If you’re a fan of boutique hotels, the name Neri&Hu Design and Research Office will likely sound very familiar.
Founded in Shanghai in 2006 by the designer duo Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, the studio has been behind many of China’s most well-known boutique hotels over the years.
The Waterhouse at South Bund in Shanghai was transformed from an old factory building, with its weathered steel façade becoming an iconic first impression of industrial-style hotels for many.
The Yangzhou Seclusive Life Slender West Lake Resort broke away from traditional courtyard layouts, redefining spatial flow through interlocking walls.
The Youxiong Hotel in Shenzhen’s Nantou Ancient City is set within an urban village, where minimalist design is carefully embedded into a complex, lived-in neighborhood.
With each new project, Neri&Hu Design always captures the spotlight in the design world. Their work has long been characterized by a sense of calm restraint—sometimes even a bit austere. Industrial elements, concrete, and weathering steel were once their defining signatures.
But recently, several of their internationally unveiled hotel projects have revealed a different side of this studio.
An EDITION hotel rises above a 19th-century palace at Lake Como in Italy, crowned with a light, glass box structure.
A Soviet-era telegraph building has been transformed into a striking new local landmark.
Alila made its debut in Kuala Lumpur a few years earlier, featuring a “house-within-a-house” concept wrapped in warm oak structures.
That once extreme sense of “cool austerity” is now gradually softening. While maintaining their core principles of restraint and authenticity, Neri&Hu’s recent work places greater emphasis on integrating local culture and creating a warmer, more emotional sense of belonging for guests.
Let’s explore how Neri&Hu Design has evolved through these three representative international hotels now—shifting from “cold rigidity” to a more “soft and human” design language across different cities.
Edition Hotel Lake Como
Let the view take center stage—invite the best scenery indoors
On the picturesque shores of Lake Como, Neri&Hu designed an EDITION Hotels property.
What kind of place is Lake Como? It’s essentially the backyard playground of Europe’s old-money elite. The lakeside is lined with Renaissance-era villas, manicured classical gardens, and homes that are often centuries old. Designing something new in such a setting is no easy task.
It wouldn’t feel like EDITION if the design is nostalgic, and it would clash with the surroundings if the design is avant-garde.
Ten years ago, Neri&Hu Design might have approached this like they did with The Waterhouse in Shanghai—adding a bold industrial “box” onto a historic structure, using stark material contrasts to assert their presence.
But this time, they didn’t.
The hotel’s core is a 19th-century palace. Neri&Hu Design added a glass-and-metal structure that feels remarkably light on top of it. From a distance, it almost appears to float above the historic building.
Because of the extensive use of glass, the new addition is essentially “transparent.” This brings a major advantage: not only does it expand the usable space, but more importantly, it doesn’t block the view.
The transparency of glass and metal allows the lake and mountains outside to flow directly into the interior. In doing so, the new architectural volume becomes understated—quietly stepping back and giving center stage to the natural beauty of Lake Como.
This transformation becomes even more evident in the guest rooms. In earlier years, Neri&Hu favored cool grays and weathered textures, pursuing an almost ascetic aesthetic. Now, the focus has shifted toward “healing” and tranquility.
The color palette is carefully curated, drawn directly from the natural surroundings of Lake Como—stone gray, warm wood tones, and soft hints of lake blue. Walls and floors retain the raw textures of natural materials, with minimal polishing or artificial treatment.
The indoor heated pool features a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Lean against the edge, and the lake unfolds right before you. Spend an afternoon here, and it feels as though the outside world fades away—leaving both body and mind completely at ease.
The Telegraph Hotel
Dressing ruin aesthetics with a sense of lived-in warmth
There once stood an old telegraph building from the 1970s in Tbilisi — a classic example of Brutalist architecture. After being abandoned for decades, it was acquired by Silk Road Group founder George Ramishvili, who invited Neri&Hu to transform it into a hotel.
Today, it has a new name—the Telegraph Hotel—and has become a symbol of Tbilisi’s urban renewal.
Handling a ruin-like Brutalist structure like this was once Neri&Hu Design’s comfort zone. In past adaptive reuse projects, they often emphasized the building’s imperfections—retaining large expanses of raw, austere surfaces to create a slightly melancholic, solitary “ruin aesthetic,” evoking a sense of solemn reverence.
But in this telegraph building, while they still applied a “critical adaptive reuse” approach—openly exposing cracks and rough concrete shaped by time—they introduced a significant amount of darker wood, glass, and other refined, warmer materials. These elements subtly soften and balance the cold hardness of concrete.
The spatial atmosphere shifts as well—from “isolated and austere” to something more like a “community.”
The ground floor is designed as an extension of the city’s public space. Interwoven corridors connect the restaurant, library, and club areas, all leading to a central courtyard. What was once an isolated monument is now transformed into a shared “urban living room,” reactivating the building’s original role as a gathering place.
Neri&Hu Design follows the original structural grid of the building in the guest room areas. From the entrance to the resting area and then to the window, spaces unfold in a linear sequence. Walking through them feels almost like moving through a train carriage—a subtle tribute by Neri&Hu Design to the historic Silk Road.
In The Sheltering Sky, writer Paul Bowles divides people into two types: “tourists,” who always think about returning home, and “travelers,” who seek to immerse themselves in a place—perhaps never to return. Neri&Hu set out to create a space for the latter: a place for quiet rest and reflection.
Staying in this Telegraph Hotel, you feel less like a visitor and more like a part of everyday life in Tbilisi—experiencing firsthand the renewed vitality of this Brutalist landmark, along with the city’s energy and rhythm.
Alila Bangsar Kuala Lumpur
Shedding cold minimalism to create a “safe haven” in a bustling city
Neri&Hu designed a new property for Alila Hotels in the Bangsar district of Kuala Lumpur.
Located in a high-rise glass tower within a new commercial hub, this project marks Neri&Hu Design’s first hotel in Southeast Asia—and serves as an excellent example of their evolving design language.
Neri&Hu Design leaned strongly toward minimalism in the past. Their pursuit of clean lines and raw materials sometimes created a sense of distance—spaces that felt almost too “untouchably cool.”
But they began to rethink how design could offer emotional comfort in Kuala Lumpur—a hot, humid, and fast-paced tropical city.
While many Southeast Asian resorts emphasize tropical aesthetics through thatched roofs, raw wood, and traditional patterns, Neri&Hu Design chose a different path. Drawing inspiration from Malaysia’s multicultural identity and its hot, rainy climate, they used a restrained and abstract approach to create a “shelter” within a glass tower in the city center.
You’re greeted by a transitional gray space reminiscent of traditional five-foot ways upon entering the ground floor, along with a black metal screen that filters out the heat and noise of the street.
Take the elevator up to the sky lobby, and the contrast becomes clear. Instead of a bright, grand, open atrium typical of luxury hotels, the reception area is wrapped in dark wood and metal.
Softly glowing hand-blown glass chandeliers cast a gentle light above, while in front stands a solid dark marble reception desk. The overall dim palette creates a sense of intimacy and enclosure—instantly calming the agitation from the busy city outside.
Beyond the reception, corridors lead to restaurants, bars, and the now social-media-famous outdoor pool. Designed as a sky-high viewing platform, the pool offers sweeping views of the city skyline. Lean against the edge, and the iconic Petronas Twin Towers come directly into view.
In the guest rooms, Neri&Hu’s signature “room-within-a-room” concept takes center stage.
Upon entering, the first thing you see is not the bed, but a large oak-clad “wooden box.” This central structure integrates the bathroom, wardrobe, and minibar. Only after moving around this enclosed, cocoon-like space do you arrive at the brighter, more open sleeping and lounge areas by the window.
This layered spatial arrangement adds depth to an otherwise regular room layout—and creates a reassuring sense of comfort and privacy.
Alila Kuala Lumpur stands as Neri&Hu Design’s signature project in Southeast Asia, demonstrating how their calm, restrained design language can thoughtfully respond to the intensity and diversity of a tropical metropolis.
Changes of Neri&Hu Design
Global experiments, resonating back in China
From the transparent intervention at Lake Como, to the lived-in “ruin aesthetics” in Tbilisi, and the wooden “box within a box” high above Kuala Lumpur—each of Neri&Hu’s recent international projects quietly sheds the industrial coldness of their early years.
They no longer rely on bold material clashes to assert avant-garde identity. Instead, they take a more patient and nuanced approach—responding to each location’s cultural context with sensitivity, while also caring for the emotional experience of those who inhabit the space.
Interestingly, this shift is just as evident back in China.
Take a recent wellness resort Neri&Hu designed in Sanya China for example. Drawing inspiration from the concept of an Eastern “walled city,” the project uses handcrafted terracotta bricks and bamboo to create a space deeply attuned to the local climate and culture of Hainan. In spirit, it echoes the same sense of “healing” found in their Lake Como project.
Perhaps this isn’t a deliberate transformation, but rather the natural maturation of their design philosophy. The “coolness” of their earlier work reflected a certain distance from the city—a way of observing and questioning. The “warmth” of today emerges after years of global exploration and cultural immersion, as a gentle return to the fundamental needs between people and space.
Their overseas projects have become testing grounds for new ideas, while their work in China grounds those ideas into lived reality.
Wherever they build, they seem to be answering the same question:
In a rapidly changing world, how can architecture help people rediscover a sense of inner belonging?
