1. AEDAS
AEDAS was establish in 2002 by London base AHR firm and Asian based LPT. However, the practice provides architecture, interior design, landscape design, urban design, office, retail, residential, hotel, infrastructure, education, civic and culture, and urban planning.
Projects include: Boulevard Plaza, Dubai; DAMAC Heights, Dubai; Express Rail Link West Kowloon Terminus; Mandarin Oriental Chengdu; Sky City Marriott Hotel Hong Kong and Pazhou Hotel in Guangzhou, China.
2. GENSLER
The firm was open in 1965. It has 4500 professionals in 46 locations. Notable Gensler projects include Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China and Abu Dhabi Financial Centre in the United Arab Emirates
3. HKS
It was founded in 1939 and has over 900 professionals working in offices around the globe. Furthermore, its practice is highly rank globally by Hotel Business; Building Design and Construction; Hotel Management; BD World Architecture; Hospitality Architecture and Design; and Hospitality Design.
Projects include: Four Seasons Resort, Hualālai in Hawaii; The Venetian Macao
Resort Hotel, Macao, China and 50 United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, California. The latter project won the 2015 Historic Preservation Award.
4. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) was founded in 1976 with offices in New York City, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Abu Dhabi. Operating as one firm with six global offices, KPF is led by 24 Principals and 27 Directors. The firm’s staff members are from 51 different countries and speak more than 30 languages.
KPF is one of the world’s leading architecture firms, providing architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors.
It was award Best Chinese Project and Mixed-use Building by MIPIM Asia in 2009, and Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2008 by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong won the AIA Hong Kong Award of Merit in 2010; was listed in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2012 Best New Hotels Hotlist; receive a 5-star rating in the 2013 Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards, and was highly recommend in the 2014 Trip Advisor Travelers Choice Awards. Furthermore, other award-winning projects include Grand Hyatt Tokyo which won the ULI Award of Excellence in 2007.
5. ARCADIS/Callison RTKL
ARCADIS was formed in 1888 and it is based in Colorado. Throughout the years this firm has made several acquisitions. In 2007 Arcadis acquired RTKL and in 2014 it acquired Callison. Furthermore, RTKL was formedin 1946. However, Callison is a global architecture firm that was founded in 1975. ARCADIS/Callison RTKL has offices around the world.
Projects design by RTKL include Ebay situated in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Hilton Baltimore in Maryland. However, the entire City Crossing development received the top level five-star award in the mixed-use development category at the 2011 Asia Pacific Property Awards, for exhibiting excellence in green credentials, architectural merit, design and commercial development success. Furthermore, RTKL also shared with Gensler in the success of L.A. Live, which won a Special Award of Excellence and Gold Nugget Award in the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in 2009.
6. NBBJ
NBBJ was founded in 1943. However, it has global offices in Beijing, Boston, Columbus, London, Los Angeles, New York, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle and Shanghai. Furthermore, it was name among the top 10 most innovative architecture firms by Fast Company two years in a row.
Projects include: Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China; NHN Headquarters Venture Tower in Bundang, South Korea and Shanghai Jiahui International Hospital in Shanghai, China.
7. Moshe Safdie Architects
Moshe Safdie was born in1938 in Haifa, Israel. His family moved to Montreal, Canada, in 1953. In 1961, Safdie graduated from McGill University with a degree in architecture. After apprenticing with Louis Kahn in Philadelphia, Safdie returned to Montreal to oversee the master plan for Expo 67. Furthermore, in 1964, he established his own firm to undertake Habitat 67, an adaptation of his McGill thesis.
Moshe Safdie established his own firm firstly in Jerusalem, and currently has offices in Boston, Toronto and Singapore.
Projects include: 1967 Habitat 67 at Expo 67 World’s Fair, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 1988 Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, Israel; 2010 Yitzhak Rabin Center, Tel Aviv, Israel and 2011 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore’s second integrated resort and casino.
Marina Bay Sands was done in collaboration with AEDAS. Furthermore, the building won over 40 awards across various disciplines, including Design of the Year in the 2011 Singapore President’s Design Awards, Innovation in Structural Engineering at the Bentley Systems 2010 Be Inspired Awards, and Condé Nast Traveler’s 2011 Hot List of the world’s best new hotels.
8. Tange Associates
The firm was established in 1946 by the late Kenzo Tange, renowned Japanese architect and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize. Furthermore, it has offices in Taipei, Shanghai, Singapore, Jakarta, London and Vancouver.
Kenzō Tange was born in 1913 and live until he was 91 years. However, the firm is well establish in the industry.
He was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. However, Tange implement traditional Japanese styles with modernism and design buildings in the five continents. Furthermore, Tange was also a supporter of the metabolist movement and was influence by Le Corbusier.
He gained international recognition in 1949 when he won the competition for the design of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Other projects include: Fuji Television Building, Odaiba, Tokyo in 1996; Tokyo Dome Hotel in 2000 and the Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School, Singapore which was complete in 2005.
9. Tadao Ando Architects
Tadao Ando was born in 1941 and is a Japanese self-taught architect. After being a boxer for a short period, Ando began his self-education by apprenticing with several professional designers and city planners. In the 1960s he travelled to Europe and the United States to analyze the great buildings and document his observations in a detailed sketch book. He intensively studied the work of Le Corbusier. In 1968 he returned to Osaka and established his own design studio. He won the Pritzker Prize in1995
Projects include: Tomishima House, Osaka, Japan; Row House/Azuma House, Japan and Aurora Museum, Shanghai, China in 2013.
10. Toyo Ito
Toyo Ito was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1941. His parents were from Japan and in 1943, he moved to Japan with his family. Furthermore, Toyo graduated from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Architecture in 1965. However, in 1971 he started his own studio in Tokyo, name Urbot (“Urban Robot”). In 1979, the studio name was changed to Toyo Ito & Associates.
His projects include: Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2002); Vivo City, Singapore (2006); World Games Stadium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008) and Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan, Taiwan. In 2013, Ito was award the Pritzker Prize.
In his speech, Moshe reflected on the words of his mentor Louis Kahn. Furthermore, he disclosed that Louis Kahn imparted to him, “Let a building be what it wants to be.”