Neri&Hu at this year's IMM Cologne
Shanghai architect Neri&Hu is creating the focal point for January’s IMM Cologne furniture fair. Johnny Tucker was in Shanghai for the announcement, and then caught up with practice co-founder Lyndon Neri again in London to challenge him about some of the notions behind the scheme.
Wander around the streets of Shanghai -- the old streets that is -- and you'll experience a warren of humanity living in close proximity. Shanghai-based architecture practice Neri&Hu is looking to bring some of the essence of this to freezing-cold Cologne this January in a feature for the IMM furniture fair.
That's just one aspect of the multilayered, possibly provocative, installation called Memory Lane being designed by the practice. It will take the form of a kind of human zoo, without the people. There will be 'cages' for possession, arranged not quite as room sets, but by deeper human themes. 'We've created memory scenarios, and even in our subjectivity we're hoping these scenarios are quite universal,' says practice co-founder Lyndon Neri. 'They are things that are inherent to us all, things like the lover in all of us, the poet in all of us, the artist in all of us. Even the most successful businessman has a cultural side to them, it may just be repressed! There are five scenarios, the other two are about the family and the child in all of us.'
Rosanna Hu and Lyndon Neri
But don't expect to start wandering around these rooms/cages for possessions and making yourself at home. This is a zoo after all, and it's far more voyeuristic than interactive. A raised walkway will force the viewer to look down on the exhibits from an almost axonometric point of view, and voyeuristically placed mirrors will offer alternative, snatched glimpses. The products will be raised on pedestals literally and metaphorically as the practice seeks to challenge our conception of home.
'Does the world really need any more chairs?' posits Lydon Neri. 'The question has added weight since he posed it during the original IMM press conference in Shanghai, where Neri&Hu was unveiled as feature designer (following in the footsteps of previous 'Das Haus' feature designers, including a rather lacklustre offering from Doshi Levien in 2012).
Now, when I catch up with Neri again in London -- here to present on a Selfridges' project and keep an eye on the Bow Street Magistrates Court hotel conversion his practice is responsible for -- he qualifies his earlier statement: 'I guess my question really was not whether we need more furniture, but whether we need more crappy furniture. To rephrase that, should there be less furniture and more thoughtful furniture?
'I am not saying that Fabio Novembre doesn't have a place in product design, or Karim Rashid -- the more whimsical, the more plastic -- I'm not saying that, but I am trying to understand what is the motivation behind making a lot of these pieces.'
There is, of course a conflict here: on the one hand Neri is looking to challenge manufacturing-led mass production of product, and on the other his practice is involved as a marketing tool for an already sizeable furniture fair with a fairly aggressive growth agenda.
Close-up of the cages and stair up to the walkway
Neri is well aware of what he is doing and where he is doing it: 'There is always a sense of dichotomy and a sense of disconnect. With everyday objects, from furniture to the spoons we use, there's a disconnect. We are criticising the way chairs are designed, the way architecture is designed and the way interiors are set up. I didn't want to be so blatant and make this too much of a one-liner, but my Memory Lane is really about: "Do we really need more products in the name of consumerism, just because people want to make more money?" I know the Chinese government might not necessarily be happy with that but that's what I'm trying to say.'
So it looks like visitors can expect something a little bit removed from the norm of a tradeshow feature at IMM this year, something more dialectical in its approach. That's not to say there won't be something from the lifestylers to take away from this -- Neri&Hu has populated the cages with what it believes to be classics that fit with their themes. There will be pieces by a wide range of designers and architects, from Antonio Gaudí to Konstantin Grcic, with a smattering of Neri&Hu's own products along the way.
