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Reflective Domesticity
Location: House 19, WF Central, Beijing
Duration: April 18 - May 3, 2021
In collaboration with AD, Neri&Hu presents exhibition "Reflective Domesticity" at House 19, a typical Beijing Siheyuan. This project draws from several existing discourses and past design projects in order to rethink, restructure and reflect upon preconceived ideas and subjective perceptions of psychological constructs related to the idea of "home" such as shelter, privacy, intimacy and sense of security. Neri&Hu conceptualized each of the six rooms with its own theme. Beginning with "Extrospection" and "Introspection" , "Curiosity", "Pain", "Restoration" and finally "Memory". These themes aim to communicate dualities within the range of emotions and feelings one can have in association with "home".
Neri&Hu's concept for this project include considerations of German philosopher Martin Heidegger's work "Building, Dwelling, Thinking." where he explains that "a boundary is not that at which something stops but... from which something begins its presencing."
Dwellings bear the markings of our daily rituals of inhabitation. They serve as vessels for the accumulated artifacts of our everyday lives. And beyond serving as a container and backdrop for life, they are expressions of our values which extend from our most intimate planes of existence and personal attachments.
Neri&Hu aimed to communicate Gaston Bachelard's concept of tension between house and universe — where the house resists the hostilities of the universe by declaring its insistence to inhabit the world, "in spite of the world." We manifested this tension through the concept and design of AD CASA where the dwelling holds its conceptual and physical power by being rooted within the realities of the universe.