Translucent glass shrouds the books within this bookshop in Chongqing, designed by architecture studio HAS Design and Research.
Located in Chongqing's dense city centre, The Glade Bookstore is a bookshop, restaurant and exhibition space designed to act as a "spiritual and restful place" in the otherwise bustling Chinese city.
The Glade Bookstore is a peaceful store inside the bustling city of Chongqing
HAS Design and Research (HAS) drew on the prominent Chinese artist Guanzhong Wu's ink painting The Mountain City of Chongqing to create the bookshop, in a bid to blend metropolitan life with the feel of the countryside.
"We started to imagine if the city centre could feel like the traditional Chongqing topography and stilt houses that are in Guanzhong Wu's painting," principal architect Jenchieh Hung told Dezeen. The books are displayed behind frosted glass panels
To recapture the spirit of the painting, the architects used organic materials and neutral colours.
Inside, charcoal-coloured walls and a glossy, polished concrete floor create a calming ambience. Books are displayed behind frosted glass panels in Douglas fir bookshelves, effectively "blurring the boundaries" between fiction and reality.
Hung hopes that this element of illusion gives customers some respite from the surrounding "lacklustre concrete constructions".
Douglas fir wood and polished concrete floors add to the calming atmosphere
"In our design, we always consider...