“不求恒久远，但求意未尽。”——安东尼·德·圣埃克苏佩里

（文/图）：Neri&Hu

“不求恒久远，但求意未尽。”
——安东尼·德·圣埃克苏佩里

（文/图）：Neri&Hu

"We Do Not Ask To Be Eternal Beings,We Only Ask That Things Do Not Lose All Their Meaning."– Antoine De Saint Exupery

如恩设计研究室作为一家多元化的建筑师事务所，坚信建筑是文化生产和社会变更的产物，目的在于通过高度依赖语境和跨学科的设计方法建构价值与意义。

如恩立足于上海这个色彩斑斓却又让人迷惑的城市。上海城市建筑的飞速发展使我们不得不面对一个割断了记忆、偏重行动而远离思考的城市。现实有些让人遗憾，却为我们提供了机遇，也激发我们从新的路径思考旧物改造和修复历史遗迹的问题，这是对传统模式和意识形态的挑战。我们认为必须以批判而审慎的方法保存城市肌理和建筑记忆，在我们的环境特性中展示时代精神，而非简单的复制。通过精心处理和协调矛盾，我们已经在许多建筑作品中证明，可以在历史建筑中创建充满惊喜的空间体验，并赋予其新的生命力的可能性。

如恩认可环境的重要性。我们也敏锐地意识到建筑从来都不是纯理性思维的产物，也不是环境作用的直接结果。它始终是反映个人与文化的愿望与理想。我们不会回避传统遗产。已建成的世界让我们知道并记住自己是谁，嵌入身份之中的不仅仅是我们共同的中国遗产，当然还包括我们的教育、先辈、不断地参与持续中的对话，以及每个人的理念。我们确实一直痴迷于我们的文化身份及其在本民族和世界范围内的典型价值。我们得到了许多的支持，希望挑战被曲解的中国形象，同时重新阐释并定义中国的美学。

如恩认为在如此复杂的条件下工作，需要更广泛地界定设计师的领域。我们坚信多样性及其形成设计跨学科方法的重要作用。因为当代建筑问题的新情况已经超越了传统的边界，我们的实践包括所有层面上的设计思维。经过十年的实践，我们的工作覆盖了建筑设计、室内设计、产品设计、平面设计等领域。一直以来，建筑师对空间以及物质性的视角都是我们研究的焦点。

如恩坚持以研究作为一种设计方法，因为每一个项目都有各自独特的相关问题。批判性地探索项目、场地、功能和历史的独特性，对于创作严谨的设计作品是必不可少的。在研究的基础上，我们希望将工作牢牢扎根于运动、细节、物质、形式和光的互动，而非遵循刻板化的风格。通过具象和抽象的表现为建筑形式赋予意义，是每个项目的终极追求。

Neri&Hu as an architectural duo strongly believes in architecture as a paradigm for cultural production and social change, aiming to create meaning and significance through its highly contextual and inter-disciplinary approach to design.

Neri&Hu established its practice in Shanghai, as colorful and as confusing a place as one could hope for. The massive rapidity of Shanghai's urban construction forces us to confront a city disconnected from its memory, a city that prefers deeds over deliberation. This somewhat unfortunate reality turns into an opportunity for us, provoking new ways ofthinking about the issues of adaptive-reuse and historic restoration that challenge traditional modes and ideologies. We believe that urban fabric and architectural memory should be preserved with a critical and sensitive approach that exemplifies a zeitgeist within the specificity of our context, and is not merely reproduced. Through a delicate handling and negotiation of contradictions, we have shown in many built works the possibility of creating unexpected spatial experiences in historic buildings, giving them new life.

Neri&Hu recognizes the importance of context, we are also keenly aware that architecture has never arisen from purely rational thinking or directly as a result of its context. It has always reflected personal and cultural aspirations and ideals, and we do not shy away from that heritage. Our constructed world enables us to understand and remember who we are, and embedded in that identity is not only our shared Chinese heritage, but certainly our education, mentors, continual exposure to ongoing discourses, and personal obsessions. We have indeed been obsessed with our cultural identity and its representative value both within the national borders and on the global stage. We operate on many shores and desire to challenge China's misrepresented image, while contributing to the defining of a re-interpreted Chinese aesthetic.

Neri&Hu believes that working under such complex conditions necessitates a broader definition of our scope as designers. We believe in diversity and its profound contribution to creating an inter-disciplinary methodology for design. Because new sets of contemporary problems relating to buildings now extend beyond traditional boundaries, our practice embraces architecture's supremacy in design thinking on all levels. Through our ten years of practice, we have shown extensive work in the realms of product design, graphic design, interior design, alongside our architectural explorations. All the while, the architect's perspective on space and object-hood is always at the center of our investigations.

Neri&Hu insists on research as a design approach as each project bears its unique set of related issues. A critical probing into the specificities of program, site, function, and history is essential to the creation of rigorous design work. Based on research, we desire to anchor our work on the dynamic interaction of movement, detail, materiality, form and light rather than conforming to a formulaic style. The ultimate significance behind each project comes from how the built form creates meaning through its physical and metaphysical representations.

创明鸟上海办公室（摄影：Dirk Weiblen）