San Diego And Tijuana: World Design Capital 2024

It’s time to see for yourself. America’s southern border. See if all the media and political hysteria is accurate.

Flying into San Diego provides the easiest way for most people around the U.S. to do so. Downtown sits 20 miles from Mexico and that country’s second largest city: Tijuana.

The pair want you to come–San Diego and Tijuana–to see how they work with, and around, the border. How they work together literally and figuratively.

How, in many ways, they are one city, not two.

“Our cities are inextricably linked, both economically and culturally,” Jonathon Glus, Executive Director of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, told Forbes.com. “We acknowledge that we are one region; we’re embracing that more and more as both cities are evolving and maturing.”

One way both cities are striving to mature is through more thoughtful design. Toward that end, San Diego and Tijuana sought out recognition as the World Design Capital for 2024. Collaboratively. Successfully.

Every two years, the World Design Organization, a global nongovernmental organization with a mission to “design a better world,” designates a World Design Capital. The winning bidder is chosen for effective use of design in driving economic, social, cultural, and environmental progress. San Diego and Tijuana represent the first cross-border region to be designated World Design Capital and the first time a U.S. city has been selected for the prestigious distinction.

“This World Design Capital designation will allow us to show that there is more that unites us than divides us as we work together to tell the story of the seven million people who live and work here and as we partner on addressing the most pressing issues facing our region,” Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero said when the selection was announced.

World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024 will provide a yearlong platform to showcase design, while further enhancing cross-border collaboration and raising the profile of this binational region on the global stage.

“On a daily basis, once one comes here and spends time here, you start to learn about the subtleties of the shared cultures, but also, that in spite of that (border) wall, we dine in each other’s city every evening, we educate our children in each other cities, we share workforce–40,000 people cross the border on foot every day,” Glus, also a World Design Capital 2024 board member, added. “As a region, we’re embracing that there’s built in challenges to being the largest border region on the planet and we have this wall that goes right through the center of us. That’s a daily challenge for us, but we also believe that we’re the place that can find solutions to share with the rest of the world.”

Solutions, not separation.

Solutions, despite separation.

“I don’t want to say it’s informal, but there is a less formal, seamless way that the region has figured out how to function economically in spite of the border, and we committed through WDC to raise the curtain on what that means, that dynamism,” Glus continued. “We have all the barriers of being in two countries, but that’s alright because we have access to resources that are unique to our region, and that’s what we’re building on.”

Brotherhood, not otherhood.

As for the big question many Americans will have before venturing from San Diego to Tijuana: is it safe?

“I personally travel across the border multiple times a week,” Glus said. “Of course, like traveling anyplace in the world, you need to be aware, but on a daily basis, the two cities function together flawlessly, so taking routine precautions that you would if you were going to more or less any other place in the world, you’re fine.”

See for yourself.

A Hub of Innovation

San Diego–“America’s Finest City” (go at least once before contesting that moniker)–has been welcoming visitors since the 19^th century. The climate. The sun. The sand.

Hotel Del Coronado. La Jolla. The world’s greatest zoo. The Holiday Bowl.

Outside of the notice of tourists, residents have been at work creating an innovation hub over the past 40 years, an economy highlighted by the World Design Capital distinction.

“That has really transformed our region and that is built out of both Tijuana and San Diego,” Glus explained. “We often think of innovation or tech economies as being hubs for engineers (but it) takes designers to be part of the team to get the software done. So, at the same time the San Diego Tijuana region has been building out this tech space, it has transformed our design community as well. That is, in part, what the attraction was for us in this bid for World Design Capital, to tell our story as this new global center that has been built on a rich tradition of designing, coming from being a border region, the colonial sensibilities of Mexico, and now this tech economy that has been built.”

Take Motorola’s regional operations as an example.

“A lot of (Motorola’s) manufacturing happens on the Tijuana side; the (research and development) happens on the San Diego side, but it’s only because of the proximity of Tijuana that we can actually do the research, have test markets in both countries, do the fabrication, and launch to Southeast Asia as well as the rest of the Americas,” Glus explains.

From smart phones and electronics, to clothing, housing, and automobiles–three automotive design hubs call San Diego home: Nissan, Mercedes and start-up Aptera–design influences nearly every aspect of human life. The cities we live in. The utensils we eat from.

Design has an outsized influence on quality of life, a fact not lost on San Diego, world renowned for its quality of life.

“We’re working very intentionally with designers to start with the needs of the community to make sure that they have control of their destiny. We’re designing communities front and center for the people who reside (there) first, who have stakes in those communities first,” Glus said. Like most other places in America, that hasn’t always been the case. “Historically, we are willing to say, on the San Diego side, we have built much of the city for others. We’re now building this city for the residents of yesterday and the residents of today and their children of tomorrow. We’re doing that by ensuring we’re designing hand in hand with those folks.”

With the spotlight and events made available through World Design Capital recognition, San Diego and Tijuana aspire to elevate the power of good design across the region, leveraging the area’s status as an innovation hub to make sure local resources and expertise are available and put to use for residents.

“Every one of us knows bad civic design, bad art design, bad street design,” Glus said. “We don’t necessarily think about the excellence in design that makes our lives easier, more functional, more efficient, and ultimately, for much of it, more beautiful.”

Visiting World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024

World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024, in partnership with hundreds of arts and cultural organizations and schools and universities across the binational region, offers a daily schedule of workshops, exhibitions, projects, speakers, and events.

More than any person could ever see.

On July 29, WDC 2024 opens its Exchange Pavilion in Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama. It will serve as the event’s home through the end of the year with daily programming. The Park houses many of San Diego’s leading museums and attractions, including the San Diego Zoo, putting thousands of visitors and locals on its doorstep seven days a week.

Anyone looking to do more than browse is welcome at the World Design Experience September 18 through 25. Also centralized in Balboa Park, but spanning San Diego, this eight-day event will see all manner of activities and activations related to design taking place within the park. The highlight of the Experience comes the 20^th through 22^nd when leading designers from all sectors across the world will be in residence at the Pavilion sharing their expertise.

See for yourself.