Neri&Hu: The design poets

Neri&Hu is one of the world’s most highly sought-after architecture and design studios. Based in Shanghai, their exceptional designs are received to great acclaim around the globe. The practice was set up by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu – partners in both their private and professional lives. Both have Chinese roots and an international background: Lyndon Neri was born to Chinese parents in the Philippines and Rossana Hu grew up in Taiwan. They met in the USA, studying architecture together at Berkeley. Neri did his masters in Harvard while Hu went to Princeton. The pair went on to work in the practice of the American architect Michael Graves, before relocating with their children to Shanghai and setting up on their own.

When the pair opened their studio in Shanghai in 2004, the city was not known for its modern design and the architecture scene in China was experiencing something of an upheaval. But it is not just with their Design and Research Office that Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu have helped make Shanghai the design metropolis it is today – their Design Republic concept store soon became a meeting place and important platform for anyone from China or abroad interested in design. Neri&Hu were significantly involved in establishing the design scene in Shanghai and showing the world just how innovative and exciting Chinese design can be.

The Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an interdisciplinary architecture and design studio, which means that Lyndon Neri, Rossana Hu and their team work on a range of projects including new buildings and renovations, interior design, and product and graphic design. As architects and interior designers, Neri&Hu are in demand in the USA and Europe as much as they are in China. They design furniture and lights for some of the most renowned manufacturers in Europe and since setting up their studio Neri&Hu have won numerous international design awards.

In their Design and Research Office, Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu have put together a multicultural team who speak more than thirty different languages and also enrich Neri&Hu’s work. The influence of different cultures can be seen in the duo’s designs. Although Neri&Hu’s work clearly has its roots in Chinese culture, the two designers have been shaped by their experience of working in the USA and their many international links. Out of different cultural influences and architectural and design traditions they have developed their very own design language that is understood around the globe. Each of their projects is extremely well thought out and the result of intensive research. Neri&Hu’s works are sophisticated and accessible, conceptual and poetic – all at the same time.

The two lighting ranges that Neri&Hu have designed for Artemide clearly reveal the influences of Chinese culture and the poetic streak running through both designers. The spherical lights in the nh family are a modern reinterpretation of traditional Chinese lanterns. With a movable ring made from brushed brass, the nh lights can be positioned or hung in a variety of ways.

The Yanzi family of lights was inspired by everyday scenes on the streets of Shanghai: birds sitting on scaffolding or twittering in a woven bamboo cage. Stylised swallows in brass with a head made from mouth-blown glass are elegantly poised on the black structures of the Yanzi lights. It is a modular system – ideal for designing extraordinary landscapes of light. The design is minimalist, graphic and playful at the same time. Compelling design meets urban poetry. The outcome: light like a poem.