Baton Low Table

Supplementing the practical functionality of everyday objects with distinctive form is the eternal challenge in design. And it is precisely this balancing act that Neri&Hu has pulled off with the wardrobe stands and tables in the BATON series, which comes as a homage to the Viennese Secessionist design movement. The coffee table is endowed with the same feature – a tray-like tabletop with raised lip – to keep smaller items securely where they were placed. Next to a sofa, desk or bed, as well as in a closet space, it makes itself useful holding reading glasses, jewelry, electronic devices, a cup of tea or other things. In each case the base is a solid pedestal hewn from the highest-quality marble, from which slender powder-coated aluminum supports issue. On the tables, these rods – or batons to adopt the French nomenclature – are wrapped in leather throughout with the highest degree of precision.

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu are the founding partners of the Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an internationally active design and architectural office headquartered in Shanghai since 2004. They both studied architecture in Berkeley; Rosanna Hu did her master’s degree at Princeton, and Lyndon Neri at Harvard. Today, the couple are among the most influential forces in design and architecture in China and beyond. Neri was a partner and project manager for Asia at Michael Graves & Associates in Princeton and also worked for various architectural offices in New York. Hu also worked for the architectural offices of Michael Graves & Associates as well as for other big planning offices in New York and San Francisco.

In addition to their renowned office for architecture and design, Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu are the founders of Design Republic, a concept store for outstanding international design in Shanghai. They also work as designers and create products for numerous international companies. Their own products are marketed under Neri&Hu, and they have received various international awards for them. Both architects are lecturers at the universities of Hong Kong, Princeton and Harvard