Design Practice and Theory in a Cross-Cultural Context

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse the mechanisms of design functioning in a cross-cultural space and to determine the conditions for preserving the interpretative integrity of cultural meanings in the process of their transfer. The work was carried out as a sequential multi-stage qualitative analysis, within which theoretical models were compared with descriptions of design practices and cross-cultural data on reception, and the results were formalised through the typologisation of recurring mechanisms and strategies. It was established that design should be considered as the materialisation of culture not only at the level of form, but also through institutional evaluation regimes, rules for legitimising decisions, and usage scenarios that determine which meanings become visible and which are reduced or suppressed. A comparative analysis showed that intercultural design could not be explained within a single concept, since cultural hybridity best describes the emergence of new forms at the intersection of traditions, transculturality clarifies the mechanisms of adaptation of cultural meanings to different audiences, and glocalisation and digital glocalisation capture the coexistence of local meanings with supra-local standards and platforms, including the shift of cultural “locality” into the realm of interaction and personalisation.