Great Design is Global Design

Sara Pepitone -- Interior Design, 7/1/2012 2:00:00 AM

Great design knows no boundaries. Whereas this used to be true from just an intellectual perspective, it's now also true from a physical perspective. Today, you'll find architects and designers from all backgrounds attaining international recognition, easily crossing borders to work on myriad projects, making the world a smaller and more globally influenced design sphere. In fact, it's more than likely that your firm has an office somewhere outside the U.S. and that one or two or your major projects are located thousands of miles away.

International architecture and design is more about a two-way exchange than ever before, says Thomas Lee, a principal at San Francisco-based firm Studios Architecture, who has worked for more than a decade on projects in China. "Now the foreign architects and designers are as much a part of the team as they are the leaders," says Lee.

With the summer Olympic games upon us, a time when nations come together in the spirit of global unity, we're all thinking beyond our own backyard. Here, we look at some of the most exciting projects outside the U.S. that have been recently completed or are under construction.

  London Aquatics Centre













  Bella Sky Cromwell, Copenhagen, Denmark













  Al Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates













  Sky Condos, Lima, Peru













  Shanghai Cultural Center