An ex-industrial building in the middle of Jing’an Temple area, Shanghai, receives a lease of new life when inter-disciplinary architectural design practice Neri&Hu converts a premise once occupied by a telecoms company into its new studio named No. 31.
At its core, this adaptive reuse project is founded on the notion of reflective nostalgia – a design philosophy that resonates with the studio’s founders, Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu. The studio repurposes this forgotten building with confidence, preserving many original structures and elements to retain the building’s character and history, at the same time modifying it to make it relevant, and functional.
Building upon existing designs, the studio revitalises the main façade of the building, introducing modern updates without upending major structures. On the façade, windows have been refreshed with glass bricks filling up the top to display up-to-date proportions, while the bottom part of new operable windows is held by a long, black metal frame to mimic ribbon windows characteristic of modern buildings.
Through meticulous preservation, this transformative design carefully balances the old and the new. Original concrete posts and beam constructions, left untreated to reveal minor flaws and irregularities, are juxtaposed against new, sleek additions to claim a newfound depth. To facilitate the flow of light and space within, new slabs were introduced to create double-height ceilings.
Comprising four floors and a total gross area of 2,400 square metres, this building now houses the studio on the third and fourth floor, connected by an internal stairway. The studio opts for industrial accents, interchanging materials like raw steel, reclaimed wood, and ribbed glass to reflect the building’s identity and foster a sense of inter-connectedness. Throughout, distressed columns weave into rooms with newly commissioned steel and ribbed glass enclosures.
The second floor is the office of Design Republic, the retail store established by the studio’s founders, and a co-working space for furniture brands such as Stellar Works and Muuto. The brands’ shop fronts are on the ground floor, together with a café and art gallery.
Even though it no longer serves its original purpose, this building has not been stripped of its past, but reinvented to meet a new potential – as a design hub founded by the studio where inter-disciplinary exchanges between the various stakeholders in the wider design community grow.
