Shanghai and Bangkok-based architecture firm HAS design and research has completed a bookstore that takes inspiration from "the specific topography of the mountains" of the city to translate various senses of scale in the interiors. 

The project, named The Glade Bookstore, is located in Chongqing, China, was envisioned as a cultural brand, as well as a compound bookstore providing a new lifestyle.

The interiors consist of a bookstore, coffee, afternoon tea, restaurant, bar, cultural and become a place for creative industries, and irregular exhibitions. 

While the books become the main elements of the space, they are wrapped by translucent glass to provide "a quiet and restful place" and to avoid the busy life of Chongqing.

The 1,360-square-metre bookstore, situated in the center of Chongqing, takes cues from the work of the mountain city of Chongqing painted by a well-known Chinese ink painter Guanzhong Wu. The architects were inspired by Wu's “the mountain city" that makes feel the specific topography of the mountains and various senses of scale.

"However, at the present time, the superb landscape is occupied by a great number of super high-rise, and the organic natural condition turns into lackluster concrete constructions," said the architects. 

"Only in the countryside away from the city could we occasionally find the beauty of the mountain city and its distinctive Stilt Houses."

The Glade Bookstore is not only designed as a compound bookstore, but "as the meaning conveyed by its name, it means tearing the cold concrete ground and planting a spiritual space in the high-density city," according to the studio.

"The design continuous this philosophy. It connects the split first floor and second floor with the spatial form of stilt houses; the lower floor is like the grey space of stilt houses, providing functions of reading, talking, resting, sharing with space of intervals, and with the design of undulating stairs, it creates a micro-mountain city to form dynamic and explorative reading space," added the firm.

The upper floor was envisioned like a continuous big roof of the stilt houses. On this upper floor, there is a space for coffee, afternoon tea, a restaurant, a bar, and bookstore by using 6mm lines. 

Besides, there is a distinct space that plays with light and shadow, time, site, and environment, are still tangible.

"The project finally shows the combination of materials and space and demonstrates unique constructional aesthetics," added the studio. 

"The Glade began with adaptation to Chongqing in the ancient form of stilt house and progressed in the exploration of complex function so as to think over the standardization, multifunctional, and flexibility of modern bookstores." 

"The importance of The Glade is more than its special philosophy. It also provides a cultural symbol and a sense of belonging beyond the busy city life in diverse and delicate spaces," the studio added.

Site plan

Concept diagram

Axonometric

Research digram

Project facts

Project name: The Glade Bookstore

Architects: HAS design and research

Lead architects: Jenchieh Hung, Kulthida Songkittipakdee

Size: 1,360m2 

Location: Chongqing, China

Date: 2021 

All images © You Bai 

All drawings © HAS design and research

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