While most of its eurozone neighbors were whacked by financial crises, Switzerland managed to avoid a recession, and its economy grew by 1 percent in 2012. 

When architect John Lin and his students from the University of Hong Kong first visited Shijia village in the province of Shaanxi, China, villagers had a list of requests for projects.

Before 2007, people living in the rural Burera district of northern Rwanda had little access to a health-care facility or doctors.

Paris-based architect Jacques Moussafir laughed and then had to count out loud when asked exactly how many floors exist in the 1,650-square-foot house he designed for a bachelor in the city's fashionable Latin Quarter.

“How many works does an architect need to build to be valid? One,” said Steven Holl recently, referring to the late Lebbeus Woods's only permanent structure, Light Pavilion, which is embedded in (and juts out from) one of five towers that make up Holl's Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China.

Based in New York City, Chan-li Lin has worked for Rafael Viñoly Architects for 22 years, focusing on large projects.