Inserting a precisely detailed retreat for art into a high-rise building in the middle of bustling Hong Kong required some extraordinary measures. In a city like Hong Kong that's largely shaped by its density—where space is tight and often has to be improvised—you can wind up with surreal results.

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.

Just a few years ago, the idea of planting a hip, upscale restaurant on a sleepy alley in San Francisco's China Basin neighborhood might have seemed nuts.

Imaginative Environments and surface patterning are essential for the offices of 'ber-hip high-tech companies where youthful, creative employees work long hours.