SIMPLICITY RULES in Neri & Hu’s Gastown installation
If the Chinese city of Shanghai conjures up triumphant towers and the breathless hunt for shiny new things, its visiting architect Lyndon Neri is as far from that madding crowd as possible.
The new “residency” space in Gastown he has created with partner Rossana Hu — where one can waltz from a calm, low-level seating area through to a dining room before hitting a framed bedroom in a creation dubbed the “domestic cage” — is a perfect vignette of pared-down clean lines without a hint of bling-bling.
It’s a new-to-Vancouver set piece that originally debuted at Singapore’s Maison&Objet Asia in March (the pair, who design as Neri&Hu, were crowned its designers of the year for 2015).
And, interestingly, instead of making their furniture in China, the studio has looked to Portuguese woodworker De La Espada for a manufacturing partner.
“We believe there is room for things to slow down in China — faster doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better,” Neri says, as he escorts me through his installation at Inform Interiors (at the Water Street location until the end of July). “What we try to do is simplify a lot of things we design.”
Simplify, indeed. Think Shakerstyle influence dovetailed with whiffs of Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, California’s architectural powerhouses of the West Coast Modernism era.
Take a wooden dining table for example: the acclaimed 10-yearold architecture and design firm has overhauled its simplicity by inlaying Carrara marble top into a solid walnut, ash or oak table, bowing to the couple’s interest in architectural tectonics (where a piece’s construction is vital to its end beauty).
Other notable furniture items include the Commune Stool and Bench, which are a stylish take on what is often seen on the streets of Shanghai; and a tall, highgloss lacquer cabinet with solid oak interior that resembles an “enlarged Bento box.” The lacquer is strikingly combined with a solid brushed brass frame and the cabinet can store any items.
“We like our furniture not to be too specific and to do many things,” Neri says. “We’re architects; we like layering.” (The pair often uses bronze in its raw, less decorative state: for a hotel in Zhengzhou, China, the studio choreographed bronze columns to evoke a forest around its entrance.)
In the bedroom, the multi-tasking wooden Tray Desk works as a desk or a makeup table. It comes with mirror and compartments, although the drawer pulls out further to reveal an ingenious secret love-letter drawer in red leather. Nearby sits the beautifully simplistic armed Frame Bed.
“It’s all a play on natural materials,” says Neri, who has a master of architecture degree from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Hu has a master of architecture and urban planning from Princeton University, and a bachelor’s degree in architecture and music from the University of California at Berkeley, where the pair met.
In demand globally, the studio is behind such design derring-do as the upcoming development of the famous former Bow Street Magistrates’ Court building into a hotel in London, as well as shoe brand Camper’s Shanghai flagship (where an old house looks like it’s been sliced in two) and the transformation of an abandoned 1930s building into a hotel called The Waterhouse in Shanghai.
The pair also run Manifesto, a magazine (and forums) that touches on architecture and design as well as lifestyle tips.
Whereas things may be wellknown in the West, Neri says, such as the definition of a boutique hotel and the importance of not copying other designers’ work, he believes Manifesto has been a “genuine idea to educate the public (in Shanghai). It’s covering a whole genre of things that are often taken for granted.”