to see at the aedes architecture forum
Neri&Hu celebrate the opening of Thoughtful nostalgiahis personal exhibition at Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin. Running until November 30, 2022, the show highlights the Shanghai-based architecture studio’s expansive body of work that “embraces the contradictions of modernity and explores multi-faceted intrigues, imaginary pasts and future futures”. .
During their decades of careers and their extensive travels, architects note the trend of major cities in Asia to look more and more alike. “From Shenzhen or Seoul to Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, the army of glassy towers parading in each of their CBDs obliterates nearly every discernible difference between these cities,” the group explains. “In China, this phenomenon is exacerbated by the sheer scale of its urbanization and modernization process..‘
images © Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk
‘thoughtful nostalgia’ through the lens of neri&hu
As demonstrated in the exhibition Neri&Hu: Reflective Nostalgia, the architects aim to harmonize “the optimization of advanced technology and the ever-present tendency to regress into nostalgic historicism”. Seeking to be constructive, rather than dismissive, with the concept of nostalgia, the company operates within a historical context to find productivity in the concept of “reflective nostalgia”.
This term, from which the show takes its name, was coined by researcher Svetlana Boym. According to Boym, restorative nostalgia is more literal; he attempts a “transhistorical reconstruction of a lost house” and considers himself “as truth and tradition”. On the other hand, “reflective nostalgia feeds on pain (the desire itself) and delays the return home – wistfully, ironically, desperately. The reflexive nostalgia does not follow a single plot but explores the ways of inhabiting several places at the same time and of imagining different time zones. He likes details, not symbols.
The team specifies: “In short, reflexive nostalgia offers a less regressive critical distance than the old restorative nostalgia.
balance old and new
Neri&Hu go on to describe the spirit of the “Reflective Nostalgia” exhibition: “As a genre, the projects on display share similar strategies – utilizing material contrast, tectonic differentiation, formal assemblage and surgical grafting. , each project comes with its own set of unique issues related to how one engages a tumultuous concession-era legacy, the resistance to commercialization of fake historical relics, and the role of representation in the dialectic between the past and present.
“You can feel the delicate balance between the contrasts of new and old, smooth and textured, refined and raw. These projects are also part of an archaeological approach of peeling strata, working as much on deletions as on additions.
“Across all scales of design, Neri&Hu embraces nostalgia as a productive lens, through which the team can envision an alternative reading of historical contexts as well as a different design process within that context. It is a methodology that pushes Neri&Hu to look closely at the details of the mundane, in hopes of achieving a deeper understanding of the heritage of these places that we want to not only participate in now, but expand in the future. 
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