Text description provided by the architects. Zhongshuge Minhang Store is located on the third floor of a business park in the Minhang District. Passing through the viaduct, you will see the familiar curtain wall of Zhongshuge in the middle of the central building within the park. The curtain wall made of text combinations welcomes people coming and going with knowledge as always. Entering into Zhongshuge on the third floor by elevator, your attention will be overtaken by the delicate black book wall and groups of peg-top bookshelves under the soft light. The white spinning top, in the black and silent context, stands still in the shining cloud, but also seems as if in dancing.
The spinning top represents a balance that finding the fulcrum in the spin. The seemingly statistic posture actually implies a lot. It accepts every impetus, and it is like a diligent ballet dancer finding a balance in the practice of rotation. The designer indicates a way of life by groups of spinning tops. The power of knowledge contained in books is also impetus and motivation. In the wall, the black bookshelves are designed into a powerful shape. Among these, the triangular bookshelves do not carry the books laminate but greet bundles of a halo from the ceiling. The halo sprinkles downward along the triangular on the lower bookshelves, like street lamps, to illuminate the name of each book. The black bookshelf wall echoes statically with the dynamic spinning top in the middle, soft, strong, quiet and equally wonderful!
Following the direction of the spinning top, we come to the booking hall of the Zhongshuge Minhang Store. At the moment of stepping across the doorway, you will be attracted and intoxicated by the brand color of Zhongshuge – dark brown. Here, the designer stretches the bookshelves on both sides to high up with the technique of the mirror ceiling. Meanwhile, simple constructions constitute arches with classical taste and concise style, which are silhouetted by the mirror and overlapped by the reflections into a sacred and ethereal British church. The low-profile reading booths are set in the wing rooms, so that readers may sit down to read their selected books or have a rest. In this space, people appear to escape from the outside world and enjoy the exclusive time with themselves. Another book space is hidden on one side of the wall, where more books are collected. The designer also uses mirrors in the end and extends the space to unbounded to create the reading tunnel space for the endless world of books. Meanwhile, it gives an insight that learning and reading is a life-long activity, regardless of the stop point of time.
Going ahead, the horizon becomes wide, and we come to a seeming dance hall from the solemn book corridor. The bookshelves here inherit the shape of the earlier bookshelves, but space is open. In the middle, there is an exquisite bar counter. The arch of the bookshelves falls on the corner of the bar counter, like a sky linkage. Several black desks and white sofa chairs are elegantly arranged on the floor. Readers may buy a cup of coffee with a thick aroma while reading their selected books to immerse themselves in the world of books.
The space of Zhongshuge Minhang Store exactly expresses the ideas of this Zhongshuge – wonderful world of books and the colorful scenes in a kaleidoscope. As another chapter following the Zhongshuge Thames Store, Zhongshuge Minhang Store continues to write the respect for books, cherished for culture and love for readers. Here, it describes the philosophy and truth of life with a spatial vocabulary. It is not only a bookstore but also a soul space. Zhongshuge provides readers with texts to explore the beauty of the world, and more intends to create a pure land of books. It holds the soul of books here and allows readers to experience the pleasure of books brought by Zhongshuge with multidimensional vision, touch, and taste.
