Kenzō Tange Lecture: Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, “Liminal Ground”

About this Event: We project ourselves toward the future from a liminal space, where cultural boundaries are active sites of translation, discursive hybridity, and perpetual transformation. Rooted etymologically in the Latin limen, meaning “threshold,” liminality situates us between fixed positions of cultural action, unsettling established orders while enabling a us to engage with the past, present, and future. In this space, linear narrative yields to fluid and relational modes of perception. This lecture presents a selection of the studio’s past and ongoing works, examining how we engage with boundaries within what Homi Bhabha terms the “third space”, not as loci of resolution, but rather as continuous fields of negotiation, tension, and emergent possibility. Speakers: Lyndon Neri (MArch ’92) and Rossana Hu are Founding Partners of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, as well as of Design Republic in Shanghai, a platform that offers retail, education, and design and cultural exhibitions. Whether through objects of intimate daily use or vessels of inhabitation, Neri and Hu approach design from multiple disciplines to provide experiences that enrich contemporary life while maintaining a critical linkage to collective history. They are deeply committed to architectural education and have lectured across the globe at universities and professional forums, including the University of California, Berkeley, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Yale School of Architecture. Neri received his Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. He was appointed Visiting Faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture for the spring semesters of 2024, 2025, and 2026. Hu received her Master of Architecture and Urban Planning at Princeton University and her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in music. In 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University, and in 2024, Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.