Trace Architecture Office has inserted a bookshop and cafe into old rammed earth gables of a long-abandoned house in rural China.
Called Paddy Field Bookstore after its location, the shop on the outskirts of Xiadi Village, Fuijian province, is all but invisible from the exterior.
Photo is by Zhuo Yuxing.
"The remnants serve as a container that wraps around the new construction, which is made of concrete and steel, forming a dialogue between the contemporary and the traditional," said the practice.
"Most of the new construction is hidden inside the remnants of the old house, so it seems as though nothing happened from the outside."

A cantilevering cafe space projecting from the building is the only outward sign of its transformation.
The floor-to-ceiling glazing provides views across the paddy fields back towards the village.
The shop will be operated by Librairie Avant-Garde, an independent book shop launched in 1996 in Nanjing that has since expanded across China.
Angled concrete walls in the centre of the old building form the core of the new structure.

The three-storey Paddy Field Bookstore includes a ground floor display area, a first floor reading room and a rooftop viewing terrace.

Around the plan's edge, these concrete walls face the untreated walls of the original structure.

In the centre, they enclose a more insular theatre space.
Here, stepped wooden seating areas for impromptu performances double as shelving.

Supported by these central w...