Journeys Without Maps – Works of Maps Design

This book samples a selection of works by Maps Design. Founded in 1996, MAPS is a global design practice led by its principals Tan Hock Beng and Maria Hartati. With offices in Singapore and Bangkok, the practice’s portfolio has always been broad based in its geographic breadth, with projects currently spread over 20 countries across 61 cities. It has earned an international reputation for the spirit and savoir faire of its work as well as its ability to generate thoughtprovoking design solutions for vastly varied cultural contexts. The firm provides master planning, architectural and interior design services for many project types, with a keen emphasis in hospitality design. It works with top luxury hotel brands like Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, W, St Regis, Sheraton, JW Marriott, Shangri-La, Pan Pacific and Intercontinental. Maps Design is a different kind of architectural practice, Specifically, its commitment to seeing architecture as part of a larger continuum of problems early on has marked how it approaches the design process. It sees itself as a ‘reflective practice’ and is recognised as a ‘thinking’ firm, passionately believing that design is intelligence made visible. Its portfolio of works has always been implicitly marked by a dynamic concerned with a demonstrative spatiality throughout every project. Their overarching thesis focuses on an empathetic sensitivity to space, while striving to reinvest their work with an understated layer of meaning and relational dynamics. It is about being inclusive yet projective; in the process, exploring relevant spatial enclosures of joyful sensuality – those unique qualities that make architecture perpetually invigorating.