The very best books transport you to another world, and the most magical bookstores help make that a reality. Chinese bookseller Zhongshuge is renowned for its stunning bookstores, and its latest outpost, in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, is no exception.
The bookstore, designed by architecture firm X+Living, takes inspiration from the natural world with sweeping, curved bookshelves, staircases, and epically tall, arched doorways. The effects of these features are multiplied by expansive, mirrored ceilings that will make you feel like you’ve stepped through the looking glass. For architect Li Xiang, who Fast Company recognized as one of 2020’s Most Creative People, that’s the point.
The surreal interiors are part of an overarching aesthetic for the firm, which has designed more than 15 Zhongshuge bookstores, each of which reflects aspects of the natural landscape in the shop’s locale. Whether the terraced fields in Chengdu or the mountains of Chongqing, Xiang typically draws design inspiration from the local landforms to give visitors a mental connection with the space.All this is bookended by the mirrored ceiling and sparkling black tile floor. X+Living used a mirrored ceiling for the first store it designed for Zhongshuge, and Xiang now calls it an “iconic feature.” Functionally, she says the ceiling “effectively expands the space by reflection, creates an open and high feeling, makes the space more clear and surreal.” The grand effect is purely palatial.
Xiang wants readers to experience an awe-inspiring connection with the built environment that’s similar to what they might have in nature, so “when they stand in the space, their body would feel the big size difference between itself and the foreign object.”
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