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The concept of the space was developed from its site texture. The new naïve bookstore is situated in a snow filed that differs from a conventional city bookstore.
Atelier tao+c has opened up the site's double-height facade that overlooks the snow field. The lights that flow across the interior and the exterior are permeated with the neighboring landscape. The newly inserted frameworks, tailor-made bookshelves and seating are placed under a cozy and lightsome setting that also form the fluid spatial sequence and each functional area.
Without reconfiguring the existing structures, the wooden steel frameworks and furniture were designed to accommodate a convenient construction and to form visual connections from both the interior to the surrounding landscape in a fluid couter. Unexceptional spatial organizations and detailed measurements for seatings were introduced to create a more immersive reading and coffee break ambiance, playing as a warm destination on the icy natural environment.
Different seating arrangements make both solitude and casual gatherings possible. In the window area, the original beams and columns are left untouched with white sofa placed around, as if one were sitting on a corridor, feeling closer to the landscape.
The existing site is a bare concrete space about 400sqm with partially double height ceiling, next to the snow-covered slopes and firtree forest on the south side. By keeping the original strcuture intact for a more sustainable and easier constrcution, all the furniture are loose for agile navigations and could be adjusted for a comfortable reading and relaxing ambiance.
The inserted frameworks, made of timber and steel, are built to introduce sunlight reaching into every corner. By this strategy, all the materials and furniture could be recyled and re-use for certain purpose.
Between the concrete columns of the original building, a new grid of the steel and wood frameworks were placed in and interwoven with existing structure, building a new spatial sequence without restrict boundaries. The wooden frame was raised accordingly in the double height area to form a pitched roof with circular openings, reframing views for one’s exploration.
There is no partition wall erected in the interior. Corresponding to the changing heights and sunlight, the bookshelves and seats are allocated along the grids to define the circulation and to form book area, café, and seating area from north to south with gradually changing ambience.
The bookshelves, made of fiberglass with rounded edge, are lightweight and translucent and have been fixed to stainless steel brackets. This stand flexible and float on the ground to ensure the continuity of the space, while the light gray floor is a terrain that extends towards distant mountains and nearby snow slopes and forests. As the sunlight moves, penetrated, and filtered by the texture of the fiberglass, the honey color light with soft shadows oscillates and flows in the space.
There are three banquettes in fluid contours that combine seats and desk behind to ensure books within one’s reach. Each piece of furniture is specially designed by furniture brand – ziinlife.
Light birch and fiberglass complement the snowy landscape, making the previously gray concrete space more ethereal and brighter, like warm mist rising from the snow.
Instead of limiting free navigation with straightforward partitions, Atelier Tao+C opted to let the space’s bookshelves and seats define the circulation, catering to the customers’ reading habits and allowing the set-up to change over time and crafting a warm bookstore space ideal for travelers in ski-resort area Aranya Chongli, in Northern China.
Founded in 2016, Atelier tao+c is an emerging studio based in Shanghai. Our works range from a piece of pendant lamp to a compound development, from the interior of small urban apartments to the renovation of old rural houses, from shops on the street to a youth community. Paralleled with the practical works, the office has involved with research and teaching, focusing on subjects such as revival of old buildings and objects in domestic landscape.
The design method takes the typology of semi-architectural semi-interior, retreating to the inner world, allowing the space to grow from inside and breaking through the perimeter, intermediating the inside and outside.
The practice seeks to explore the beauty of everyday life, to pick up the evocative clues and re-discover values hidden in simplicity and allow life to unfold to us with all of its complexities.
