MahaNakon's mixed-use high-rise is meant to "dissolve" into the Bangkok cityscape The Guardian Art Center in Beijing, clad in gray basalt stone and dotted with perforations relate to the stunning environment of a great city and the nature around it. I wanted to show that you can live in a much more active and participatory way with your surroundings. Vietnam is one of the youngest cities in the world that does not have a set vision for how its future could look. [Empire City] is in a very large complex, close to 4 million square feet, and it was very important to reintegrate some of this country's incredible landscapes, which have defined its identity more so than its cities, in this project. It's a new hybrid between a highly dense urban, yet natural landscape. On taking a chance with Dean & DeLuca The Interlace in Singapore connects 31 apartment blocks across eight courtyards Beijing's CCTV Headquarters uproots the skyscraper archetype We developed a fast food concept for Dean & DeLuca that will enable the brand to multiply its reach. I call it Stage because making great food always has a theatrical quality. But it also has a social quality. To introduce this social and communal component is where this project connects to all the big projects I'm doing because it again declares human interaction as the core of its ambition. It's an ongoing collaboration, and we're looking at opening the first real store at the end of the year in Manhattan. On the future of architecture We're living at a time where change in society is so fundamental. It has become clear that formalities are no longer the answer to things. There was a time in which architecture very happily exhausted itself in stylistic or formal gestures, and that time is clearly over. Very direct challenges are posed to architecture that produce incredibly exciting situations and scenarios, and my work in Asia for the past 15 years has been a part of that. That's why it's so exciting to be engaged in a context that simply had no other choice than to ask the question of the future in a very radical way. hospitalitydesign.com November 2018 093http://www.hospitalitydesign.com