Gold Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2021
Zhongshuge Bookshop
by Xiang Li
- A' Design Award 2021 Gold Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: X+Living
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 31,806
- Verification code DF9934BE68 · Verify this award
About Zhongshuge Bookshop
Zhongshuge is a bookshop in Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China, with a floor area of 973 square meters. The design draws on the local landscape and on the long history of water conservancy in the city. In the literature area, tall bookshelf walls recall the form of the Dujiangyan dam. Wallpaper with book patterns and a mirror ceiling visually expand the space. Book tables are shaped like boats and appear to float above black tile flooring. The bookshop can display more than 80 thousand books of 20 thousand kinds.
Li Xiang's visionary interior for Zhongshuge Bookshop represents a remarkable achievement in contemporary retail architecture, demonstrating how commercial space can transcend transactional function to become an immersive cultural destination. The design draws upon multiple architectural traditions while establishing an entirely original formal vocabulary: the soaring vertical emphasis evokes Gothic cathedral aspiration, the warm material palette suggests humanist accessibility, and the biomorphic curvilinear forms reference organic parametric design developments of recent decades. What distinguishes this interior is its sophisticated deployment of optical illusion through strategic mirror placement, where highly polished black flooring and mirrored ceiling surfaces create kaleidoscopic multiplication of the already dramatic helical book towers. The architect appears to engage with fundamental questions about knowledge, infinity, and human aspiration through purely spatial means. The serpentine shelving units, laden with thousands of volumes, suggest both the accumulated weight of human wisdom and its dynamic, living quality, as if knowledge itself were a growing, spiraling organism rather than static repository. Classical arched passages at ground level anchor the fantastical upper reaches in familiar architectural grammar, providing psychological grounding within the vertiginous space. The restrained chromatic approach, limiting structural elements to warm neutrals, allows book spines themselves to provide chromatic punctuation, celebrating literature as both intellectual content and aesthetic object. The overall effect transforms book shopping from mundane commerce into pilgrimage, inviting visitors to contemplate their relationship to reading, learning, and the vast continuum of human expression preserved in printed form. One might consider how architectural environment shapes our relationship to knowledge itself.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The design of the whole project is highly inspired by local landscape. From the bamboo forest in kids reading area to the Dujiangyan dam in literature area, designer moved elements of the city into the bookstore, and transformed them into practical functions. By creating the scenery and using the technique of architecture, designer presents visitors with an elegant and powerful artistic landscape.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The floor area of the project is 973 sqm.
- Tags
- Xiang Li, Zhongshuge, Interior Design, xliving, Bookstore, China
- Production Technology
- In the literature area,bookshelves walls are inspired by the magnificent Dujiangyan dam spreads upwards all the way. Wallpaper with book patterns are used to decorate top of the bookshelves, combined with the reflection from the mirror ceiling, it visually expands spatial ductility and create an open and high feeling. Book tables are designed in the shapes of boats, with the effect of black tiles flooring, it look like they are quietly mooning on the lake, floating between the bookshelf wall. The bookstore is able to display over 80 thousand books covering 20 thousand kinds.
- Design Challenge
- The difficulty of the project for our team involves how to translate the local landscape elements of Dujiangyan into bookstore through design language that can create an amazing customer experience, and at the same time guarantees the practical functionality that the bookstore requires.
- Project Duration
- The project finished in September, 2020 in Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China
- Operation Flow
- Visitors will be first greeted with gray tile inspired bookshelves, they not only build intimacy but also divide the forum area. Moving forward, visitors will reach the reading space where bookshelves extend from the space to the adjacent columns, catching the curiosity of readers and guide their route. In the literature area where it seems like the beautiful scenery of Dujiangyan dam is vividly presented in the space. Walking upstairs, the bookshelves beside the stairs offers a variety of books at accessible distance, visitors could grab a book and have a read on the second floor where various seats are provided.
- Research
- The design is heavily inspired by the local famous landscape. Therefore, we decided to move the spirit of local mountains and rivers into the indoor space. We not only aim to present visitors with an abstract and artistic landscape, but also hope visitors can be touched by the spiritual expression once they walk into the space.
- Inspiration
- The beautiful city the project located in is called Dujiangyan. The city is famous for its unique culture and landscape due to its long history of water conservancy project. Therefore, we hope to integrate the historical elements of the city into the design to create a dialogue between culture and wisdom.
- Image Credits
- Image#1: Photographer Shao Feng, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, 2020.
Image#2: Photographer Shao Feng, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, 2020.
Image#3: Photographer Shao Feng, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, 2020.
Image#4: Photographer Shao Feng, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, 2020.
Image#5: Photographer Shao Feng, Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, 2020.
Colors of Zhongshuge Bookshop
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