EmQuartier

This guide to EmQuartier in Bangkok follows the design problem its architects faced when it opened in 2015 next to the older Emporium mall: how to make a shopping center that doesn't feel like one. It traces the answer, the Helix, a green-walled tower wrapped by a continuous ramp of open-air dining terraces spiraling above a five-story atrium waterfall. You'll hear about architect Thomas Leeser's approach and what critics eventually made of it. Ride the ramp upward rather than the elevator to see how the levels unfold.