GLOBAL BULLETIN, January 8, 2026 — Following the successful release of the "2025 ARCHINA - Top 10 Private Architectural Design Brands and Private TOP100" list, industry attention is once again focused on the international design forces deeply cultivating the Chinese market. Today, ARCHINA, the authoritative platform in China's architecture industry, officially unveiled the results of the 2025 (5th) "ARCHINA - Most Influential Brands" selection for foreign architectural design brands. This year's selection was jointly initiated by the ARCHINA Brand Research Center and the New Media Data Research Center, with support from the World Architecture Technology Innovation Think Tank, marking the latest achievements in the integration and innovation of top international design expertise with the Chinese market.

Two Core Lists, Witnessing Global Brand Influence

The highly anticipated dual lists of the "2025 ARCHINA - Top 10 Foreign Architectural Design Brand Enterprises" and the "2025 ARCHINA - TOP30 Most Influential Foreign Brand Enterprises" have been officially announced. These lists not only reflect the enduring influence of the world's top design institutions in the Chinese market but also reveal the industry's new landscape under the waves of green development, digitalization, and globalization.

2025 ARCHINA

Top 10 Foreign Architectural Design Brand Enterprises
(Listed in no particular order)

AECOM

Gensler

German Architects gmp

LWK + PARTNERS

Aedas

Ronald Lu & Partners (RLP Asia)

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Arup

Woods Bagot

Benoy

AECOM

AECOM is the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle. We partner with clients to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose: to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm with revenue of approximately $16.1 billion during fiscal year 2024.

Gensler

Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 53 offices across the Americas, Europe, Greater China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Founded in 1965, the firm serves more than 3,500 clients across 33 practice areas spanning work, lifestyle, community, and health. Gensler's mission is to create a better world through the power of design, with its people being the source of its strength. By integrating diverse creativity, research and innovation, shared values, and its One-Firm Firm culture, Gensler operates as a borderless firm, collaborating seamlessly in over 100 countries to tackle global challenges and deliver profound impact for communities.

 gmp

Founded in 1965 by Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg, gmp has grown over the past five decades to become one of Germany's largest and most renowned architectural practices, with a significant reputation across Europe and worldwide. With over 600 employees across eight offices globally, gmp's partners have planned and built in nearly all major German cities and internationally. The practice has won over 440 first prizes in national and international architectural competitions and numerous awards for its innovative designs, having completed nearly 500 buildings in 23 countries. gmp consistently follows a common design philosophy, establishing a dialogue with clients and partners to undertake projects of various scales and cultural contexts worldwide — from private residences to stadiums, from opera houses to museums, from office buildings to bridges, and from door handles to master plans.

LWK + PARTNERS

LWK + PARTNERS is a top 50 global architectural design practice headquartered in Hong Kong, with 10 studios worldwide and nearly a thousand professionals dedicated to providing innovative design and high-quality execution services for global clients. Since its establishment in 1985, LWK has consistently applied advanced design concepts and exceptional professionalism to create high-quality urban spaces and living environments, injecting sustained vitality into cities. Its expertise now encompasses urban planning, architectural design, landscape design, and interior design, offering comprehensive design and full-process consultancy services. LWK specializes in commercial complexes, luxury residences, TOD developments, distinctive cultural tourism projects, cultural landmarks, and urban regeneration. Representative works include iconic projects such as the Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District and the Shenzhen Dayun Hub. Its designs have won numerous prestigious international awards, including the MIPIM Asia Best Futura Mega Project Award, German Design Award, International Design Awards (IDA), Iconic Awards, MUSE Design Awards Platinum, International Property Awards (IPA), The Architecture MasterPrize, and UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. LWK is also a future-oriented design institution, a pioneer and advocate for smart cities, BIM, and green ecological districts. Always client-focused, it empowers urban development and shapes future living paradigms through a global vision and local expertise.

Aedas

Aedas is the only global architecture and design practice that combines international research, local knowledge, and global reach, being both deeply rooted locally and globally connected. With 1,100 creative talents across its global design studios, Aedas creates world-class design solutions based on deep understanding of local societies and cultures. Its mission is to create exceptional design solutions tailored to meet the needs of cities and communities worldwide. Aedas provides a highly creative environment for the most talented designers to deliver solutions that positively impact the regions they serve. Its global platform ensures that experts worldwide have access to the latest thinking and insights. With 12 offices globally spanning Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, Aedas has consistently ranked among the world's top architecture firms in Building Design magazine's annual WA100 survey for 18 consecutive years since 2006. It offers services in architecture, culture and arts, graphics, interior and landscape design, urban design, and master planning. Its portfolio covers various development types, including complexes, retail, offices, residences, hotels, culture and arts, infrastructure, and master plans, having delivered over 100 projects totaling more than 9 million square meters of space, with works frequently winning international and regional awards.

RLP Asia

Founded in 1976,  (RLP Asia) is a pioneer in sustainable architecture in Asia. RLP Asia focuses on "people-centric, future-oriented, culture-connected" design, specializing in "designing better lives" within high-density urban environments. Over the years, leveraging its deep roots in China and broad international perspective, the firm has won over 500 international and local awards. This includes being consecutively named one of Hong Kong's Top 10 Architectural Design Firms by BCI Asia for 21 years, and ranking within the global top 100 architectural firms by Building Design magazine for 15 consecutive years, consistently placing among the top ten Chinese practices on the list. With over 550 trusted consultants across Asia, RLP Asia's representative projects span the region, covering green buildings, master planning, Transit-Oriented Developments (TOD), and interior design.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Since its founding in 1936, SOM has completed over 10,000 projects in more than 50 countries. Its reputation stems from its iconic buildings and unwavering pursuit of design excellence, innovation, and sustainability. Collaboration is the driving force behind SOM's practice; they believe the best results come from continuous dialogue with all stakeholders. They view clients as partners and each project as a unique challenge. SOM brings together experts in architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning to create integrated, innovative solutions. Its portfolio includes some of the most significant architectural designs of the 20th and 21st centuries — from cutting-edge research facilities and inspiring learning centers to skyscrapers and vibrant urban districts. SOM has received nearly 2,000 awards and is the only firm to have received the AIA Architecture Firm Award twice.

Arup

Arup is dedicated to sustainable development, employing 20,000 designers, consultants, and experts worldwide with projects in over 140 countries and regions. Together with clients and partners, Arup shapes a better world through extraordinary creativity, advanced technology, and rigorous pragmatism. With a history in China spanning over forty years, Arup's project experience covers all aspects of the built environment, including architecture and major infrastructure, and extends to regional and urban planning, strategic management consultancy, and digital services.

Woods Bagot

Woods Bagot is an architecture and interior design brand under the 7C Network. Founded in Australia in 1869, it operates 18 studios across six global regions under a globally integrated model. Its core business covers cities & places, mixed-use, commercial, workplace, hospitality, and residential sectors. Woods Bagot's mission is to future-proof the world, creating design solutions that respond to a rapidly changing world. Guided by an exploratory spirit, a commitment to social value, and deep community engagement, it creates forward-thinking designs with lasting impact, helping unlock infinite possibilities for human development. Through its global creative culture, resilient practice spirit, and clear value pursuit, Woods Bagot ensures every project realizes client visions and inspires future generations.

Benoy

Benoy is a globally renowned, award-winning international practice specializing in architectural design, master planning, landscape design, interior design, and wayfinding. It has offices across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Since its founding in 1947, Benoy has been committed to creating pleasant, comfortable, cohesive, and sustainable commercial built environments. In balancing design creativity with commercial viability, Benoy's innovative commercial destinations have garnered global attention, establishing a strong reputation as an international architectural design firm. Its Asian operations began with a Hong Kong office in 2000, followed by Shanghai and Singapore in 2008. Since the millennium, Asia's commercial environment has developed rapidly, and Benoy has adeptly kept pace with its speed and demands, with works continually winning various international awards. Its experienced and dynamic professional design teams are committed to providing bespoke design solutions, making significant contributions to the value of development projects and the built environment. Worldwide, Benoy strives to create positive urban, commercial, and community spaces, unlocking site potential, preserving urban heritage, renewing urban functions, maximizing commercial value, and allowing flexibility for future change and development.

Simultaneously released, the "2025 ARCHINA - TOP30 Most Influential Foreign Brand Enterprises" list, in addition to the top ten above, includes industry leaders and innovators from over 20 countries and regions such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF, MVRDV, and Nikken Sekkei (representing the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, Australia, France, etc.). This list presents a panoramic view of the diverse ecosystem of foreign design brands' influence in China.

2025 ARCHINA

TOP30 Most Influential Foreign Brand Enterprises
(Full list includes the top ten above plus others like Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF, etc.)*

*The final interpretation right for the 2025 "ARCHINA - Most Influential Brands" selection activity belongs to ARCHINA.

Trend Insights: A Deep Symphony of International Experience and Local Innovation

In 2025, China's architecture industry is entering a critical phase of concurrent "domestic refinement" and "international expansion." This year's lists indicate that leading foreign design firms are not only importers of international advanced experience and technology but also key forces driving the elevation of Chinese industry standards and conceptual innovation. Their practices increasingly show three major trends: First, the transition from concept to scaled implementation in green and low-carbon fields (e.g., net-zero carbon buildings, healthy building certifications). Second, the deep integration of digital technologies (e.g., in-depth BIM application, digital twins, carbon footprint visualization) with design processes. Third, a greater emphasis on the innovative fusion of global perspectives with local culture and needs in projects involving cultural landmarks, urban regeneration, and smart cities.

Global Authoritative Release, Empowering Long-term Brand Value

These lists were released globally simultaneously through ARCHINA's network of over 50 mainstream multimedia platforms at home and abroad. Domestically, dissemination occurred via its official website, WeChat, Weibo, and in collaboration with platforms like Toutiao, Tencent, Sohu, Sina, NetEase, Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Overseas, mainstream international media and social platforms were leveraged to achieve global diffusion of influence, expected to reach hundreds of millions of targeted audiences and industry professionals.

Wu Lei, Founder of ARCHINA, stated: "Foreign architectural design enterprises are an indispensable and vital component of China's architectural industry ecosystem. This year's lists serve not only as authoritative recognition of the brand value of leading firms but also as a concentrated showcase of a healthy industry ecology characterized by 'integrating Chinese and foreign strengths, diverse coexistence, and collaborative innovation.' We hope that through these lists, we can continue to build bridges for efficient dialogue and cooperation between international brands and the Chinese market."