Viti Books

The project is located in Xihongmen District, Daxing District, in southern Beijing. The client hopes to build the bookstore into the most distinctive cultural landmark in this area, and at the same time, it should also have social responsibility to be used as a late night study to provide a community reading place for Xihongmen area.

The name of the bookstore: Viti, taken from Viti Island, is the main island of Fiji and stands for sunrise in Fijian. The designer hopes to create a “unique” space where readers can forget the worries and pressure outside the bookstore from the moment they enter the bookstore, and enjoy the pleasure of reading on Viti Island surrounded by books.

The chamfered southwest section is the main entrance for pedestrians to enter the Hongkun Shopping Center area. Based on the “congenital advantages” of orientation and stream of people, the original entrance of the store was sorted out in the design, one of the south entrances was canceled, and an entrance was added in the southwest side to make the bookstore present a welcome attitude.

In terms of spatial layout, different space scenes are created for different groups of people. The entrance is the leisure area, reading area is on the other side of the bar, and to the opposite direction is the children’s zone. In daily life, children’s area is connected with leisure area. When parent-child activities or courses are held in the children’s area, a huge push-pull bookshelf will be pulled aside and the children’s area becomes a relatively independent space. From the quiet of reading area, to the comfort of leisure area, and then to the jollification of children’s area, the spaces are separated into dynamic and static parts. The materials and colors of the space are also very rich. Transparent crystal glass tiles, gold-plated stainless steel metal, black-and-white floor tiles, walnut parquet flooring, double-height blue bookshelves and green wrapping paper shelves are all parts of this island of books.

Project info

Project name: The Design of Viti Books Bookstore
Location: R107, Tower B, Hongkun Metromall, Hongfu Rd., Daxing District, Beijing, China
Owner: Shangfa Viti (Beijing) Culture Co., Ltd.
Principal architects: He Wei, Chen Long
Project architect: Meng Xiangting
Team: Cao Shiqing, Sang Wanchen, Zhu Yanming, Liu Yong
Construction drawings: Beijing Hongshang International Design Co., Ltd.
Interior design: 3andwich Design/He Wei Studio (www.3andwichdesign.com)
Operation team: Doli Cultural Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Head of operation team: Sally
Operation team: Deng Qian, An Ran, Nie Wenshuai
Construction: Henan Aide Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd
Construction area: 320sqm
Design time: Dec. 2020 – Feb. 2021
Completion time: Jun. 2021
Photographer: Fang Liming