Page One Beijing Fun Bookstore is situated at the southwest corner of Zhengyang Gate at Tiananmen Square along the central axis of Beijing. The special location, as the core of the traditional Dashilar commercial district, bears important historical traces and memory of the commercial development of the city. Even though this project is a purely interior design in a completed existing structure, but we try to initiate the project with embedding urban DNA into the space, due to the distinctive features of the site.
We extend the "local alley" into this three-story interior space. A series of independent "architecture" corresponding to different programs is established within the 3000-square-meter existing store space. We wish that people in the commercial space can still perceive a distinctive relationship between inner and outer, exclusive and public space atmospheres of an open city, with a continuation of experience and perspective of the urban space. The "alley" in the bookstore is lined with more than a dozen of "architecture" on different floors, including an 18-meter-high vertical book pagoda winding through three floors of the space, an entrance tunnel connecting the city street, a large open space surrounded by two 50-meter-long walls of books, a book cave facing Zhengyang Gate, a bowl-shaped theatre-like children's reading zone, an art zone and a cafe with skylights on the top floor, and etc.
According to the specific functions, we define and develop the scale, materiality and light for all the "architecture" within the bookstore. It is hoped that, this 24-hour bookstore will be a high-quality place integrating a variety of urban life styles for the public , and ultimately become a significant cultural spot of Beijing.
Location: Building 1, 13 Langfangtoutiao, Beijing, China
Principal Architect: Gong Dong
Project Architect: Yang Zhou, Chen Liu
Design Team: Han Zhang, Peng Zhang, Xiaokai Ma, Kai Zhang, Chaoying Feng, Hungpin Chen, Dan Zhao, Zhengqiang Chen
Site Architect: Yang Zhou, Peng Zhang
Structural Engineer: Lixin Ji
MEP Engineer: Huaiqiang Zhang, Liping Ding
Lighting Consultant: X Studio, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University
Client: Thinkingdom Bookstore Co,.Ltd.
Contractor: Jianfeng Construction Group (share) Co,.Ltd.
Material: Steel, Metal Mesh, Laminated Bamboo, Acrylic, Wood, Terrazzo, Tyvek, Polycarbonate Board
Building Area: 3050 sqm
Design Period: 2016/04 - 2017/01
Construction Period: 2017/01 - 2018/01
Photograph: Chen Hao, Ma Xiaokai
