Rossana Hu: Liminality

As we imagine for ourselves what the future holds, we inevitably position ourselves within a liminal space of experimentation—one that operates at the intersection of theoretical inquiry and design practice. In the context of postcolonial discourse, Homi Bhabha conceptualizes cultural boundaries as a "third space," a site of negotiation and translation where established hierarchies and meanings are unsettled and reconstituted.

The notion of liminality, akin to the architectural threshold, is not merely a space of transition but a generative condition—an interstitial realm where ambiguity fosters the emergence of new spatial and cultural configurations. It is within this productive indeterminacy that architecture finds its agency, engaging critically with the boundaries that shape both material and ideological constructs.

The lecture will show a few of the studio’s work, each of which interrogates the role of cultural boundaries as sites of liminal engagement. Through these investigations, the studio explores how architecture can operate within these interstices, simultaneously acknowledging their constraints and leveraging their capacity for transformation.

Rossana Hu co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Lyndon Neri in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. 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.

Alongside her design practice, Hu has been deeply committed to architectural education and has taught and lectured in numerous universities. Hu was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, the Design Critic in 2023 and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 and 2021 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture. Hu was appointed as Chair of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University in 2021 and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, effective spring semester 2024.

This event is free and open to the public.