Samoo Architects & Engineers

Samoo Architects, the second-highest new entry behind Singapore’s RSP, is well on the way to achieving its stated ambition of being one of the world’s leading practices by 2015.

Its fee income of more than $230 million last year was the seventh highest in the world. But there are plenty of firms that will give the Seoul-based practice a run for its money and some of its fiercest competition will be from its compatriots.

Samoo has been Korea’s biggest practice since it was founded 35 years ago as Samoo Architectural Research Institute. But in the next few years it will face strong competition from Heerim and Kunwo, both of which added several hundred architects to their staffs last year and are making rapid progress up the chart. It opened a Hanoi office last year to add to its branches in New York, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. But despite this apparent global reach, home turf remains key for the practice, with most of the US office’s work also being for Korea. Projects completed last year include the National Youth Space Centre and the Gyeongju Arts Centre, both in the south of the country.