäuser im Abendlicht

10:00 – 13:00

Network of Cities Meeting

The Network of Cities Meeting provides regional decision-makers with an exclusive first look at the results of WDC 2026—and brings them into direct dialogue with other World Design Capitals.

Blick in die Kuppel der Frankfurter Paulskirche

©Hessisches Kulturdenkmalamt

Design Assembly

WDC 2026 gathers representatives from politics, public administration, academia, design, and civil society at St Paul’s Church for a shared moment of reflection—and new beginnings.

Blick auf die Frankfurter Paulskirche von einem Hochhaus aus gesehen

18:00 – 20:00

Convocation Ceremony

The concluding highlight of the WDC year 2026 in Frankfurt RheinMain will be the Convocation Ceremony. In a festive ceremony, the title will be handed over to the next World Design Capital, Busan, South Korea.

Footer image