Each year, Good Design İzmir progresses with themes that are interconnected yet unique in their own contexts and focused:

• With “Output”, on revealing and amplifying İzmir’s design potential,
• With “New Spaces”, on opening up new grounds for design in the city,
• With “Together”, on social solidarity,
• With “Cycles”, on ecological awareness,
• With “Common Futures”, on imagining shared tomorrows,
• With “Common Futures Reloaded”, on continuity and revisiting shared visions,
• With “Vital”, on addressing the fundamental issues of life,
• With “Reconciliation”, on exploring ways of coexistence and healing,
• With “Dialogue”, on understanding and listening.

Overall, Good Design Izmir has positioned itself to redefine the role of design and designers in a new cultural era that blends sustainable and social design, shaped by the impact of technological developments, while contributing to the global design dialogue with perspectives specific to Izmir and the Mediterranean region.

Organized for the 10th time this year, Good Design Izmir combines all these years of experience in a conceptual framework with the theme of “DİRLİK”.

DİRLİK: Vitality, Harmony, Solidarity, Collective Wellbeing 

Dirlik: It is not just order, but harmony from within. Dirlik means being full of life. It is a state of healing, sharing and co-production. Dirlik is the name of living together, caring for each other and sharing life. It is vitality, heartfelt harmony, solidarity and mutual respect.

In the complexity of cities, looking after individual and collective well-being is not just a design problem; it is an ethical responsibility. Dirlik aims for a multi-layered harmony from physical spaces to social relationships, from mental well-being to ecological integrity.

This approach brings the principle of “Collective Wellbeing” to the urban scale; it reminds us that humans, other living beings and nature are interconnected beings.

This is where design begins; in the relationship established with people, nature and the city. “Good Design”, which we have been meeting in Izmir for ten years, calls us to think and heal together once again this year.

We believe that design is not only for objects, but also for justice, economy, technology, nature and social life. Just as roads are walked together, solutions are designed together. In this event, everyone has something to say, a line to draw, a connection to establish.

Because what we call design is not just about creating; it is a way to heal together, to heal collectively.

What is dirlik? If dirlik means being full of life, what does it mean for you to be full of life?
And what does life mean? What does a person, a thing, a place have to be, how does it have to be, what does it have to contain in order to be called “full of life”?... 
So, where does design fit into this full of life?

The aim here is to recall the most powerful form of learning: learning by doing, experimenting and sharing together. Every question is a new window, every suggestion a new hope.

Design is a bridge that repairs problems and improves people and life.
Dirlik is the meeting of hands holding both ends of this bridge.

Let's come together in Izmir. 
Let's think, ask, imagine and design together.
Because this city belongs to all of us, and if we design, we can heal together.