Architecture studio Neri&Hu has been commissioned to remodel the 350 square meter space on the ground floor of a new mixed-use tower for the Ota Fine Arts brand in Rockbund, a successful redevelopment area with a mix of historic and new buildings in the city of Shanghai in China.

The building is located along an alley near a row of Art Deco edicts, which allows generating an exquisite contrast between the old and the new, in this way the pioneering brand in exhibiting art and artists from East Asia, will have a second headquarters of great artistic value.
Ota Fine Arts designed by the Neri&Hu architecture studio is a gallery where the interior space is divided into two zones, the main public gallery of 150 square meters and the private zone that includes VIP rooms and office space.

The main project challenge was to use the areas along the façade for both storage and exhibition, therefore the distinction between functional and experimental spaces is blurred.

The gallery has a weathered steel framed façade with portions of solid metal and large glass panels interspersed to act as display cases. A large sliding door marks the entrance to the gallery which in its open configuration serves as a landmark to attract users.


Ota Fine Arts by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Photograph by Zhang Hong.
 

Project description by Neri&Hu

Since its inception in 1994, Ota Fine Arts has been a pioneer in showcasing East Asian art and artists, specializing in Japanese contemporary art. With galleries in Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai, the latest and second site in Shanghai is located at Rockbund, a successful redevelopment area with a blend of historic and new buildings. Neri&Hu steps in to rehaul the 350 square meter space on the ground floor of a new mixed-use tower.

Parallel to the historic Yuanmingyuan road, the gallery’s east façade is oriented alongside an alleyway and faces onto a row of exquisitely restored Art Deco buildings. Approaching the gallery, visitors experience the dramatic contrast of old and new that speaks to the very essence of contemporary Shanghai. The gallery’s façade is framed in aged steel with portions of solid metal and large glass panels interspersed to act as display vitrines. Behind the glass, handmade ivory tiles line the inside in a subtle woven pattern to serve as a neutral backdrop for any art pieces on show.

An oversized sliding door marks the entry to the gallery, which in its open configuration, exposes an inset niche that brings you into the gallery. During closed hours, the door slides back to its original position and allows the vitrine display to be revealed again. The secondary west side, designated for vehicles and large artworks to arrive, features a fluted glass façade that glows in the evening to illuminate the adjacent Rockbund courtyard. An even wider warehouse-sized door occupies half the width of the façade and can be fully opened using a custom-designed handle, elegant in its simplicity and utility.


Ota Fine Arts by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Photograph by Zhang Hong.

The gallery space within is divided into two zones, the 150 sqm main public viewing gallery, and the private zone including VIP rooms and office space. Given the linear nature of the project footprint, the primary design challenge was to utilize the areas along the façade for both storage and display, blurring the distinction between functional and experiential space. This deepened threshold condition found on both facades defines the visitor’s arrival sequence and journey within.

The VIP spaces are clean white box rooms featuring contemporary furniture pieces to create a relaxing environment where the art piece in question takes center stage. The project’s understated material palette and overall conceptual underpinning lies in the juxtaposition of old and new, raw and refined, ordinary and spectacular; Neri&Hu hopes one can appreciate the sublime beauty of the banal, as much as the brilliance of contemporary art.

More information

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Project team
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Partners-in-charge.- Lyndon Neri, Rossana Hu.
Associate-in-charge.- Jacqueline Min.
Senior Interior Designer-in-charge.- Phil Wang.
Design team.- Rovi Qu, Greg Wu.
Interior design.- Neri&Hu Design and Research Office.
FF&E procurement.- Design Republic.
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Client
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Ota Fine Arts.
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Builder
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ETQ Project (Shanghai) Limited.
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Area
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388.98 sqm.
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Dates
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March, 2023.
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Location
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Unit QL106, No. 78, Huqiu Road, Rockbund, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China.
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Manufacturers
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Interiors – Materials.- weathering resistant steel, microcement, custom white tile, texture glass, stained oak floor.
Interiors – Furniture.- Specified: E15 London table 3600.
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Photography
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Zhu Runzi, Zhang Hong.
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Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, founded in 2006 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. The practice’s burgeoning global portfolio includes commissions ranging from master planning and architecture to interior design, installation, furniture, product, branding and graphic works. Currently working on projects in many countries, Neri&Hu is composed of multi-cultural staff who speak over 30 different languages.  The team's diversity reinforces a core vision for the practice: to respond to a global worldview, incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new architectural paradigm.

Neri&Hu’s location is purposeful. With Shanghai considered a new global frontier, Neri&Hu is in the immediate center of this contemporary chaos. The city’s cultural, urban, and historic contexts function as a point of departure for design inquiries that span across a wide spectrum of scales. Furthermore, Neri&Hu has expanded the conventional boundaries of practice to include complementary disciplines. A critical probing into the specificities of program, site, function, and history is essential to the creation of rigorous work. Based on research, Neri&Hu anchors its ethos on the dynamic interaction of experience, detail, material, form, and light rather than conforming to a formulaic style.

Lyndon Neri, Honorary FAIA, co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Rossana Hu in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. Neri received his Master of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Alongside his design practice, Neri has been deeply committed to architectural education and has taught and lectured at numerous universities. He was appointed as Visiting Faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture for the spring semesters of 2024 and 2025. Neri was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, the Design Critic in 2023 and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 and 2021 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture. Neri co-authored and edited Persistence of Vision: Shanghai Architects in Dialogue, published by MCCM Creations in 2007. In 2017, his first monograph, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, was published by Park Books. In 2021, the second monograph, Thresholds: Space, Time and Practice, was published by Thames & Hudson, and the Chinese edition was translated and published in 2023 by Guangxi Normal University Press. Neri was elevated to Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2025.

Rossana Hu co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Lyndon Neri in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. Hu received her Master of Architecture and Urban Planning at Princeton University and her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in music.

Alongside her design practice, Hu has been deeply committed to architectural education and has taught and lectured at numerous universities. Hu was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, the Design Critic in 2023 and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 and 2021 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture. Hu was appointed as Chair of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University in 2021 and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, effective spring semester 2024.

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Published on: December 12, 2023
Cite:
metalocus, ADELA BONAS, JORGE MARTINEZ
"Blurred uses. Ota Fine Arts by Neri&Hu" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/blurred-uses-ota-fine-arts-nerihu> ISSN 1139-6415
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