2013 BOY Winner: Fashion Office

Firm: Neri & Hu Design and Research Office
Project: Camper
Location: Shanghai, China
Photography: Dirk Weiblen; Shen Zhonghai

One of the colonial French Concession’s traditional “lanes” is the location of the warehouse that has become an office and showroom for the Spanish shoe manufacturer Camper. Interior Design Hall of Fame inductees Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, architects known for blending a pinch of the past into the present, extended the lane axis indoors by placing a mirrored surface at the far end of the 10,000-square-foot space to visually lengthen it. Skylights reinforce the idea that you never left the open air behind—an impression reinforced when you encounter a freestanding interpretation of a two-story lane house, constructed from reclaimed materials. Actual lane houses, now demolished, yielded the wood for the walls and shelves—decades of original paint and wallpaper fragments still cling to the planks. Hanging overhead, from steel bars, are the shoes.

Project Team:
Alex Mok; Peter Eland; Lina Hsieh; Jacqueline Min; Ni Duan; Christine Neri; Siwei Ren; Hao Zhou; Brian Lo; Jean-Philippe Bonzon.