these days, “design” has ceased to be high culture. no longer the secret code privy to academics, architects and designers, “design” in urban centers is so popular that many people brood about “design” (what to wear, how to decorate the home, which designer restaurant or bar to be in). they constantly want to talk about “design” to show that they are sophisticated and discerning. their ideas may come from magazines, tv shows and hearsay. they opine how this should match that; how not to deviate from the overall “concept”; how there should be a one centimeter “gap” between materials. they repeat the commonplace idea that “design” can increase the “value” of things. businesses talk about how “design” can stimulate more consumption; developers insist they know more about “design” than architects; city officials announce the strategic use of “design” to make their cities more desirable. ”design” has become ossified into a code. just like functional modernist architecture in the 70s had become a convention. to be sure, there are currently many resistances fanning from opposite directions: from under design (naoto fukusawa’s supernormal, campana brothers, grafting found objects into new things, comme des garcon’s guerilla stores, atelier bow wow, etc.) to super design (tokujin yoshioka, bourellec brothers, nakamura ryuji, etc.)

but sometimes it is refreshing to encounter a world before the advent of “design”. these shops in the small village of luxiang in dongshan display their charm that is both natural and innocent.