New items in the collection for the woodwork brand include the Opium Sofa, Solo Table and Tray Desk.

Neri&Hu took the typology of a Chinese Tang Dynasty opium bed and modified it to create a sofa, which has shelves under the deep arms for storage.

The oval Solo table sits on two sets of three legs, each arranged in a triangle.

A two-tier desk folds out into a vanity table, with a mirror in the top shelf and a drawer full of different sized compartments in the lower bottom shelf.

Neri&Hu's previous designs including the Extend Mirrors that prop up against the wall, slender Duet Chairs, plus their Solo Series of lounge and dining shell chairs are now being produced solely for De La Espada.

The collection will be shown at an exhibition in New York's meatpacking district during the city's design week from 18 to 21 May.

We interviewed Neri&Hu towards the end of last year for the opening of their design gallery, shop and event space in a former colonial police station in Shanghai.

The studio recently reinterpreted traditional Chinese architecture and courtyard typologies for a hotel in Xi'an.

See more architecture and design by Neri & Hu »
See more products for De La Espada »
See all our stories about furniture »

Read on for more details from De La Espada:

Opium Sofa

Opium beds for communal lounging have been in China since the Tang Dynasty, when opium smoking became an accepted social activity which necessitated a comfortable and presentable piece of furniture for receiving guests. neri&hu took this historic typology and updated it to create a contemporary sofa with a simple profile that retains the deep seat and low back of its inspiration. Flanking the sofa are deep arms which form two useful shelves, as well as side tables for books or a cup of tea. The solid wood frame cradles our tired bodies on a lazy Sunday morning, as addicts to our newspapers and coffee instead of the opium in imperial China.

Tray Desk

Trays function as a surface container for collectables, and this multi-tasking desk/vanity table was designed as two stacking trays on a light wooden frame . Contemporary lifestyles demand furniture to be more mobile and flexible, servicing multiple functions, while remaining lightweight for easy transport. This piece responds to that need, using the analogy of trays on trestles as a point of departure.

Solo Table

Solo Table is a solid wood dining table with purity of form and material.

Extend Mirrors

In the past, common bamboo ladders were used as household objects inside and outside country homes in China, functioning as an ever-ready stand for hanging a wide variety of things from tools and cloths to dried food. As a tribute to this utilitarian household symbol, neri&hu used three different ladder proportions to make a set of solid hardwood frames for floor standing mirrors. They lean on the floor in a casual manner, as ladders do, and can be used alone or as an interesting ensemble of many ladders with varying heights on the wall.

Solo Series (chair and table)

Inspired by the Eames Shell Chair, the Solo Chair is an updated version that transforms the early industrial look of the Eames iconic chair into a sophisticated, comfortable chair that is suitable both in domestic and commercial settings.

Solo chairs are a “universe within a chair”, wherein the upholstered shell hugs the sitting body to create a microcosmic universe for the person, where the chair becomes an object of shelter and refuge, where the person can be “solo” and undisturbed while being hugged in this position.

An upholstered foam-covered shell creates the universe that is the chair, and claims its singular autonomy in function, form, and beauty.

Duet Chair

The name speaks to the tectonic nature of the construction. Two pieces of bentwood work as a duet, creating the overall shape of the chair. They are stacked one on top of another to form the backrest, and while one extends to create the arm and front legs, the other turns to form the back legs. Originally created as a variation on the classic Thonet bent-wood tradition, the Duet Chair takes on a quiet yet graceful demeanor that is not unlike the German-Austrian classic original.

Neri&Hu Launches Collaboration with De La Espada

New York Design Week, 18-21 May 2013 at 345meatpacking

New York Design Week 2013 marks the launch of collaboration between Shanghai-based inter-disciplinary architectural practice, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office and leading modern woodworker, De La Espada. The launch event is presented by The Future Perfect at 345meatpacking, a stunning building by DDG. A large-scale purpose-built installation by Neri&Hu sets the scene for the debut of over ten new products born of their collaboration with De La Espada.

A unique sensory environment, the Neri&Hu installation for New York Design Week communicates at once the Neri&Hu approach to interiors and architecture, and their evolution toward product design.

Over ten new products will launch at the event, utilising timber extensively and spanning the needs of the home from dining to living spaces. The pieces are designed by Neri&Hu for their product brand ‘neri&hu’ and manufactured in premium materials by De La Espada craftsmen in Portugal.

The Future Perfect, host of the exhibition, will be the exclusive retailer of neri&hu furniture in the New York City and San Francisco areas.

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De La Espada appeared first on Dezeen.

The hotel, for international chain Westin, is located in Xi'an, the 3000-year-old city where tourists flock to visit ancient sculptures the Terracotta Warriors. Neri&Hu planned the hotel as a modern building but added details that reference the historic local vernacular, such as gently inclining rooftops and bold flashes of red.

Interpretations of Chinese courtyards begin with a large rectangular garden contained at the heart of the building. Meanwhile, a top-lit atrium is located on the eastern side of the plan and forms the centre point for four smaller indoor courts.

"As in Chinese architecture, the 'Tian Jing' is an important concept that we wanted to bring to this hotel in a city that boasts rich Chinese history, artefacts and heritage," the architects told Dezeen. "Its spiritual functions in Chinese traditional architecture are profound and we intended to bring this experience into the hotel."

Dark stucco and stone clads the exterior of the five-storey building and a narrow strip of glazing separates the walls from the sloping roof. Vertically sliced windows decrease in size towards the top of the facade to create the impression of a tapered volume.

The architects cite the bulky massing of the city walls as inspiration: "The monumental scale of the Xi'an Westin building is not to be missed and inevitably it makes a lasting impression on each visitor to the hotel. But this is also a local character, given that the building footprint and massing is largely defined by the municipality, to be in keeping with the character of Xi'an as one of the most historically significant ancient cities in China."

Flashes of red colour the window recesses, revealing the thickness of the outer walls. In most places these openings are slanted to direct views towards nearby landmark the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.

Pools of water line the perimeter to give the illusion of a floating building, while slatted timber canopies mark the entrances for guests. One entrance leads into a ground floor lobby, while the other brings visitors down into a subterranean museum.

Neri&Hu also created three restaurants for the hotel, including one where diners sits beneath a cluster of skeletal pendant lamps.

Chinese architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu previously designed a hotel inside an abandoned former army headquarters, which was named overall winner at the Inside awards in 2011. In a recent interview, the pair told Dezeen that Chinese architects need to stem the tide of "half-assed" building projects in the country.

Other recent projects by the studio include a design gallery and event space in a former colonial police station and an apartment where rooms are displayed like exhibits. See more architecture by Neri&Hu or more architecture in China.

Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Here's some more information from Neri&Hu:

Xi'an Westin Hotel

In an ancient capital of China, Neri&Hu Design Research Office's design of the Westin in Xi'an emerges as a tribute to both the city's importance as a hub of burgeoning growth in the region, as well as its long standing status as a cradle of Chinese civilisation. With 3,100 years of history embedded in the layers of the city, Xi'an is not merely a formidable backdrop to the building itself but has provided the architects with design inspirations that inextricably link its past to its present and future.

Above: ground floor plan - click for larger image

Arriving in Xi'an's historic center, one is immediately struck by the fortress-like expanse of its enveloping city walls, and the architecture of the Westin takes cues from this heavy monumentality. Respectful of its urban context, the dark stucco and stone clad building blocks adopt the profile of vernacular Chinese architecture. While the sloped contours and overhanging eaves of the roof are immediately recognisable, its traditional details have been reduced to the clean lines of a minimalist contemporary architecture. The rhythmic sequence of deep-cut openings on the façade shifts playfully, getting smaller on each subsequent level of the five storey structure, giving the illusion of the building mass tapering as it rises. Each opening, lined in a vibrant red hue, is slanted to direct views to neighbouring landmark the Big Wild Goose Pavilion and reveals the thickness of this architecture, as deeply rooted in its history as in the ground itself.

Above: basement floor plan - click for larger image

The apparent heaviness of the architectural volumes is constantly juxtaposed against elements which bring a certain lightness to the project. From afar, it becomes apparent that the pitched roof, which is typically quite low and heavy in a traditional Chinese building is here, handled with more delicacy. Bulkiness shed and curves straightened, the roof is lifted from the building mass below by a band of glazing and floats one level above. Approaching it, one discovers that the entire assemblage of buildings is surrounded by a reflective pool of water, leaving the impression of a building that is suspended in an infinite sky. At either of its two main entries, wooden slatted canopies are gently attached to the façade and allow light and shadow to permeate deep into the interior, drawing visitors in further. Once inside, a pleasant surprise awaits, the light which floods in through skylit courtyards carved from each volume, as a piece of landscape implants itself into the center of each block. The architects' constant effort to extend the exterior into the interior manifests most grandly perhaps in the sweeping set of stairs at the East entry, which brings visitors down two levels below into a large sunken garden at the very heart of the project, around which are located the main public spaces. Like the Neolithic Banpo village on the skirts of Xi'an, or the terracotta warriors for whom millions travel each year to visit, the architecture is a celebration of the subterranean.

Above: third floor plan - click for larger image

Along the journey from the East entry to the central sunken garden is a feature which is unique to the Westin Xi'an, a museum housing ancient mural art from the region. Neri&Hu's concept for this space is grounded in the basic notion that the display format for murals should be inherently different from the display of any other form of art. As historic objects of art needs strict humidity, lighting, and temperature control, the design of the exhibition space starts with those basic units of exhibition, metal cases hung on bare white walls. Departing from the quintessential "white cube" museum idea here, each unit of display casework is positioned in a way that expresses each case's individuality and the individuality of each work of art within. By detaching the casework from the white wall, and then framing the mural fragments as individual works, one is able to more deeply appreciate each one as a unique art piece.

Above: section A-A - click for larger image

The Westin Xi'an features three restaurants whose interiors Neri&Hu was also responsible for. The Chinese restaurant is a free-standing building which caps off the sunken garden on the West side, and its detachment from the other buildings allowed the architects to experiment more freely with its massing. Cleverly playing on the notion of the heavy roof, the entire building here is expressed as a Mansard roof which drops so low it appears to only be slightly hovering off the ground. Dormer windows protrude on each side to provide light, and the structure of the roof is exposed on the interior, so that one is constantly reminded of the inhabitation of this roof. The Private Dining Rooms are contained within a brick mass with vertical cuts through it, bringing unexpected light and views to the dining experience. The concept for the Japanese restaurant is derived from the stage of Kabuki theater, where actors surround the audience and perform in the round. In this restaurant, the main circulation paths are elevated around the perimeter, with diners inhabiting the sunken area in between; servers and passersby become performers on stage. Continuing the theme of performance and display, the All-day-dining restaurant features glass encased dining and buffet areas in the center of the space. Like a marketplace display vitrine, the food and spectacle of feasting become focal points.

Above: section B-B - click for larger image

With Neri&Hu Design Research Office's fresh take on historic references, the Westin Xi'an pays due homage to this ancient city, while continuing to break through preconceived notions of Chineseness in architecture.

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by Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

The Design Republic Commune, designed by Neri&Hu, contains a new flagship store for the architects' design retail brand Design Republic, as well as a centre for exhibitions and events.

Neri explains how restoration projects like this are common in the west, but that in China you are more likely to find entirely new interiors within historic buildings, which he describes as a "bling-bling experience". However, he insists that interest in conservation is growing.

"The western media likes to portray China as this big behemoth, bigger, better, richer, crasser version of America," Neri says. "[But] you would be surprised. Because there is actually a group of people that are interested - even in the government, even in the business sector, even in the banking sector - in the small, the delicate, the things with meaning and purpose."

This aspect of China has not been highlighted, he adds, "because it doesn't sell newspapers".

The Design Republic Commune features a restored exterior while the interior retains traces of its previous incarnations in the form of sections of exposed beams, brickwork, plaster and timber laths as well as salvaged signage. "I think it's very important for people who come into a historic building to have certain pieces of reality, to be able to touch the inside of the building," adds Hu.

See more images of the Design Republic Commune in our earlier story, or read our interview with the architects about how Chinese architects need to develop their own design manifesto.

See all our recent stories about Shanghai »
See more stories about Neri&Hu »

Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.

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as this big behemoth" - Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Chinese architects need to develop their own design manifesto to stem the tide of "half-assed" building projects in the country, according to Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Shanghai studio Neri&Hu.

Speaking to Dezeen in Shanghai last week, the duo talked about "the absence of a modern Chinese architecture and design language" and added: "Architects feel lost".

Neri and Hu made the comments at the opening of their Design Republic Design Commune in the city's Jingan district, where they organised a series of discussions about the need for a new design manifesto for China.

Hu said the loss of belief is common to architects around the world, but is particularly critical in China due to the frenetic pace of development in the country. "A lot of architects in the US are lost, but there are no projects," Hu said. "Here, we are lost and we are building cities."

Neri added that Chinese developers often brief their construction teams by pointing to pictures in magazines: "It's done in such a half-assed way that it becomes scary," he said.

Last week Neri&Hu Design and Research Office invited international designers, architects and founders of design brands to Shanghai to discuss their own design manifestos at the opening of the building, which will be used to introduce Chinese audiences to design.

At the launch they distributed a booklet resembling Chairman Mao's Little Red Book containing a series of slogans such as "We seek beauty in the everyday" and "We denounce design for the sake of design, "which intended to stimulate debate about the meaning of design.

"If you tell people this kind of stuff here, they don't understand why you're even doing it," said Hu. "In the west, when you tell people about this, at least they understand why you're searching. They might be lost, but they know that they are lost. People are lost here, not knowing they're lost. That's a real danger."

Last month Aric Chen, the creative director of Beijing Design Week, told Dezeen that China needs to "slow down" and pay more attention to issues of authenticity, process and identity.

See all our stories about Neri&Hu | See all our stories about Shanghai

Top photograph of the Shanghai skyline is from Shutterstock.

Here's an edited transcript of the interview with Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs:

Rossana Hu: Lyndon and I are both architects but after we started our architecture practice here in Shanghai we also started another company called Design Republic. Design Republic is really a platform for design. We started with a retail concept but there are other things with regards to Design Republic that we’d like to incorporate into the retail environment.

One of them is education: educating the public about design, to bring designers from different parts of the world to China, to speak, to show their work, to engage with dialogue with the local designers here.

Lyndon Neri: The idea is to bring the best of what the world can offer to China. And hopefully, one day, our aspiration is to bring the best of what China can offer from a design point of view back to the world.

Rossana Hu: This week at the Design Republic Design Commune we are opening the space to the public and we’re having a two-day symposium series called Manifesto. We’ve invited a lot of guest speakers from all over the world to come and talk about design in different ways.

If we don't do this, and we only show and sell products, it's just meaningless. And vice-versa, if we only do the talks, and you read about these products but you don't see them, you don't touch them, that's also meaningless. And that was the case [in Shanghai] before Design Republic opened. You couldn't see classic modern design anywhere. There were no design museums, there were no shops that sell modern classics. People were just not interested.

Lyndon Neri: The idea of Manifesto started about actually seven years ago when Rossana and I edited a book called Persistence of Vision. We interviewed fifty architects practicing in Shanghai. We asked them twelve questions.

At the back of our mind was the notion of trying to find a manifesto in a city that is so busy; a city that is just building like mad. We realised that it was important to make sure that people are thinking, having a discourse.

Rosanna Hu: It all derived from when we first started working here. We were talking to both local and overseas Chinese who returned about working, the conditions of working here, and everyone's so busy and has no time to think, no time to talk to each other. And every time you do have time to talk, it's five to ten minutes, and you can never really engage in a meaningful way. And we thought, okay, if everyone feels that way, then that means everyone must welcome the chance to engage.

So we did the book as an effort to bring about community, and it did I think. It made all the people we interviewed rethink about why it is they're here. We asked a lot of questions about culture, space, location, your work; what your responsibility as an architect and designer is; are you happy with what you're doing here; those types of questions.

So we wanted Design Republic to be a platform, and the retail just became the easiest thing to start because the form of a shop is easy. It is something that people understand: you sell products.

But there are other things that we wanted to do: create a brand that incorporates other designers in China to bring about a Chinese voice in modern design; to be able to bring it to the world and to engage in the problems that exist here today.

Marcus Fairs: And how does that relate to what you're doing here? A lot of the speakers you have for your Manifesto talks here are from the West.

Rosanna Hu: From the book project we realised a lot of people were asking what today's manifesto in design is. And actually that's not just a Chinese problem; it's a global problem. Architects feel lost, we're no longer confined within architecture with the big A, the way I thought we were say fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. It was probably easier to design because everyone shared certain beliefs. We believe in manifestos, we believe that you need to stake your belief. If you know your dream, then you can chase after it.

Lyndon Neri: And be rigorous about it.

Rosanna Hu: And also we notice the absence of a collective voice. The absence of a modern Chinese architecture and design language.

Lyndon Neri: In China, the phenomenon of copying is very great. So people look at magazines and they go, "I could sort of do this minimalist thing, I'll have the contractor do something like this." It's done in such a mama huhu way; a half-assed, half-baked way that it becomes, you know, scary.

Marcus Fairs: Shanghai's quite funny to that extent because you have these western-style skyscrapers with Chinese details bolted on the top. It's quite surreal.

Rosanna Hu: Yes, and I mean it goes back to our thesis projects in graduate school. I remember having a discussion with my teacher at Princeton. I remember talking to him about my thesis proposal, discussing the problem of modernism, and regionalism versus globalism. He thought that to modernise means basically what Rem [Koolhaas] believes: the tabula rasa. There's no history; that's all baggage that you don't need. But I still insist that you are who you are. None of us can erase our past, and you bring the baggage with you and you've got to work with the baggage that you have.

And how do you then exist as a contemporary architect, working with a modern architectural language? How do you exist in this environment, what is it that we take with us? Maybe it's not our history from the Ming and Qing Dynasties or even earlier. Maybe it's what we see today. Maybe it's the toilet that's across your nongtang [traditional Shanghai lane-house] window that you can see from your neighbour's bathroom, or it's the broom that everyone hangs up. Maybe it's those very kind of mundane things of the everyday that gives you a clue to what to design.

But also, we recognise that we're only one part of the world, and we're only one very small part of the larger Chinese modern context. I like to learn from other disciplines, and I think that to learn from, say, how Chinese modern literature, Chinese modern art, Chinese modern music, has evolved to where they are today.

The modern [Chinese] language, the writing system is actually influenced from English writing; the same with poetry. People have gone abroad, studied and brought things back. You know if you look at the [Chinese architects] who are doing significant work here, very few of them have actually never done work abroad: Yung Ho [Chang] Ma [Qingyun], Ma Qingyun, Ma Yansong. Most of use went abroad, and now we are all back here, taking what we've learned and creating something new.

Lyndon Neri: [Vancouver-based architect and designer] Omer Arbel said something very interesting today when he was asked what he would say to Chinese architecture students. He says, growing up, it was easy to model his career on the protagonists of his time. In his case it was Rem Koolhaas. But then quickly he realised it was not just unattainable, but it was so abstract that to people in Vancouver it was meaningless. So then he started finding meaning within the context that he was practising, and that became interesting.

Marcus Fairs: You mentioned that these are global issues; to what extent are they issues in China too?

Rosanna Hu: It is even more of an issue here because more people are working here, and it's at a faster pace.

Lyndon Neri: It's amplified, exaggerated.

Rosanna Hu: So if you get lost, you get lost faster. And if you fall, you fall deeper.

Lyndon Neri: A lot of architects in the US are lost, but there are no projects. So they could be lost and not build. Here, we are lost and we are building cities. We're building cities, you know. For crying out loud!

Rosanna Hu: If you tell people this kind of stuff here, they don't understand why you're even doing it. They don't understand the need to have a manifesto. In the west, when you tell people about this, at least they understand why you're searching. They may not have it, they might be lost, but they know that they are lost. People are lost here, not knowing they're lost. That's a real danger.

Marcus Fairs: So the manifesto needs to be figured out pretty soon. And how are you going to do that?

Rosanna Hu: I don't really see that there needs to be an end. I don't think it's like saying, "Okay, once we formulate our manifesto, then this is it."

Marcus Fairs: You produced a little Manifesto booklet for the opening event [above and below].

Rosanna Hu: We really worked hard [on that]. We really thought about it and the reason why it's mostly blank pages is so that you write your own. And then they're offset with quotes from both Chinese writers, poets and Western writers’ quotes about life, about ideals, about utopia. This helps you set the tone. It’s the beginning but the key is that you're searching for something, and that your work will hopefully stand for something.

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- Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

Named Design Commune, the renovated brick building houses a series of design stores and showrooms, including the new flagship for Neri&Hu's own furniture brand, Design Republic.

"The concept for the Design Commune is to bring designers from around the city to hopefully have a place where they can have a discourse in architecture, in product design, in interior design," Lyndon Neri told Dezeen. "To have a place where they could shop, a place where they could rest, a place where they could meander and wander and see different shops and different stores, different products, and at the same time be a part of an exhibition, or be part of a gallery, or be part of a talk."

The spaces will initially be used to showcase the best of international design in order to inform and educate Chinese designers and consumers. "We want to bring the best of what the world can offer to China and hopefully one day bring the best of what China can offer back to the world," said Neri.

For the conversion, the architects peeled back the decaying layers of wood and plaster, before restoring the original brickwork and adding new walls and rooms using a materials palette of glass, metal sheeting and white plaster.

"The existing building has a heaviness, and a kind of institutional feel," explained Rossana Hu, before describing how they wanted to offset this with lighter materials. "Big open glass lets you see through a lot of visual corridors, or openings between floors that didn't used to exist."

A new glass structure runs along the facade of the building, creating a modern shopfront for Design Republic.

Elsewhere in the building, the architects have created a restaurant, a cafe, a lecture hall and a one-room hotel.

Dezeen visited the The Design Republic Commune last week to take part in a series of discussions about architecture and design and you can see our snapshots in an album on Facebook. We'll also be publishing a full movie interview with Neri&Hu soon and you can also read about another Design Republic showroom in Shanghai in our earlier story.

During our visit, Hong Kong-based designer Michael Young also tipped China to have as many world-class designers as Japan within 20 years.

See more stories about Neri&Hu »
See more stories about Shanghai »

Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Here's a project description from Neri&Hu:

The Design Republic Commune (Shanghai)

The Design Republic Commune, located in the center of Shanghai, envisions itself as a design hub, a gathering space for designers and design patrons alike to admire, ponder, exchange, learn, and consume. It houses the new flagship store for Design Republic, a modern furniture retailer, alongside a mixture of design-focused retail concepts, including books, fashion, lighting, accessories and flowers. The Commune will also have a design gallery, an event space, a café, a restaurant by Michelin-Starred Chef Jason Atherton, and a one-bedroom Design Republic apartment.

Situated within the historic relic of the Police Headquarters built by the British in the 1910s, the project takes a surgical approach to renovation. First, gently removing the decaying wood and plaster, then carefully restoring the still vibrant red brickwork, while grafting on skin, joints, and organs onto parts that needed reconstruction. And finally with the attachment of a brand new appendage which, like a prosthetic, enables the existing building to perform new functions, the nearly abandoned building begins its life again.

Replacing the rather dilapidated row-shops on the street front, Neri&Hu introduced a modern glassy insertion onto the brick façade. To accentuate the historic nature of the main building, the street level periphery is enveloped by transparent glazing to reveal the existing brickwork and rough concrete structures. Breathing new life into a traditional colonial building plan, Neri&Hu strategically removed certain floor plates, walls, as well as ceiling panels, to allow a renewed experience of the existing building, one that is fitting for the new functions to which the building now needs to respond.

Various small and precise incisions have been made in the interior architecture to reveal the building’s history and integrity while creating experiential intersections for a coherent experience when moving through the building. Contrasting with the exterior which has mostly been left intact due to historic preservation guidelines, the interior has been completely transformed. The starkly modern white rooms are juxtaposed with untouched remnants of brick walls, and in some cases, exposed wood laths underneath crumbling plaster walls. The clear intentionality behind the detailing of connections between the old and the new creates a visually and spatially tectonic balance in relation to the building as a whole.

Above: ground floor plan - click above for larger image and key

Above: first floor plan - click above for larger image and key

Above: second floor plan - click above for larger image and key

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by Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.