“Book Mountain” is a school bookstore located in YuHang Senior High School, Hangzhou. Yuhang Senior High School is the First Class middle school in Zhejiang Province and a Provincial green campus. Commissioned by Yuhang Senior High School and Xinhua Bookstore Group, we hope to create a place for books and cultural socializing in the teaching building, where teachers and students can read, share and study.
The bookstore, which we call “Book Mountain”, is located on the first floor of the new teaching building of Yuhang Senior High School, with a total construction area of 1153.2 square meters. The original space is a deep rectangle, and the building structure is designed as several connected classrooms: the south side is a corridor, and the north side is a large classroom. As this space is located on the first floor of the building, the north and south are connected to the external garden of the building. The whole environment is flat, open and full of greenery. The interior space and the external courtyard environment show a very dynamic connection.
The bookstore not only provides books, but also has a tea drinking bar, reading space, a variety of literature, handicrafts, stationery supplies displayed in the store, which has become the main place for students’ extracurricular activities. We hope that in this knowledge garden on the campus, the school can express its expectations and care for students. It is different from other impetuous commercial space to provide a better growth environment for students who are growing up and being enlightened. The campus bookstore plays an important role with a friendly mission. We hope that this small interior space can not only provide students with the function of daily activities, but also give students some inspiration on creation and creativity. Different from most campus bookstores, this project shows different spatial imagination and design thinking related to traditional Chinese context. At the same time, it is also hoped that the formal characteristics of the space itself and its potential semantic meaning can convey some metaphors about the process of life growth and knowledge construction.
As a space design strategy, “Book Mountain” bookstore can be regarded as a continuous space installation filled in the whole interior space. In terms of form construction, we use four wooden roof frames which are translated into different peaks. The base unit is made of 800mm*800mm pine wood frame. In the space of each unit, flat shelf can be added at any time to the unit frame for displaying books, handicrafts, learning stationery, etc. In the overall unified composition order, the space opening unit and the placing unit alternate between virtual(empty frames) and real(with object), inviting exploration. “Book Mountain” is a metaphor with Chinese meaning. As an old Chinese saying goes, “A mountain of books is paved with diligence.” The path of reading and learning, just like the self-exploration of life, is tortuous. There is also an old Chinese saying: a winding path leads to tranquility. Tranquil and owl-light is also a very important aesthetic concept and realm in Chinese culture.
Above the roof truss, the light white soft film forms a soft and bright space, so that the light can be sprinkled in every corner of the space through this layer of medium. In the evening and dusk, the light of the interior reveals light from the film cloth of the wooden roof, and you can vaguely see the beautiful internal structure and readers through it, which is another scene. In “Book Mountain”, we try our best to keep the structure in the most realistic state, there is no bookshelf in the space, the structure itself is the bookshelf, the structure itself is both “Function” and “Significance”, “Book Mountain” is both “bookshelf” and “roof frame”.
Walking in the bookstore, feels like walking in a Chinese garden. Hills, roof truss, little pavilions, path and verandahs are all typical elements of traditional gardens. The name of the project, “Book Mountain”, is itself a name with great garden significance.
“Mountain” plays an extremely important role in traditional gardens. “Mountain” is a microcosm of the world and a condensation of ancient people’s understanding and reflection on the world. We took the shape of a mountain to create an indoor garden where people can stay here peacefully. Although there is no stack of stones in the garden, the stack is a book, but it is still a mountain.
The path of the whole space is tortuous. The “pavilion” hovering on the left and right of the wooden frame roof breaks the continuous and homogeneous structure order properly, and the space becomes orderly and energetic. People seem to be in a fairy-tale garden, in the book mountain stack stone situation, the books just next beside of you within reach, mild light and pine wood reflects a beautiful and warm atmosphere, let a person peaceful and quiet, heart joy.
The structure of “Book Mountain” itself is also a spiritual metaphor. The construction of the roof beams with layers of accumulation represents the meaning of growth, as well as the accumulation and construction of knowledge, and finally forms the “building”. It conveys the accumulation of knowledge that we have known for thousands of years. If we identify books as the source of wisdom and cognition, the intuitive feeling created by the roof of the “book mountain” is exactly the mentality of studying hard and accumulating accumulation that we should acquire in our growth. This is also a kind of intellectual attitude in the creation, which I hope the students can understand in this space, and the expectation of students’ growth and success.
Students can walk in the “Book Mountain”. The translucent soft film separates the noise of the external environment. Sunlight and tree shadows shine on the semi-permeable soft film, which is the fusion of time and nature. Take a book, slowly step out of the “roof” of the bookshelves, find a quiet place, come to a light open space, sit down by the window, the view is bright, facing the lush courtyard.
“A mountain of books is paved with diligent roads.” In the bookstore, the verandah path twists and turns, from the verandah into the terrace pavilion, adjacent to the roof seats, watching the students walking through this book garden, tasting a cup of coffee or tea, opening a book, preparing lessons or reading, can bring you a certain sense of joy and pride.
“Book Mountain” integrates with the surrounding environment of the campus as a whole. We unify all the elements in an understanding of “environment”. “Book Mountain” is a landscape garden blending inside and outside, which no longer has obvious boundaries. Verandas and paths cross to guide people from one place to another.
