Designing with culture in mind
What does it mean to design with culture in mind — not just to reference it, but to carry it, shape it, and sometimes even challenge it? At Open, this question guided our latest design sharing session. We explored how architecture can engage with cultural identity to express belonging, memory, and a deeper sense of place.
Some of the world’s most enduring works show us what this can look like. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is a masterclass in embedding architecture within its surroundings. With strong horizontals and stone from the site, the house appears to dissolve into the waterfall below. It reminds us that cultural context can be held not only in buildings but in landscapes too — and that memory lives in both.
Closer to the everyday, neighbourhoods like Insadong in Seoul show how cultural identity is preserved even amid change. Through courtyards, laneways, and architectural rhythm, the area maintains its character while adapting to contemporary commercial life. Continuity doesn’t have to mean stasis.
Other examples speak to architecture’s power to unsettle. Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin uses fractured geometry, sharp voids, and disorienting spaces to embody exile and absence. It demonstrates how architecture can hold memory and provoke reflection, not simply provide function.
By contrast, the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa draws on traditional African forms and local clay bricks to tell stories of ancestry and place. Here, meaning is embedded through process, authorship, and the act of making — not just through form or aesthetics.
The Acropolis Museum in Athens shows us another dimension: how design can layer experiences over time. Sitting lightly above an active archaeological site, its transparent floors and lines of connection align precisely with the Parthenon. The result is a dialogue between past and present, reminding us that care is required when designing with living history.
Together, these examples reflect the many ways culture can be carried in architecture — through material, memory, process, and experience. They remind us that to design with culture in mind is not only to respect what came before but to create spaces that keep those stories alive, while leaving room for new ones to emerge.
Designing with culture in mind opens up new ways of thinking about place. Every project carries a story. The question is how we choose to tell it through design. If you’re curious about how cultural identity can shape design, we’d love to continue the conversation.