Jetlag Books' latest shop nods to Soviet-style supply store in Beijing
Promotion: bookshop Jetlag Books has opened its latest store in Beijing, designed by architecture firm Studio NOR as a nod to the historical context of its site.
Situated along the city's Chang'an Avenue, the Jetlag Books Friendship Store occupies the site of a former service building to the neighbouring Friendship Store complex – a supply store built in 1972.
Studio NOR drew on the Soviet-style facade and Bauhaus-informed volumes of the Friendship Store for its design.
This included the preservation of rough plastered facades and the creation of large steel overhangs to frame its openings.
"The two buildings present a sense of continuity and overall unity, yet they are also distinctly different," Jetlag Books said.
"The design neither deliberately preserved every trace of decay to become a 'time capsule', nor did it ignore the remnants of the past and pursue 'disruptive innovation'."
"Instead, it adopts an intermediate state that blends past stories into the present daily life, connecting building and street, brand and community, past and present," it added.
The 180-square-metre bookshop is organised on an L-shaped plan that combines a service building from the 1970s and a steel-structured building added in the 2010s.
Studio NOR re-envisioned the existing steel structure as a "frontier" or "display window" at the store's front, which is adorned with matching steel signage.
Its single-storey volume is framed by a street-facing plaza, where outdoor seating is provided for visitors.
Other interventions by the studio include the creation of a new facade defined by thick walls, deep-set windows, overhanging eaves and high parapets that reinterpret the neighbouring building.
Across its facades, existing doors and windows were lowered to create "a more inviting and human-scale commercial street presence" and are framed by steel overhangs.
"The design of the cantilevered steel overhangs above the doors and windows derived from the architects' research on the original Friendship Store architecture and its 'Soviet-style' contemporaries," Jetlag Books explained.
Inside, the bookshop has been arranged around an 8.5-metre-long bar, which stitches together a book display area at one end of the space and a multi-functional area at the other.
Modular stainless steel bookshelves showcase Jetlag Books' travel-themed collection and are set off by glazed wall tiles and matt-black flooring in the display area.
At the back of the space, a three-step platform, designed to double as a temporary stage for events, has been created to provide access to a small storage room.
Described by Jetlag Books as "the most visually dynamic space in the bookstore", the central bar area has been wrapped in dark green and brown tiles.
Above the bar, Studio NOR transformed an existing opening into a deep skylight that draws daylight into the space.
Steps added to either side of the counter account for differences in floor level across the site, while also distinguishing the bookstore's spaces.
At the bookshop's northern end, the multi-functional area serves as a seating area for the cafe. Moveable furniture allows the space to be used for exhibitions, events, and pop-up activities.
Suspended ceilings expose the building's steel and concrete roofs, which have been paired with grey-toned concrete walls and terrazzo floors to echo the neighbouring Friendship Store.
The Jetlag Books Friendship Store by Studio NOR is the latest bookshop of Jetlag Books, which was founded in 2020 by designer Li Guanru and editor Lian Ziqiang.
The design team also included Boyuan Jiang, Jingwen Wang, Shuo Yang, Jin Gan, Yichen Jin, and Chenxiao Yan.
For more information about the Jetlag Books Friendship Store, visit its Instagram here.
The photography is by Songkai Liu
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Jetlag Books as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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