Neri&Hu Win Prestigious Design Award
One of the biggest highlights at the annual Milan Design Week (Salone del Mobile) in April was the ELLE DECO International Design Awards (EDIDA) ceremony, where we were pleased to see Neri&Hu Design and Research Office take home the Designers of the Year award.
It was a well-deserved win for Shanghai-based creatives Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu. For over a decade, the partners have focused their energies on projects that blend function and innovation. They deserved it also because their the most victorious ability is their humanity. We rarely meet in our lives, even in our private circles such a nice, honest, humble, caring and smiling people. It is a pity that there is no award for the truest and the best person of the year because if there was one they would be the winners!
Neri&Hu’s speciality is giving old-fashioned spaces and concepts a modern yet minimalistic revamp. For example, they based the design of their Bai lights for Parachilna on the traditional Chinese lantern.
Neri&Hu’s Bai pendants, designed for Parachilna
“We always try to find meaning and purpose in the pieces we do,” says Neri. “We tried to make sure the idea of the lantern was still there, but it also needed to be abstracted in order to be relevant.”
In the update, paper was replaced with blown glass, wire was traded for high-quality metalwork finished in aged bronze and candlelight was swapped for an LED. They even incorporated their heritage into the name of the collection, Bai, which is a common surname in China. The end result: a family of hanging lamps consisting of a mother, father and a son – a clever reflection of China’s one-child policy.
The two architects have been on a winning streak in recent years. They were named Maison&Objet Asia Designers of The Year 2015 and Wallpaper* Designer of The Year 2014. In 2013, they were inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame.
With Jaime Hayón winning ELLE DECO’s Designer of the Year Award in 2016, we’re happy to see two more Parachilna collaborators receive the accolade. The ceremony was marked with excitement, along with a touching acceptance speech from the duo to cap off the evening.
“Lyndon and I are deeply, deeply honoured and profoundly humbled by this award,” said Hu before passing the microphone to Neri, who left the audience with a thoughtful remark: “Design is important in the world today and design can make a difference.”
Congratulations, Neri&Hu!
In 2015 Lyndon Neri visited our Vancouver showroom for an intimate lunch with select clients to share his projects and design philosophy. Want an invite to the next LightForm Speaker Series event? Sign up to our blog and get on the list.
The post Elle Deco’s 2017 Designers of the Year appeared first on LightForm.