Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Chinese architects Neri&Hu have completed this private member’s club in Beijing.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

A black entrance tunnel leads visitors up towards a reception two storeys above, which open out onto the double-height hall and exhibition gallery that are overlooked from the floors above.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

From here, members can also visit a tearoom where drawers cover the walls, a room dedicated to wine-tasting or a library.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Colour palettes graduate from white to light and dark shades of brown, which includes whitewashed oak, smoked oak and teak for the ceilings, walls and floors.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

A courtyard lounge occupies the top floor of the building, where openings in the roof exposed certain areas to the elements.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

This year Neri&Hu were announced overall winners at the Inside Awards for their conversion of an army headquarters into a hotel.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

See the project here and watch our interview with Lyndon Neri here.

Yingjia Club by NeriHu

Photography is by Shen Zhonghai.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Here’s some more text from the architects:


YINGJIA CLUB at Vanke Beijing
Sales Club & Corporate VIP Lounge
Beijing. China

Located inside Vanke Beijing’s headquarters, the Yingjia Club is a new five-story multi-purpose VIP sales club built into the client’s existing office complex.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Responding to Vanke’s desire for a prominent facade identity and an interior program that is diverse yet flexible in the long term, Neri&Hu created a new exterior and maximized the internal multi-story experience with a mixture of intimate and public spaces interconnected through the different floors via new openings and a continuously winding staircase linking all the rooms.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Taking inspiration from Beijing’s traditional courtyard house, the architectural concept is about connecting the layered private and public spaces in both plan and section with paths and views that encourage visitors to explore and find their own moments of discoveries in between.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

The exterior complements the busy interior with one cohesive screen box, uniting the different view openings and also providing a range of porosity relative to the programs inside through different louver densities.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Experientially, the progression into and up the floors gets brighter, lighter, and wider through the gradually changing material palette and quality of light.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Starting from the first floor, the black tunnel entrance evokes a sense of mysterious exclusivity that hints at revealing more just beyond the elongated shades of shadows.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

As one enters through and arrives at the reception in the third floor, the layered experience begins to introduce itself, with the contrasting sequences of the compressed and expansive, private and public, black and white, and sky and earth unraveling with each step forward.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

Walking along the cavernous, quiet corridors, one can always catch a glimpse of or enter directly into the two main, double-height spaces, the bright receiving hall and exhibition gallery.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

From these big public spaces, one can also see through various rooms in the different levels and further into the sky above through overlapping frames of views and skylights, luring the curiosity deeper with the visual connection.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

In the receiving hall in particular, a continuous stair path orchestrates the link throughout the entire space, first rising high from the third floor, next leading to the more personal experiences in the fourth floor (tea room, library, wine tasting room), then spiraling up to the top floor through the indoor and semi-outdoor lounges and bars, and finally arriving at complete openness into nature, clear sky, and views of Beijing at the outdoor viewing platform.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

As visitors transition between the different rooms, they will interchangeably pass through the different public spaces, invited for gatherings in the open, meditated thoughts in solitude, rest in undisturbed tranquility, or other unexpected meetings with people.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

From the different levels, platforms, atriums, windows, skylights, doorways, and reflections along the explorations, everyone will discover their own moments in the course of their journey.

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

 

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

 

Yingjia Club by Neri&Hu

 

Ground floor – click above for larger image

Third floor – click above for larger image

Fifth floor – click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Dezeen Screen: Table No.1 by Neri & Hu

Inside awards: Table No.1 by Neri and Hu

Dezeen screen: in this final interview from our series of Dezeen Talks filmed at the Inside awards in Barcelona, Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs talks to Lyndon Neri about his restaurant design within a hotel where cut-outs in the ceiling mean diners can look up into the bedrooms above. Watch the movie »

Inside awards overall winner: The Waterhouse at South Bund by NHDRO

Inside awards overall winner: The Waterhouse at South Bund by NHDRO

Inside 2011: Chinese architects NHDRO have picked up the award for overall winner at the inaugural Inside awards  for a hotel inside the abandoned former headquarters of the Japanese army in Shanghai.

You can check out all nine category winners here or read more about this project in our earlier story on Dezeen.

Inside world festival of interiors is taking place on the third floor of the Centro de Convenciones Internacionales de Barcelona until 4 November – see all our stories about Inside here, including interviews with the judges on Dezeen Screen.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Clustered pendant lights are suspended over one of the open food and drink preparation areas of this London restaurant by Chinese designers Neri&Hu.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

The open-plan Pollen Street Social restaurant bridges together two previously separate buildings, spread out across the ground floor and basement.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Dining areas are furnished with wood panelled tables and booths, Chesterfield-inspired leather sofas and green glass lamps.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

On the basement level, diners can see into the kitchen through a long horizontal slot window.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

More restaurants and bars on Dezeen »

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Photographs are by Pedro Pegenaute.

The following information is from Neri & Hu (NHDRO):


Recently completed: Pollen Street Social

Pollen Street Social, located in the prestigious Mayfair district of London, is the first independent restaurant by Jason Atherton, the Former Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin starred Maze. Shanghai-based architectural firm Neri&Hu are the designers for the restaurant and Pollen Street Social represents their first completed project in London.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

The term Social always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary. –Wiktionary

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Neri & Hu’s design concept for Pollen Street Social examines the notion of “social” as a reorganization of the dynamic energies of human interaction.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Like navigating a conversation, the architectural spaces steer and negotiate the social relationships not only amongst guests, but also between diners and their food as it is prepared and served.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Within the confined basement and ground floor spaces of two disjointed historic buildings, the architects have woven a series of these social spatial experiences, from the Bar to the Main Dining Room or Private Dining Room to Atherton’s signature Dessert Bar. Placing those other functions such as the Show Kitchen, Service Station, and Back of House into strategic containers, the guests occupy the space in-between, a fluid zone celebrating the theatrics of eating, drinking, and socializing.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

As with the start of any conversation, it is appropriate to begin with a gesture of courtesy, and Neri & Hu’s design for the restaurant’s façade is indeed a nod towards the historic structures surrounding the site. A series of blackened bronze metal frames act as a stitching strategy, redefining the restaurant’s threshold with a modern touch while maintaining the proportions and details of the existing façade. Within these frames, a combination of transparent and translucent glass ensures visual continuity between diners and the life of the street beyond.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Within the restaurant’s ground floor spaces the inviting atmosphere is reminiscent of entering the chef’s own home, and feels as easy as falling into familiar dialogue with an old friend. Through contemporary and abstracted re-interpretations of Old English details—the continuous wood wainscot wrapping each space, the Chesterfield-inspired banquettes, or the green glass P-Lamps at the bar—Neri & Hu has crafted an ambiance that is at once casually domestic yet still retaining the elegance of fine dining.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Dramatic ceiling openings above flood the spaces with light and mark special dining areas, while jeweled pendant lights scattered throughout captivate the eye as food delights the palate.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

There is just the slightest pause in the flow of drinks and conversation as dining guests notice, through carefully carved apertures and aligned views, the stage that has been set in this theatrical dining experience. Through the architects’ willful juxtaposition of the disparate realms of food preparation and food consumption, such as the Finishing Kitchen just behind the Dessert Bar or the Service Station placed front and center in the Main Dining Room, these various spaces come alive as contradictions abound. The actions before them—the carving of an Iberico ham, the dabbing of sauce upon a plate, the practiced swirl of decanting wine—are initially, silently performed for their voyeuristic gaze, but then, with the first bite, the tables are turned and it is the diner that is now practicing a slow and deliberate choreography.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

Like a chance encounter, the basement level is a pleasant discovery with its distinctive material palette of weathered brick floors and glass display cases. The Private Dining Room features wine fridges enveloping its perimeter, providing an enclosed yet visually open environment for intimate gatherings. A slotted view across the corridor into the Working Kitchen deliberately frames the hands of the chefs and pays homage to their skillful mastery of fine cuisine.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

The restrooms on this level are contained within a frosted-glass enclosure with varying degrees of transparency, allowing glimpses of shadowy silhouettes and providing a moment of thrill and audacity. And as a final twist, the restrooms stalls themselves, clad solidly in wood, offer a chance to escape completely and disconnect entirely, should the anxieties of socializing overwhelm.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

With their masterful manipulation of spatial elements and materiality, architects Neri & Hu have captured the vibrancy of a social dining atmosphere as envisioned by Chef Atherton—it flows with comfort and familiarity, while occasionally improvisational and unexpected, but which ever direction the conversation turns, Pollen Street Social is sure to be the talk of town.

Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)

The custom furniture and accessories pieces featured in the interiors are from neri&hu, a product brand spin-off from the architectural firm.


See also:

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Nottingdale Cafe by
Found Associates
Restaurant at the RA
by Tom Dixon
What Happens When
by The Metrics