One of the fastest-growing places in North America, Vaughan, 14 miles north of Toronto, has morphed from a rural township of 16,000 people in 1960 to a sprawling suburb of 288,000 today.

How do you design a workspace that expresses the digital world of flux and virtual reality?

Ranked second on the 2012 A-List of the American Lawyer, the Los Angeles–based Paul Hastings LLP is a 61-year-old firm with a progressive global vision—one that incorporates good design into a business strategy that aims to attract prime talent and clients with leading-edge facilities.

Located in São Paulo's Vila Olimpia neighborhood, Studio SC is a temple to food, or, more precisely, to food photography.

Motioning at a trio of nearly lifesize sculptures of men with their arms thrust forward, Vincent James talks about “collaborating with the artwork” in his design of a large penthouse apartment populated by an impressive collection of contemporary Asian art.

Meiji is Japan's largest chocolate manufacturer, and its 100% Chocolate Café, designed by the Tokyo-based firm Wonderwall, is a cocoa connoisseur's dream come true.

Amid the traffic and bustle of central Mexico City, the fortresslike Ciudadela building sprawls territorially across its 7-acre parcel of land, bordered by the busy Balderas Avenue and bright yellow vendor carts to the east, a smaller street to the west, and public plazas to the north and south.

Firms working everywhere from China to Saudi Arabia have to navigate the often grandiose ambitions of authoritarian regimes.