IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 11

Photo by: Dirk Weiblen

Adding Up Design Elements

| SUM OF ITS PARTS

ROOTS + TREES AND BRANCHES + ROCK =
a performance center that doubles as an urban oasis.

By | Lindsay Roseman

A

As Shanghai, China's Hongqiao district
continues to rapidly expand into a travel
hub, a new cultural center is giving the
neighborhood a home for the arts-and a
place to retreat.
The HUB Performance and Exhibition
Center, which was completed in 2015,
is a five-story urban sanctuary with a
transformative landscape-inspired design
by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, founding
partners, Neri&Hu, Shanghai, China.
"The over-development of the
neighborhood and its visually cluttered,
consumer environment pushed us to
seek after a concept that would turn the
Performance and Exhibition Center into
a calm retreat and urban oasis for the
city," the designers say. "As an important
indoor public space, our hope is that it is
a beautiful and welcoming space to walk
through and experience even when there
is no event scheduled."
The studio used elements to create
spaces that resemble a forest, building a
one-of-a-kind cultural destination.

ROOTS
As visitors enter the
performance center
from the underground
subway station, they'll
notice aluminum tubes
covering the ceiling,
mimicking tree roots.
"To read and understand
the relationship between
each floor inside this
solid rock, the roots in
the ceiling foreshadow
tree elements in the
exhibition space
above," the designers
say. "Lighting and
materiality in the
basement floor together
create a contrasting
darker mood so that
one would have a 'wow'
effect when they move
up into the forest."

TREES AND
BRANCHES
A ride up the escalator
tunnel from the subway
brings visitors into the
primary exhibition hall,
where a floating canopy
of sticks that hovers
above the three-story
atrium greets them. "In
the exhibition hall, we
introduced a forest by
using sticks to mimic
branches hovering above
in the form of a canopy
to soften the space,"
the designers say. "The
branches wrap down to
create a sense of layering
along the galleries in the
upper two floors. As one
meanders along the bridge
or the curved balconies,
one's experience of the
forest is always shifting."

ROCK
"The rock is the primary
base language of the
building," the designers
say. "The shape of the
exterior architecture
references the silver
nugget-the Chinese
traditional symbol of
wealth. Therefore, we
conceived of the interior
as a piece of rock from
which we carve out each
program space. We used
a Chinese grey sandstone
of three different finishes
(sanded, polished, and
flamed) and five-width
variation to create the
layered striation effect.
This material wraps all
wall surfaces, including
escalator tunnels and
passages in between
floors."

fall/winter 2016

perspective

11



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016

IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016
From IIDA
Contents
Next
World View
Sum of Its Parts
Talk, Talk
Pre/Post
I Design
Data Viz
The Happiness Principle
Designs on Diversity
What’s Old Is New
Retail Reboot
Futureproof Now
Scratch Pad
Insider Intel
Sound Bytes
IIDA News + Updates
Why This Design Works
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Cover2
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - From IIDA
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Contents
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 3
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 4
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 5
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Next
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 7
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 8
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 9
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - World View
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Sum of Its Parts
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Talk, Talk
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Pre/Post
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - I Design
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Data Viz
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - The Happiness Principle
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 17
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 18
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 19
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 20
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 21
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 22
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 23
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Designs on Diversity
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 25
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 26
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 27
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - What’s Old Is New
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 29
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 30
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 31
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 32
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 33
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Retail Reboot
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 35
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 36
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 37
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 38
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 39
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Futureproof Now
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 41
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 42
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 43
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 44
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 45
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 46
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 47
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Scratch Pad
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 49
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Insider Intel
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 51
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Sound Bytes
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 53
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - IIDA News + Updates
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - 55
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Why This Design Works
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Cover3
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2016 - Cover4
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