Shanghai Book City Renovation

Views:297 Author:Site Editor Publish Time:2024-01-22 09:57:04 Orgin:Site

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No one is an island, every book is a world.

——《Island Bookstore》

The Shanghai Book City, known as the "Crystal Palace" by netizens, officially opened to the public with a brand new appearance on October 28, 2023, after two years of store closure and renovation.

Challenge

"Loyalty in art is as elusive as in emotions."

Bookstores are for those who don't read books

In China, the number of people who maintain the habit of reading is far less than those who do not read. A limited number of readers cannot save bookstores. So the bookstore should be designed for more non readers, allowing them to enter bookstores. So they can save the bookstore. In China, online users spend much more time on their phones than in their offline physical space. At the same time, the price of books purchased on the internet is much lower than that of physical bookstores, resulting in the loss of some readers for bookstores. So we need to encourage these online users to divide their 10 or 8 hours of focus on their phones, even if it's just 1 hour, into bookstores that have unprecedented appeal online, so that they can save the bookstore.

The biggest challenge is to fight against glorified memories

At the end of 2021, Shanghai Book City announced its closure for renovation with a series of activities. Even misunderstood by some self media as permanent closure. So a large number of readers flocked to the bookstore to mourn. In memory, the predicament of China's first one-stop book sales complex, which inevitably declined under the impact of the Internet, was ignored. Instead, there is a collective memory that is beautified, sublimated, and elevated. Collective memory can distort and rewrite the true form of this project, even prompting them to distrust any future transformations. Yes, the biggest challenge for architects is to beautify collective memory.

Although collective memory is beautiful, from a professional perspective, its spatial layout and architectural fa ç ade do not have the architectural commemorative significance mentioned, so there is no burden for rebuilding the bookstore. There is already a case: Shanghai Book City should have transformed from a bookstore into a cultural complex with knowledge sharing as a platform, with many application commercial and social scenarios. This cultural complex is a concrete yet abstract vertical city, an idealistic Shanghai. It is also a chapter about urban epic that can be sung out loud. It grew up in the old book city, without cutting off history, but with books as the new city.

Building a New City with Books

In this upgrade and renovation, the book city built in 1998 must be inspected and accepted in accordance with the latest fire safety regulations. So we need to increase the number and width of evacuation stairs, adjust their positions, upgrade and increase the number of sprinklers and fire shutters. In this upgrade and renovation, the change in structure cannot exceed 10% of the total structure. The original outer contour of the bookstore cannot be changed. A 12000 square meter book city cannot increase its area, and of course, the owner does not allow it to decrease its area. And the original basement no longer belongs to the Book City. In this upgrade and renovation, it is necessary to introduce commercial formats that are not incompatible with the book city to balance the operating costs of the book city, while not damaging the atmosphere of the book city. Shanghai Book City aims to continue to become a cultural landmark in Shanghai and revive Fuzhou Road as a "cultural street" while ensuring operational efficiency through this upgrade and renovation.

▲Book City Generating Dynamic Map

▲Side profile and three atriums

▲Vertical transportation in the upper atrium, bookshelves, and indoor spaces

Landscape is also an element of interior design

The french window on the facade of the book store are not only for lighting, but also for showing the internal activities of the book store. They are also a stage. Reading books through the window on the road is like watching a movie, and the people inside the window are also watching dramatic scenery. Bian Zhilin's poetry is transformed into a visible reading and transmitted to everyone. Such buildings can be read more deeply. As readers enter the atrium called the auditorium on the fourth floor from the escalator, the city is like an incredible illusion, truly unfolding in front of the two-story glass window to the north, shining like crystal in the night. Readers will gently sigh that Shanghai always surprises people without disappointment.

Crystal Palace

At the moment when the interview light was set up outside the bookstore, it alarmed the media and citizens. The design of perforated aluminum panels with internal transparency has created an effect known as the "Crystal Palace" by citizens, but it has nothing to do with crystals or glass. After receiving a complaint, the lighting department in Huangpu District arranged a dedicated person to test the brightness on site and it was found to be qualified. After adjusting the angle of the lighting fixtures according to the lighting designer's drawings, the glare also disappeared. The reason why a book city that meets the regulatory requirements appears brilliant is simply because the dim lighting on Fuzhou Road highlights it.

▲The generation process of perforated aluminum panel curtain wall

Standing on the rooftop of the soon to be completed studio's new work - Chunshen Haoshi on Nanjing East Road, looking at the most beautiful book city, I remembered that some people called it a luxury goods store. However, the interesting point is that the facade of luxury goods stores is at least four times more expensive than the book city, but cannot achieve the texture of the book city. Therefore, it seems that consumerism's extravagance is indeed a false illusion.

The article is from Weixin Design