Shanghai-based architecture firm X+LIVING has completed their last bookstore on the 3rd and 4th floor of the existing Zodi Plaza building in Yangjiaping, Chongqing, China.

The interior is possibly its most beguiling  bookstore, and is characterized by the game that is created with a series of the layout of the stairs, in the main room, recalling the stepwells of ancient India designed for water collection and access, shelves in the form of a screen, and certain areas of floor and ceiling mirrors, doubling the sensation of movement throughout the space.
 
The design of X + LIVING consists of different rooms and spaces connected by aisles with shelves and quiet areas to read. Some of the rooms that you can find when you pass the vestibule are the reading room for children and the main study or "ladder hall", being this the most amazing room of the set, composed of stairs that fold like shelves and are reflected in ceiling.

The Zhongshuge Bookstore is a good place to read books, understand one's life and know others.
 

Description of project by X+LIVING

As one of the world’s largest inland city of mountains and rivers, Chongqing is a city full of surprises and wonderful and charming corners. Since ancient times, its landscape and numerous historical sites have attracted many ancient writers and calligraphers. Until today, Chongqing is still a city of attraction to everyone.

Located on the 3rd and 4th Floor of Zodi Plaza, Yangjiaping, the Chongqing Zhongshuge greets visitors with a simple glass facade covered with text. Once inside, scattered “lampshade-shaped bookshelves” are found throughout the dark brown lobby. Visitors can feel as if they were in a bright and warm private study when they read in the warm light projected from inside the lampshades.

On one corner of the lampshade-shaped lobby is a quiet reading corridor, with bookshelves extending down the hallway. The bookshelves reflect on the ground and form a tunnel of books that beckons visitors to follow it deeper into the space and knowledge. On the other corner of the lobby is the children’s reading room, where the bookshelves are built colorful with drawn Chongqing’s landscape, buildings and transportation. Children may feel like in the charming Chongqing while reading in this room.

Further down the corridor and the children’s reading room is the main study, a “ladder hall” where the stair double as bookshelves and the mirrored ceiling overhead doubles the size of the already astonishing room. The space allows visitors to rest on the shelved steps and be immersed in books and thoughts.

Up to the 4th floor from the“ladder hall”is a leisure area, where visitors can enjoy the aroma of coffee or a taste of good tea and immerse themselves into a tranquil world of different stories by reading. The “lampshade-shaped bookshelves” around create scattered booths at this area, in which visitors may gather with friends to have fun reading and enjoy their leisure time. Connected to the leisure area is the extensive reading hall, where works of great minds are listed and visitors are able to broaden their eyes and enrich their spiritual world.

Zhongshuge Bookstore is a good place to read books, understand one’s life and meet others. It is hoped that visitors to it can not only read good and new books, but also meet friends of the same interests.

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Architects
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X+LIVING. Creative Designer.- Li Xiang. Project Director.- Liu Huan.
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Client
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Shanghai Zhongshu Industrial Ltd.
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Area
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1,300 m².
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Dates
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Completion time.- 2019.
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Venue
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3F-4F, Zodi Plaza, Yangjiaping District, Chongqing, China.
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XL MUSE Architectural Design (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. // X+Living // Li Xiang is president/ Creative director. Li Xian was graduated from the Birmingham City University authenticated by Architecture association of RIBA.

Established X+Living in 2011. Cross-field to Interior Design, won several prestigious award, 2015 founded her own furniture brand with the ideology of environmental friendly, quality and spreading joy; adding in a touch of humor and minimalist she gets a lot of praises from the medias and fans.
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Published on: June 4, 2019
Cite: "Remembering the old water deposits. Chongqing Zhongshuge Bookstore by X+LIVING" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/remembering-old-water-deposits-chongqing-zhongshuge-bookstore-xliving> ISSN 1139-6415
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