대만 디자이너, Chu Chih-Kang가 추구하는 인테리어의 주제는 종교(불교)에서 시작된 신성함, 경허함을 실질적인 현실세계로 인도하는 철학적 공간 탐구에 있습니다. 이승과 저승, 현실세계와 사후세계를 구분하는 길다란 에스컬레이터를 따라 지하 깊숙히 자리한 대량의 정보공간(서고)은 이를 위한 전초기지로 원초적인 공간감을 제공합니다. -마치 원시적인 동굴을 체험하는 인상을 풍깁니다.- 재해석된 노출콘크리트 기둥과 날것(재료 본연의 물성이 그대로 드러나도록 사용)의 재료는 이성적 판단을 요구하는 지식공간을 무아의 세계로 확장시키며, 건축과 철학의 연결고리에 시작을 알립니다. 무엇보다 깊은 공간감이 제공하는 장중함은 원초적인 재료의 물성과 만나, 건축 본연의 자세를 보여줍니다.
Fangsuo Bookstore in Chengdu, Sichuan, is not just a bookstore. Designed by Taiwanese designer Chu Chih-Kang, it is also as a community meeting place and a temple-like space of contemplation. With these functions in mind, the store’s design was inspired by Buddhist temples and the scripture libraries that were once housed inside or underneath many of them, and which relate to the Mandarin Chinese concept of stored wisdom. For designer Chu, for whom the written word represents the collection of shared knowledge, a bookstore should not only be a gateway to this knowledge but a separate cosmos to house it. The store is thus located in the basement level of the site, completely shut off from the outside world. It is a cosmos of its own that the visitor is urged to explore.
The heart of the bookstore, a cavernous, double-height underground space is punctured with faceted, large concrete columns that mushroom towards the top, giving the impression of an underground quarry: a place to discover/extract knowledge. This impression is further enhanced by the lighting that is concentrated on the books both on the tables in the middle of the space and the bookcases along the perimeter. The result is glowing troves of books, and other artefacts, under a hovering shaded roof. The books themselves become the “buried treasure” that the visitor, who descended into this underground knowledge bunker, is looking for.
To enhance the idea of otherworldliness and the quest for wisdom, the store is entered through an escalator-cum-tunnel that transports the visitor from the openness of the ground level,
through a sculpted meteorite-like enclosure, down to the store’s
basement level; an almost claustrophobic experience that aims at
cleansing the visitor’s visual as well as emotional palette enabling the
space to be entered with an open mind.
The children’s book section, located in a secondary space, eschews the cave-like aesthetics found in the bookstore’s main hall through the use of an illuminated, white barrel roof. Although the concept of separation from the outside is maintained, this section is more playful and airy. With its porthole faux-windows, the airplane-like roof also alludes to the concept of exploration and discovery albeit from a different perspective.
from yatzer