An order was placed for us to build a bookstore. The premise for the design, it was required to have a small warehouse, an important space for children’s books, a certain number of islands, and the need for the existence of a system -within the same bookshelves- to exhibit the books facing forward.
Located in Changsha, the 17-storey Firework Mansion used to be the dormitory building for staff of the former state-owned fireworks company. Nowadays, young people have moved away, so those left are mostly retired elderly people.
There is a 60 m2 apartment on the top floor of the building. The once high-expense complete shear wall structure forms a light tight environment. Even in daytime, the interior is dim. The owners want to transfer this apartment into a family bookstore, and name it “Reedom”. They wish to provide a good place to go for the residents in Firework Mansion.
The design won the 1st prize in the invited architectural competition for the Slovenian book center in Trieste, Italy.
The proximity of the Oberdan Piazza and Fabiani’s National Hall has encouraged us to look more closely to the symbolic ties that are important for the Slovene minority living in Trieste. A hint that would only symbolically show itself derives from Fabiani’s masterfully designed facade’s decoration. Decorative geometric element has been broken down and transformed into a modern structure, which represents itself in the basic pattern of the bookshelves.
9 ¾ is a bookstore cafe specialized in children, but where adults can also have some fun. We believe that cities needwarm and nice meeting places that welcome us and invite us to learn having fun with our families and friends, sites where people not only buy but go and havea good time.
The outher shape of this “cafe bookstore” was inspired by that of a book. The users can also read books in its cafe for free or take the time to buy some in the bookstore. In the cafe, books can be borrowed and consulted while the books you find in the bookstore are for sale. The bookshelves used within it have been established in the exterior section on the same axis and thanks to this display window on the outside, the interiors have been rendered to appear on the same axis.
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