| This practicum sets out to address several challenges faced by a multinational corporation operating within a globalized marketplace through the reconsideration of its workplace design. The aim is to achieve a balance between cultural adaptation and standardized corporate identity in the design for the hypothetical multinational management consulting company, Torrent. The balance is pursued in order to support Japanese and Canadian national-work-cultures, the two cultures on which the practicum is based, while creating a strong, consistent, and recognizable visual identity across its different subsidiaries. The practicum asserts that cultural adaptation should be addressed through the physical structure, and standardized corporate identity addressed through the symbolic artifacts of the workplace design. The practicum argues that if conflict occurs between these two themes in the design of a workplace, precedence should be given to spatial elements essential for responding to a national-work-culture over elements communicating corporate identity. This precedence is based on the predetermined nature of national culture and its basis in the human values of the company's employees. The practicum's overall objective is to demonstrate how both of these themes can be achieved simultaneously in order to create a balance that benefits both the multinational company as well as its host country.;The practicum's outcome involves two design solutions developed for Torrent based on a single workplace, one responding to Japan's national work culture, and the other to Canada's. A standardized corporate identity is achieved through the communication of a consistent company identity in both workplace designs. The practicum's final design solution is based within the context of a newly constructed office building in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. |
