Kortrijk receives €100,000 from the Flemish government for cooperation with the Lithuanian city of Kaunas in the run-up to Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022. Designregio Kortrijk is thus rolling out three of its projects in Kaunas. The first project to be launched is the successful 5X5® innovation project.
Kortrijk and Kaunas got to know each other through the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Both cities are members of UCCN in the field of design. In 2021 Kaunas will enter the last straight line to European Capital of Culture 2022. A title that Kortrijk also aspires to for 2030. So both Kortrijk and Kaunas are very actively writing a story of creativity and design. The ideal operating base for setting up an intense collaboration.
5X5® innovation track in Kaunas
The current corona crisis proves once again that creativity and agility are the keys to staying ahead as a company in this uncertain world. And let Designregio Kortrijk and Voka West-Vlaanderen stimulate precisely that creative thinking with the 5X5® innovation path. Thanks to 5X5®, more than 40 West Flemish companies, including Dovy Keukens, Valo Blinds, Eliet, and Akomo, have been working with design teams and developing new products and services over the past 10 years.
Thanks to the above-mentioned collaboration, Designregio Kortrijk can roll out the 5X5® methodology internationally for the first time, so that SMEs from Kaunas can also stay ahead of the competition there thanks to well-designed and meaningful products and services. Since the beginning of this year, Designregio Kortrijk has been training a team from Kaunas so that they too can guide companies and designers through the 5X5® track. The call for companies and designers has already been launched. The results of the project in Kaunas and those of the Flemish companies will be shown in an exhibition in the context of Kaunas European Cultural Capital 2022.
In addition to the 5X5® innovation track, a K-TOTEM sculpture is being exported to Kaunas and a trade mission for 2022 is being prepared.
Contact information
Stijn Debaillie
Design regio Kortrijk
stijn@designregio-kortrijk.be
056 51 91 83