LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore )
Winner of the Italian A Design Award Gold Prize, the Golden Bund Gold Prize, AWARD OF MERIT for the Canadian AZ Award, and 2025 Special Mention for the American Architizer A+ Awards.
Huizhou culture is a scroll moistened by the smoky rain in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is the spiritual code engraved in the blood of Huizhou people. It takes white walls and tiles as paper, wood carvings and stone foundations as ink, and merchants and Confucians as pens, quietly writing in the green mountains and waters, telling the vicissitudes and splendor of a thousand years, and melting the heaviness of the farming civilization and the spirit of the wisdom of the merchants into a vein of the essence of traditional Chinese culture.
According to the record of Xin’an Zhi, as early as the founding of the Sui Dynasty, Bishan Village was the seat of Shezhou (the governmental seat of ancient Huizhou), and was the heart of the whole Shezhou. Today still retains hundreds of intact Huizhou ancient houses, “high mountains and fields, such as embroidery, white walls and black tiles, rows and rows” of the style still exists.The houses, ancestral halls and pagodas are the most typical ones, which are known as the “Three Greatest Ancient Buildings of Huizhou”, carrying the heaviness of history and the spiritual charm of culture.
In this small village, there is a Wang family shrine, Qitai Hall, built in the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, more than 230 years ago. This small ancestral hall, which has experienced countless hours of history, was infused with new blood in 2014 – LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ), the eighth branch of Nanjing LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE at that time, and also the first Countryside Bookstore of Nanjing LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE with a pioneering significance. LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE has been committed to taking root in the countryside for ten years, not as a commercial appeal, but as a conscious and courageous approach to cultural dissemination, so that those areas where it is most difficult to be able to read books have a public cultural space where people gather because they read and love books.
Amidst the vicissitudes of change, LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) has preserved a cultural antidote for the fickle modern man, reminding us that the real cultural heritage is not in the exhibitions of museums, but in the human fires of the ordinary lanes and alleys, where it is alive and well.
01-
Keeping up with the old is the new: Keeping up is the way to go.
How to design a better combination of people, history and culture, first of all, we have to figure out what to keep? What should be promoted?
After ten years of time, sun and rain, LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore )has also faced many operational problems. The cultural and creative products and books on both sides of the patio have faded and cracked due to long-term heat exposure, which has greatly increased the amount of wear and tear in the store. In rainy weather, the damage to the wooden bookcases caused by the return of moisture to the ground is also evident. After ten years, the operation of the water bar has increased in demand, and many problems with power supply and equipment drainage have arisen. The Bull pen Café next to the store had problems with the insulation of the roof and could not provide a comfortable environment for customers to rest. The original staircase was cramped and deteriorated over the years, increasing the risk to customers.
At the beginning of the design process, when LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) gave us a list of realistic problems, we felt that the difficulty of this project was not just solving these operational challenges, but how a heritage building can find a balance between history and modernity, preserving the original characteristics of this ancestral temple while enabling it to adapt to the needs of modern society. The LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) needs to have a clearer business strategy and plan, all of which need to be adapted to the changing consumption and needs of the times, and to think with the times. If the market-oriented development of the space is hampered by over-protection, the LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) will become an exhibit for viewing only, and its value as a cultural container will be lost.
We have looked up the information to understand that the China has clear protection norms for different levels of cultural heritage buildings, and that the renewal of cultural heritage buildings is “to use cultural heritage buildings as a carrier, and to realize the revival of history and culture, as well as the continuation and sustainable development of civilization through revitalization”. Renewal itself needs to be based on respect for history and culture, reflecting human knowledge and understanding of the past.
At the same time, we have looked up some successful transformation design cases in China and abroad, such as: Xintiandi in Shanghai, where the once dilapidated Shikumen Lilong was transformed into a commercial and cultural neighborhood integrating fashionable catering, shopping and entertainment after the renewal and transformation. In the process of remodeling, the appearance and part of the internal structure of the Shikumen buildings are preserved, and the green bricks and carved lintels still exude a Hai-Pai Cultural Characteristics.These have attracted a large number of domestic and foreign tourists through innovative business operation models, which have not only effectively enhanced the economic benefits of the cultural heritage buildings, but also awakened people’s sense of territory and belonging to the area’s deep history and culture.
With these theoretical supports and case references, the design concept of this LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) renewal is to let people re-recognize and re-experience this historically significant ancestral hall, not just “keeping the old ways”, but keeping a kind of immersive experience through the combination of Huizhou architecture’s outward appearance, functions and scenarios, to carry forward the inheritance of local culture and innovation, and to arouse the respect and cultural awareness of the history of Huizhou and to create a sense of belonging. People’s respect for the history of Huizhou and cultural understanding, in order to shape a sense of belonging.
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The intention is not here: the facade design in the form of a screen
First of all, the transformation of the bookcase is the core of the whole design, in order to reduce the damage to the bookcase caused by the humidity on the ground, the design adopts the cement board to build the bookcase wall, and then combines the original old bookcase with the partial inlay. The form of the bookcase wall is inspired by the screen in Chinese paintings, and the center area surrounded by three screens is the daily activities of the literati.
Art historian Wu Hong describes the significance of the screen in Chinese painting in Re-screening: The Medium and Expression of Chinese Painting : “The screen is just like the connecting note between two bars in a musical score, connecting the isolated notes into a coherent melody.” In Chinese painting, the screen is a quasi-architectural form that redraws the three-dimensional space in which it is located. Screen paintings not only have a decorative function, but also convey specific emotions and ideas through the picture. In the painting of the Southern Tang Dynasty painter Wang Qihan’s Kan Shu Tu , the idyllic landscape and the grassy hall painted on the screen symbolize his life of retreat in the mountains and the wilderness. Through the medium of the screen, the painter integrated natural scenery and figures into the interior environment, which could both express the elegance pursued by the literati and be a reflection of the literati’s inner world.
The screened bookcase recedes backward, drawing the viewer’s eye toward the center of the picture. The side lines on either side do not focus on a vanishing point, but on the invisible central axis. The symmetrical bookcases thus do not create an illusory three-dimensional space, but rather mark out the location of a visual center.
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The Great Beauty of Heaven and Earth: Natural Architectural Space
Although the whole bookstore is a humanistic space, it cannot exist independently for the sake of humanity, our design should be integrated with nature. Stepping into the bookstore is like traveling through time and space, the patio is the soul of the family shrine, the four sides of the sky sprinkled with sunshine, rainwater dripping down the eaves, very beautiful, and the floor of the patio because of the rain watering moss, the summer drainage ditches are full of wild greenery, full of nature’s vitality.
The eaves of the patio were designed to express the traditional Chinese concept of “four waters returning to the hall”, symbolizing the unity of the family and the gathering of wealth. Since “four waters return to the hall”, we thought it was worthwhile to design where the water would return to. When we walked into the bookstore, we saw the ground drainage ditch under the patio, and we changed the original end-viewing platform to two lotus stone bases with a long Bishan green stone.
This stone was purchased ten years ago by the LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ), and after ten years of natural refinement, it had cracks, and in the process of carrying and adjusting it, it cracked, but the cracked stone strangely presented its original appearance – a natural and untouched stone texture, and at that moment, we felt that we had indeed returned to nature. The end of “Four Waters to the Hall” was found.
In addition to the part of the patio that faces nature, the interior part of the house also has to speak the language of nature. We use natural materials such as wood, bamboo, and stone to build the interior itself. These materials not only have a natural beauty but also resonate with the environment. The bookcase wall, on the other hand, is coated with white rammed earth, a material used for building exteriors, in order to both ensure practicality and combat the effects of too much humidity indoors on the cabinets, but to leave no clear boundaries between indoors and outdoors. The surface is allowed to be aged by the workers, after which it will grow to have its own flavor in time and space.
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Native China: Symbols of the Village
When we first arrived at Bishan, we found that every house in the village was of different sizes, overlooking like a square superposition of different sizes, with white walls and black tiles, lined up and staggered, but with rhythmic and dynamic visual effects. So in the design of this village planning form abstracted into a symbol, in the white bookcase wall open a box of different sizes, so that visitors in the process of walking and shopping for books, can feel a sense of rhythm and order of beauty.
Interestingly, after removing the old bookcases on the front of the second floor, the original brick wall was accidentally revealed in its original form, with various sizes of bricks and even some clashing colors, which was exactly the symbol of the village that we wanted, so we changed the original design and retained the brick wall, and hung a row of neatly arranged poetic verses on the wall. The simple sense of rhythm and rhyme, and the new addition of neat and unified verses, created a cultural conflict and contrast, just as we bring modern design into traditional architecture, seemingly conflict is also a kind of fusion and intertext.
In the design of the cafe, the classic flavor of traditional old furniture and the simple aesthetics of modern furniture are skillfully integrated. In this space, people in the countryside can leisurely enjoy the advanced products of the city, as if touching the pulse of the distant city; while the busy souls in the city can awaken the long-sleeping countryside memories in this quiet corner.
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The End or the Beginning
When each old building is renewed, there is always comments that the new additions have changed the original old flavor, as if those peeling wallpaper, mildew and cracks are the only legitimate time certification, while the new glass, wood panels and lights are intruding into the history of the feast of the uninvited guests. But they forget that architecture is a living language – masonry will breathe, beams and trees will age, and even moss will spend the seasons again in the cracks of the bricks. Old buildings are never exhibits in a glass showcase, but a flowing memory. When the aroma of coffee diffuses from the beams and columns of the Qing Dynasty Ancestral Hall, those new stories are sprouting again in the brick crevices of the new era.
As Li Bai once left his poem in Bishan:
“Questions and Answers in the Mountain
He asked me why I wanted to live in Mount Bishan,
I smiled but did not answer.
Peach blossoms and flowing water go far and wide,
There’s a different world that’s not on earth.”
The LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ), restarted after ten years, is like the peach blossom garden of another world as described in the poem, not comparable to the world of the mortal world.
The LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE ( Bishan Bookstore ) that restarts after ten years is also not the old flavor and completion time, but a new beginning.
Project Location: Bishan Village, Yi County, Anhui, China
Design Firm & Manufacturer: Cloud Ocean Design Co., Ltd (China, Singapore)
Team Leaders / Principals: Zhao Yunhai
Design Team: Jiang Peng, Huang Xiaohong
Photographer Credit: A Jun
Structural Support: Yang Zhijiang
Material Support: SAVIOLAB
Lighting Support: VEILO
Completion Date: December 2024
Copywriting & Planning: Jiang Peng
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Company Address：21st Floor,Tower A, Guorui Building, No. 359 Jiangdong Middle Road, Central Business District,Jianye District, Nanjing , Jiangsu
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