ArchLIGHT Summit

Today work environment is more multicultural than ever: spatial limits have been blown out, encouraging people and ideas mobility all around the globe. Indeed, opportunities to design with culturally diverse team workers, clients, or end-users, have become within everyone's reach.

We enjoy learning about distinct civilizations while traveling abroad but when it comes to business, we often take for granted that our own work methodology will be generic enough to federate each party and cover the project needs. However, are we not missing fundamental information by not tailoring a strategy inclusive with each one's differences?

This session will assess from their concept stage to completion, three large scale lighting projects, successively developed by a French lighting studio, a Vietnamese lighting studio and an Australian Engineering company. All these study cases are based in Vietnam, one of the most dynamic markets in the Asia-Pacific region and where the construction industry is equally led by local and international consultants. Core criteria such as lighting standard reference, service scope, communication tools, internal team organization, delivery package content, key priorities, client and third parties' relationship will help to cross-check the strengths and weaknesses of each situation and identify how the cultural differences have influenced the design output.

Afterward, an introduction to Intercultural Intelligence concept will reveal how, by following a specific work methodology, we can generate significant benefits for individuals, teams, and companies. The selected projects will help to illustrate how to adjust toolkit and mindset throughout the design process to not only avoid major mistakes but also discover how cultural difference can be turned as a key added within a project. We will also define the limits of this exercise and the potential risks of counterproductive effects it can create.