Design Tour

Bilbao, Capetown and Dublin, are the 3 candidates for being World Capital of Design in 2014. In this tour, BILBAO, CITY OF DESIGN, you will discover why Bilbao is the firmest candidate among all of them for this special event after receiving in 2010 the award «Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize» for its amazing transformation undergone in the last 25 years.

From being a port since the Middle-Ages, in the XIXth Bilbao starts to develope the «Industrial Revolution» that enlarged the city and made of it one of the most important industrial centers of Spain. The XXth Century is the moment for the «Urban Revolution», transforming a city that was quite unfriendly into a modern and services one, and the XXIst Century is the moment for the «Knowledge Revolution» that will place Bilbao among the leading cities of Europe.

In the tour you will be informed, as well, how Bilbao has chosen 6 «Pritzker Award» architects (Gehry, Isozaki, Foster, Moneo, Zaha Hadid and Alvaro Siza), among other international ones, to design some of the main new projects of the city, not to forget others that have left their «traces» such as Cesar Pelli, S. Calatrava, Phillip Stark or Robert Stern.

«Bilbao, city of Design» starts on top of a hill showing you a breathtaking view of the city that will help you to understand the historical backgrounds of Bilbao as Port since the Middle-Ages and an strategical industrial point during the XIXth and XXth Century. Afterwards, and downtown, the tour combines bus sightseeing with walking tours, and focuses on the period of the last 25 years, showing you the most important buildings and infrastructures that are part of the ambitious Master Plan to revitalize the Metropolitan Area of Bilbao, and will lead you through the 15 projects that are considered the engines of Design of the last 15 years: Guggenheim Museum, Underground, Hotels, etc., finishing at «Alhondiga, designed by Philip Starck that resumes and combines in a project the targets and spirit of the City for the Future.