Should your firm be considered among the world’s best architecture firms?
The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.
What makes for great commercial architecture? It is vital that commercial spaces combine comfort with utility, providing a seamless, stress-free experience for all those that use it. Commercial buildings vary widely in nature, but whether it is an office, retail space, hotel, restaurant or transport hub, the goal is the same for architects — to design a highly functional space that aligns with the values of the brand or organization for which it is designed.
Each of the following architecture firms is a global leader in the design and delivery of commercial projects. Every one of these companies received a prestigious accolade as a Winner or Finalist within the Commercial and/or Hospitality categories in the inaugural A+Firm Awards, the first AEC program designed explicitly to reward studios of all sizes, geographies, and specializations.
Read on to learn about some of the world’s top commercial architecture firms, each of which are designing internationally renowned spaces for work, leisure and more:
Hooba Design Group
2021 A+Firm Awards Winner, Best Commercial Firm
Firm Location: Tehran, Iran
Firm Website: www.hoobadesign.com
Pictured Project: Kohan Ceram Central Office Building, Tehran, Iran
Founder and Executive Director Hooman Balazadeh established HOOBA Design in 2007 with the aim of developing projects in harmony with the cultural and geographical characteristics of the site so that each project forms a new platform for research and investigation.
This office has focused on various topics such as light, color, relation between architecture and the city, building materials, and the development of spatial diagrams in the Persian Architecture. Using the latest design methods and construction technologies, HOOBA Design tries to create projects that are sustainable and cost efficient. At HOOBA Design, one of the main design criteria is to create consistency between the whole and the pieces.
Lacime Architects
2021 A+Firm Awards Winner, Best Hospitality Firm
Firm Location: Shanghai, China
Firm Website: https://www.lacime-sh.com/
Pictured Project: Deqing Living House, Deqing, China
Based in Shanghai, Lacime Architects adheres to the architectural design philosophy “Simplify complicated material, back to the origin.” Lacime Architects believes good architecture must be reflected and promoted in three aspects: urban contribution, quality and spirit of the times. Given that, we design works more on the context of urban or rural areas, the real space usage, rather than highlighting for single building, as architecture will not exist independently.
After nearly 20 years’ development, Lacime Architects have over 700 architects and rich practical experience both in china and overseas. We actively participate in various types of projects, including residential, commercial, cultural, educational, civic, healthcare, corporate, tourism and so on, aiming to integrate elite design team and provide best solutions to the nature.
Sanjay Puri Architects
Firm Location: Mumbai, India
Firm Website: www.sanjaypuriarchitects.com
Pictured Project: ARIA HOTEL, NASIK, India
With 150 international and over 100 national awards, Sanjay Puri Architects has delivered architectural projects in Spain, Montenegro, Mauritius, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Montreal, Oman and Dallas in addition to projects in 40 Indian cities. With a diverse portfolio of townships, schools, hotels, retail and office buildings, the firm continues its quest to create innovative design solutions that are sustainable on a large scale.
With a design team of 72, Sanjay Puri Architects explores evolving design solutions that are highly contextual. Creating spaces that revolutionize the way that places are experienced forms the essence of the firm’s design philosophy.
Department of ARCHITECTURE Co.
Firm Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Firm Website: https://departmentofarchitecture.co.th/
Pictured Project: The MIST Hot-spring Resort, Henan, China
Department of ARCHITECTURE Co. is a design studio based in Bangkok, Thailand. It practices architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and other related design disciplines in a broad range of programmatic requirements and scales.
The firm’s interest in architecture is not only in its a physical form but we view architecture as a ‘circumstance’ which people operate upon. The studio is interested in finding new possibilities of architecture not only in the physical space but reaching above and beyond to the ‘circumstance’ that the physical form emerges from.
Department of ARCHITECTURE Co. believes in sustainable development. Located in a tropical climate, the firm has been a long-standing proponent for open-air living. We always design to reduce the air-condition space whenever we can by creating comfortable non-air-conditioned space with proper building orientation, ventilation and exploring on sun-shading elements. The open-air space both connects people to the nature and reduces the energy consumption at the same time.
aoe
Firm Location: Beijing, China
Firm Website: http://www.aoe-china.com/
Pictured Project: Chongqing Sunac One Central Mansion Sales Pavillion / AOE, Chongqing, China
aoe is an architecture and interior design studio based in Beijing, China. Its award-winning work spans residential, commercial, hospitality, educational, civic, corporate, mixed-use and urban planning markets. Underpinned by a creative intelligence-led philosophy, aoe intervenes in the social environment to create vibrant human-city spaces of the future. Responsive to modern facets of human life, aoe’s design solutions fuse science and technology with the arts and culture, resulting in an inspired and much-needed reinvention of urban living — all the while, respecting local cultures, nature, and different ways of life.
aoe’s director is Larry Wen, an architect whose international reputation is built on over thirty years of service to the industry. Larry studied at Cal Poly Pomona University and has since led several renowned global design companies, among them Aedas, Woods Bagot and Aecom. He has directed numerous well-known projects — including Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University Administrative Information Building, Guiyang Tianyi International Plaza and Qingdao Jinmao Central Europe International City – picking up a string of awards along the way.
WATG
Firm Location: Irvine, United States
Firm Website: www.watg.com
Pictured Project: Nobu Los Cabos, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
WATG is a global multidisciplinary design firm specializing in hospitality, entertainment, gaming and urban design. Founded in the wake of WWII in Honolulu 75 years ago, the firm remains independent and employee-owned to this day—pioneering, collaborative and with a profound respect for heritage. WATG has been fearless in its quest to deliver game-changing design excellence, service and innovation to clients and their guests since 1945 — guided by a belief that through creativity and imagination comes the power to make a positive and lasting impact.
Now more than ever, as health and climate crises affect the entire globe, sustainability and resilience remain critical attributes of WATG’s work. But with each project since the firm’s beginning, WATG designers have considered the short- and long-term social, environmental and financial impacts, creating places that improve the experience of individuals and communities and support their longevity.
HENN
Firm Location: Berlin, Germany
Firm Website: https://www.henn.com/en
Pictured Project: Merck Innovation Center, Darmstadt, Germany
HENN is an international architecture office in Munich, Berlin and Beijing and draws upon more than 70 years of expertise in the fields of work space, culture, health, education and research as well as production and master planning. HENN counts 380 employees from more than 40 nations. The firm’s architects, designers, planners and engineers benefit from a wealth of knowledge collected over three generations of building experience in addition to a worldwide network of partners and experts in a variety of disciplines.
This continuity, coupled with progressive design approaches and methods and interdisciplinary research projects, forms the basis for a continual examination of current issues and for a consistent design philosophy. Forms and spaces are no mere objective, they are developed from the processes, demands and cultural contexts of each project. As a general contractor, HENN is able to satisfy this principle at every stage of project planning and implementation.
DOMANI Architectural Concepts
Firm Location: Guangzhou, China
Firm Website: www.hkdomani.com
Pictured Project: White – ZS studio, Chengdu, China
Headquarted in Guangzhou, China, DOMANI has committed to provide design excellence for each and every forward-looking project in architecture, interior and products since its inception in 2005. We devise integrated, sustainable design solutions which exceed client’s expectations. With high premium commercial space solutions, our energy and competency have attained remarkable market feedbacks. Awared by prestigious international prizes, we have consistently ranked amongst the top architecture and integrated design studios in Asia.
DOMANI adheres to strict code of professional conduct . We are a team of diverse talents, working alongside with a great number of other specialist consultants. Through comprehensive project management, we strive for the best in various architecure projects. All of our responsible design solutions reflect an international perspective. Raise specific questions and opinions for technic, industry, humanity or society through practices of specific projects, with a balance between scholarship and business; and observe the feedback without sticking too precisely to an answer.
HDR
Firm Location: Omaha, United States
Firm Website: www.hdrinc.com
Pictured Project: Novartis Headquarters, Sydney, Australia
HDR is an integrated design practice that creates human-centered, inspiring places grounded in smart ideas substantiated through data and research and informed by global best practices. The firm embraces unconventional thinking in order to elevate the human spirit and inspire human endeavors.
As a full-service firm that combines architecture, engineering, interiors, experience, product and many other related design services, collaboration is at the heart of what HDR does. The firm combines the expertise of various disciplines to approach projects from every angle. HDR’s nearly 2,000 architecture and design professionals in offices around the globe are united by a shared vision to create meaningful places that will endure for generations to come.
neri&hu design and research office
Firm Location: Shanghai, China
Firm Website: http://www.neriandhu.com/en
Pictured Project: The WaterHouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China
Founded in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. Neri&Hu works internationally providing architecture, interior, master planning, graphic, and product design services.
Currently working on projects in many countries, Neri&Hu is composed of multi-cultural staff who speak over 30 different languages. The diversity of the team reinforces a core vision for the practice: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new paradigm in architecture.
Should your firm be considered among the world’s best architecture firms?
The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.
