Culture and Space

I've been invited to speak at the ARC-Interiors Conference from September 27-30 in Miami. Here's the topic I just pitched to them:

Culture and Space
the relationship between the culture of an organization
and the design and evolution of its interior spaces

“Culture” is an important contemporary buzzword in business and in design. We all know intuitively that there is a direct, if subtle, relationship between the design of spaces and the culture of the organization that uses them. As designers, we create spaces with a view to enhance and extend our clients’ organizational cultures. The spaces we design are therefore both a reflection of culture, and an instrument to reinforce culture. Over time, spaces are altered by the people who use them to support how they interact with the space and to reflect their sense of their culture. Culture and space share an ongoing dialogue that begins with move-in. The difficulties that an organization has in successfully occupying and utilizing space can be thought of as a struggle to understand their own evolving culture and to reflect it in the design of its spaces. In this talk, the speaker will utilize recent examples of commercial and institutional interior design to discuss the relationship between the underlying culture of an organization and the design and ongoing evolution of its interior spaces.

Comments

[leonard koren]

Hello — I was actually looking up something on my brother—another David Koren—when I happened on your website. "My" Korens come from Odessa. . . B.T.W. I also enjoyed THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS. If you send me a physical mailing address, I'll send you a few books for your amusement (I happen to have trained as an architect and make books about design and aesthetics). — Cheers, Leonard