Reflective Nostalgia: Neri & Hu Design and Research Office at AEDES

With Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, the Chinese avantgarde in architecture, research and teaching, product and interior design has arrived in Europe. In the exhibition Reflective Nostalgia, Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu are convincing in the way they examine the historical and the contemporary as well as the listed and the everyday and to transform them into new uses in a respectful and future-oriented manner. In addition to their numerous conversions and new buildings in Asia, such as residential and office buildings, theatres, shops or, for example, a chapel and a whisky distillery, the exhibition also shows projects from Europe, including a restaurant in Paris, a hotel in London and the expansion of the creative quarter Cologne-Ehrenfeld with an office building.

Neri&Hu also design products and showrooms for international companies, thus demonstrating their diverse skills and the quality of their work in all scales and disciplines. With design confidence, they create exciting, sometimes surprising spatial constellations – from found and recycled materials or building parts of the respective location and by adding new elements. Historicising set pieces are omitted, while the charm and character of the ‘old’ remains legible and tangible and thus identity-forming in Neri&Hu’s positive reinterpretation of the nostalgic. Their transdisciplinary design approach is in the DNA of the studio.

As early as 2004, they were co-founders of Design Republic, a multidisciplinary design platform in Shanghai.

The success of the broad spectrum of their work is reflected in numerous international awards. They currently teach at the Yale School of Architecture and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Rossana Hu was also appointed Chair of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University in Shanghai in 2021. The exhibition installation features architectural models, photographs and videos, as well as a selection of furniture. Neri&Hu’s alternative reading of historical contexts, including all the contradictions and details, as well as the unexpected spatial compositions with which they respond to them in a magnificent way, can be experienced.

THE EXHIBITION

As diverse as Reflective Nostalgia appears in their projects, Neri&Hu also take diverse paths in their communication. Inspired by the warehouse or archive and the historical idea of the forum, the exhibition offers visitors various ways of approaching and understanding the concept of Reflective Nostalgia. The exhibition will feature around 30 projects, both completed and in the planning stage, from the fields of architecture, interior design, product design and graphics. Videos, numerous architectural models of various scales, photographs and a collection of chairs narrate the new and existing development projects and their connection with Reflective Nostalgia as a philosophy and method.

THE PROJECTS

Among the projects presented from more than 20 cities worldwide are:
The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China
Design Commune and Commune Social, Shanghai, China
Rethinking The Split House, Shanghai, China
Aranya Art Center, Qinhuangdao, China
Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat, Yangzhou, China
Suzhou Chapel, Suzhou, China
Fuzhou Teahouse, Fuzhou, China
The Chuan Malt Whisky Distillery, Emeishan, China
Nantou City Guesthouse, Shenzhen, China
Singapore Residence, Singapore
Bow Street Boutique Hotel, London, UK
Papi Restaurant, Paris, France
Creative Office in Cologne, Germany

The Camerich Haus in Beijing, which Neri&Hu are currently planning, is also part of the exhibition. The Chinese furniture manufacturer Camerich has been an Aedes Cooperation Partner since 2019.