Bei Shan Ju: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable
2 min readRaymond Loewy, whose daring genius revolutionized industrial design, lived by his own famous”MAYA principle”-Most Advanced Yet Acceptable: “The adult public’s taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm.”
Bei Shan Ju, remolded from two dorm buildings previously housing migrant workers in the urban village, serves as a beautiful, if accidental, example of the magic of MAYA.pened in 2016 as the first “design hotel” in Zhuhai, Bei Shan Ju did not shoot to its fame in the fiercely competitive B& (Bed-and-Breakfast) industry of China for no reason. It appeared as an alien, pitting itself against the massive, imitative projects that level the “old” and, in their place, erect giant cliche s to accommodate the hotel and restaurant customer population.
Bei Shan Ju, now one of the essential B&Bs and points of interest for any leisurely traveler in Zhuhai, appears simple and plain, so much so that it blends beautifully into the surroundings and aplomb of the villagers who carry on, wholeheartedly as usual, in the life of the street. The design of Bei Shan Ju is “nondesign”with its seemingly humble facade and non-descript entrance yet with an indulgent use of glass that perfectly reflects the sublime but everyday images of village life. Evidently, the designer played a successful game of visual redirection by moving the gaze of passers-by towards “nothingness”.
