Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, a Shanghai-based interdisciplinary architectural design practice, features in Archello’s 25 best architecture firms in China. This article highlights a recently completed project in Shanghai undertaken by Neri&Hu.
New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center
Neri&Hu Design and Research Office has completed the intricate interior design of the New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center. The center is located in Qiantan, a recently developed business and cultural hub in Shanghai that is also known as The New Bund. Situated on the banks of the Huangpu River and surrounded by shiny high-rise developments, the New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center houses a grand theater and black box exhibition/performance space.
Based in Shanghai, Neri&Hu considers the Chinese metropolis to be a “new global frontier” with the studio “in the immediate center of [its] contemporary chaos.” Shanghai’s cultural, urban, and historic contexts provide a point of departure for design inquiries that span a broad spectrum of ideas. Neri&Hu’s approach to the interior design of the New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center (the building was designed by Palmer & Turner Consultants) is an intricate study in detail, material, and form, embracing both classic and contemporary design disciplines.
Neri&Hu describes its interior design concept for the project as “the arena” — “a contemporary interpretation of the classical archetype,” says the studio.
The grand theater, lobby concourse, and circulation paths are defined by a series of arches. The five-story atrium space creates an especially strong impression, where the full height of its stacked layers of arches can be viewed. The atrium’s impressive design draws the eye up and down, making this space a grand antechamber to the main event: the grand theater. The 2,500-seater grand theater is enveloped entirely in oak. “Here, the repeating arch motif not only echoes the arena concept, but also helps to fulfill the acoustic requirements of the theater,” says Neri&Hu.
Spaces throughout the Performing Arts Center are notable for their differing material characteristics, including the use of precast terrazzo, engineered wood, and travertine. A multipurpose black box exhibition/performance space is clad in blackened stainless steel; a VIP lounge is clad in perforated bricks; restrooms feature bronze details, and lifts are clad in copper.
Gross floor area: 17,580 square meters (189,230 square feet)
Floor plans
