Design for Change How Kobe Inspires Nan Creative Future

On September 11, 2025, a Nan provincial delegation, led by Ms. Wilaiwan Budasa, Deputy Governor of Nan Province, and comprising representatives from the Nan Provincial Administrative Organization, together with Dr. Chumpol Musikhanont, Deputy Director of the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA), Colonel Navin Preechapanichyakul, and Dr. Phimonphan Sakidram, Director of the Community College and Nan Province's Key Coordinator, and the working group driving Nan towards becoming a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), traveled to Kobe, Japan for a study visit and knowledge exchange on design at the Design and Creative Center Kobe (KIITO). The visit aimed to learn from a leading Creative City of Design model within the UCCN and to adopt tangible best practices for Nan's urban development.

Kobe, a UCCN member in the field of Design since 2008, uses KIITO as a central hub to systematically drive the city through the "Power of Design." This ranges from arts and culture festivals and activities to the incubation of public service design thinking and youth development. A notable example is the "Chibikkobe" workshop, which provides a space for children and creators to co-design the actual city, reflecting the role of "Design for the Public." This offers immediate, excellent models for Nan in terms of creative tourism and public participation processes.

One of the key lessons is the "adaptive reuse of industrial heritage into a contemporary creative center." The former Kobe Raw Silk Testing Center building (constructed around 1927–1932) has been fully renovated into a creativity hub, exchange space, and activity center, while preserving its architectural and historical value. This approach of adaptive reuse presents a clear policy challenge that Nan can genuinely apply, such as revitalizing old buildings to become "Design-Craft-Community Centers" that both conserve heritage and create new economic value simultaneously.

KIITO also demonstrates an ecosystem where a location is equipped to "Learn, Make, Organize, Exhibit, and Network" all under one roof, from exhibition halls, galleries, training rooms, rental office spaces, a Creative Lounge, to a café. This structure supports experimental activities, international events, and the incubation of creative entrepreneurs, forming a "Home for Creatives" that generates knowledge, showcases work, and operates a revenue-generating marketplace. Nan can therefore adopt this model to design and develop its own functional craft center.

At the policy level, Kobe clearly shows that a Creative City does not merely "organize activities" but creates mechanisms for networking, participation, and measurable processes that can be genuinely driven forward. It connects creative workers from all groups and disciplines to solve urban problems through design, with continuous agendas such as leveraging the Rokko mountains as a creative business area. This is supported by indicators that monitor youth and women's participation, entrepreneurial growth, and the quality of public spaces. These systemic lessons provide Nan with a clear path to define its strategies, regional communications, and access to new markets.

The study visit to the Design and Creative Center Kobe provided Nan with a "City Design Handbook" for a Creative City across several dimensions: design-led urban policy, adaptive reuse of space paired with an activity structure, people and participatory processes focusing on youth-creators-government, and a creative economy driven by events, commercial space usage, and business incubation. Upon applying these lessons, Nan must cultivate stronger community engagement mechanisms and a measurement system aligned with UCCN standards to sustainably and tangibly move forward as a "Creative City" within its own local context.