A Shape-Shifting Basement Bookstore

In designing Mumokuteki Concept Bookstore, LUO studio emphasised the original materiality and created a system of rotating steel and glass walls to enhance shoppers’ experiences of the space. Studio founder and principal architect Luo Yujie share more about the project

Design Anthology: Can you tell us about the client and their brief to you?

Luo Yujie: Mumokuteki Concept Bookstore is an initiative of Juran Bookstore, proposed by the client after years of operation. The new concept was to reflect a futuristic lifestyle for urbanites, and reveal possibilities for a flexible and varied bookstore space that integrates with other functions like exhibitions and F&B.

What’s unique about the building and the location?

The store is in a 480-square-metre underground space in a shopping mall in Beijing. The underground room was once used for equipment storage, and the space was unevenly divided with an awkward arrangement of walls, columns and pipeline, which posed a great challenge to the design.

How did you approach the project — what design references did you try to incorporate into the space?

We decided that introducing a conventional suspended ceiling to conceal the pipelines would lead to a more cramped space, so our design started from the idea of embracing and showcasing the space’s character, without concealing elements of the original structures. The overall interior design is somewhat unconventional since we aimed to return the space to its original state, with the help of structural furniture and other methods of creating defined spaces.

Please tell us a little about the material choices for the space.

We worked to restore the columns and walls to their original state, with a view to unveiling the pure, authentic textures in the space. We removed the white coating over the walls and columns and polished the irregular edges and corners to reveal the textures of the aggregate used for the concrete columns. The metal shelves are structural furniture that also function as partitions to help increase flexibility in the space. Each metal shelf is an embedded ‘structural installation’. We used Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), a transparent, rigid plastic, for the rotating walls.

Please tell us about some of the custom pieces for the space.

The rotating walls are the hero, allowing for flexible spaces in the bookstore, and varying levels of transparency that really enrich the space.

Images / Jin Weiqi