When thinking of an example of how culture affects design, the first thing that came to my mind was the SPARK building built here at WSU. The culture here at WSU is pretty much built into this building in every way. One example is that the Cougar Fight Song sound waves serve as wall art/design throughout the building. The fight song is something that brings Cougs together, no matter how long ago they graduated from WSU. It is a big part of our culture that they decided to incorporate into the building. Another thing that comes to mind is the Starbucks downstairs. College students run on caffeine, so it made complete sense for the culture of this to be built into the design of the building. One last thing about the SPARK building is the group study rooms that are in the building. A lot of the curriculum at WSU involves group projects, so because of this there were many group study rooms put in this building. It gives students a chance to really utilize these spaces and make the most out of their group work!
An example that I thought of where design affects culture is cars, and the way that they are evolving. You could also say that culture affects design here, but I think you can look at it the other way as well. Automotive designers choose the most important parts of our culture to incorporate into cars, but how we use these things design choices affects our culture. One example that is up and coming are automated cars. This design decision could drastically change our culture. If cars were completely able to run on their own without any human instruction, our culture would be highly affected. We watched a CTP in class about having automated semi trucks which would be a big design hit to the culture of truck driving. Another thing would be the issue and culture regarding drinking and driving. Maybe people would be able to go out drinking with their friends and not worry about having to have a designated driver because cars could completely run themselves. All of these automotive car design choices could have major effects on our culture.