SPACE Jun 2024 (No. 679)
The Black Box Redux Number 31 is located within a small complex of ex-industrial buildings in the middle of bustling Jing’an Temple area, and the site for renovation was a four-storey nondescript office and dormitory building for a local telecoms company. The renovation strategies employed were based on the notion of ‘reflective nostalgia’, as a way of honouring history and heritage without having to recreate it literally. As a practice, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office (hereinafter Neri&Hu) has always been eager to take on ‘adaptive reuse’ projects, as this gives the opportunity to reutilise an artifact of urban excess, and to celebrate and even elevate the mundane. They embraced the potential to transform the old structure and give it a chance not only to survive, but to thrive as a new beacon for design.
