Neri & Hu give life to an old building by a sculptural staircase that goes through the different levels offering endless space visuals.

Also they create a very special facade using drawings of designs of chairs, tables, lamps...

Memory of project by Neri&Hu

The new Design Republic's Design Collective is located on the outskirt of Shanghai in a town called Qingpu. Neri&Hu inherited an existing building and were given the task of completely redesigning both the exterior and the interior without demolishing the existing structure.  Neri&Hu’s concept was to cover the existing building to create a new exterior identity and simultaneously fabricate an introverted spatial platform to create a new identity for the Design Republic's Design Collective, a group of avant-garde furniture retail initiatives in the city.

The existing building has been completely covered with an opaque graphic wrapper made with carbon fiber panels to create an introverted spatial condition to showcase furniture both visually and experientially.

The main entry is characterized by a large steel funnel, serving as a transition element from the urban context to the exhibition space. The shape of the entry tube also serves as a means of emphasizing the arrival into the 3 story exhibition hall where the visitors introverted journey begins.

The staircase wrapping the interior of the main exhibition space leads the visitor through the multiple levels of display where the furniture can be experienced from varying spatial relationships and viewed from different vantage points and voyeuristic snippets of retail display. This journey is accentuated as the visitor climbs higher through the gallery levels by the seven large openings in the roof which serve to allow daylight into the exhibition space while at once generating a moment of visual release from within the introverted exhibition environment.

About Design Republic.

Design Republic stands for a new birth of life and style. At its foundation, it is a republic of life - life that creates meaning and understanding through its relationship to objects of habitation. Seeking to explore the relationship between people and the simple objects they use in life - a plate, a teacup, a chair; it is here where we discover the beauty of everyday life.

Design Republic is also a republic of style - a style that creates new ideologies in design, retail, and merchandising concepts embodying a distinctive aesthetic for contemporary China. It crosses traditional boundaries to merge old and new, traditional and modern, opulent and austere, to ultimately create a dynamic platform of design.

Design Republic Qingpu store is located on the first floor, with a total area of 2,000 sqm. The Design Republic offers a unique collection of products created by the world's best design talents collaborates with many designers both foreign and local to create products that will explore a new modern Chinese aesthetic.

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Architects
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Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Partners-in-charge.- Lyndon Neri, Rossana Hu.
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Project team
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Research Office (Interior Designer). Architecture and Interior: Dirk Weiblen (senior associate), Federico Saralvo (architectural designer), Aleksandra Duka (architectural designer), Stephanie Chu (architectural designer). Graphics: Christine Neri (associate), Evelyn Chiu (graphic designer).
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Client
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Design Republic store on GF.
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Area
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7230 sqm (Gross square footage).
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Dates
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July 2011 – April 2012 (Construction Period). December 2010 – July 2011 (Design Period).
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Location
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Qingpu District,Shanghái, China.
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Photography
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Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, founded in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. Neri&Hu works internationally providing architecture, interior, master planning, graphic, and product design services. Currently working on projects in many countries, Neri&Hu is composed of multi-cultural staff who speak over 30 different languages.  The diversity of the team reinforces a core vision for the practice: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new paradigm in architecture.

Lyndon Neri is a Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an inter-disciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri&Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, Mr. Neri was inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame with his partner Ms. Rossana Hu. The practice was the 2011 INSIDE Festival Overall Winner, won AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2010 by Architectural Review and was selected as one of the Design Vanguards in 2009 by Architectural Record. Mr. Neri received a Master of Architecture at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to starting his own practice with partner Rossana Hu, he was the Director for Projects in Asia and an Associate for Michael Graves & Associates in Princeton for over 10 years, and also worked in New York City for various architectural firms.

Rossana Hu is a Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an inter-disciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri&Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, Mr. Neri was inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame with his partner Ms. Rossana Hu. The practice was the 2011 INSIDE Festival Overall Winner, won AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2010 by Architectural Review and was selected as one of the Design Vanguards in 2009 by Architectural Record. Ms. Hu received a Master of Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Music from the University of California at Berkeley. Before establishing Neri&Hu with her partner Lyndon Neri, Ms. Hu worked for Michael Graves & Associates, Ralph Lerner Architect in Princeton, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in New York City, and The Architects Collaborative (TAC) in San Francisco.

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