Wutopia Lab recently designed an entirely white Zhongshu Bookstore in Xi?an, one of the most ancient cities in China which used to be the capital for thirteen dynasties, with 300 tons of steel and 30,000 meters of light strips.

We aborted our design of a direct entry into the bookstore, and created a glittering entrance in the commercial space on the fourth floor; this required to make free of the floor slab of the fifth floor into the main area of the bookstore without destroying the main structure. We built a pillarless white curvy staircase, highlighted by a spiral white panel, surrounded by custom-made white acrylic walls. Readers coming from their everyday life, heading up the stairs step by step, and are encouraged by the spirit of knowledge and curiosity displayed through the books around them to enter the bookstore over the clouds. Photography: CreatAR Images
The basic space of the bookstore consists of popular book recommendation areas and public reading areas. We decided to make a reading paradise over the ?clouds?, and it should have a light and streamlined free space, but in order to follow the restrictions of fire codes, we had to challenge the traditional types and materials of the bookshelf. For the first time, we used 5mm thick steel plates to customize curved bookshelves. After precise structural calculations, the steel frame that is hidden behind the foundation is used as the support of the structure. The over 3,000 meters long steel plated booksh...