This is Blur Hotel | Hotel Kapok | Studio Pei Zhu Design.Considered to be one of the first boutique hotels in Beijing, the Blur Hotel looks at its historic context to create a stylishly modern hotel. Blur Hotel is a refurbishment of a former governmental office beside the western gate of the Forbidden City.
The interior layout of the hotel is based on the vernacular building typology of the sihueyuan, or courtyard house. By carving into concrete slab floors of the existing building, an arrangement of alternating vertical courtyards is created, replicating the spatial arrangement of the surrounding hutongs. The exterior is wrapped in a continuous and semi-transparent façade of panelized, extruded fiberglass. At night, the building is transformed by light to resemble a Chinese lantern.
Combining the exterior screen and internal courtyard, the building appears as a single, yet permeable object. The project has received high acclaim from critics, and has become a major stop for designers visiting Beijing.
