The Glade Bookstore

The Glade Bookstore
a winding entrance gives unique arrival experience. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
6mm lines and linear lighting. Image © Yu Bai

THE GLADE BOOKSTORE

HAS design and research

LIGHTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Visual Feast VF

CONSTRUCTION
Nengqiang Yu

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Jenchieh Hung, Kulthida Songkittipakdee

LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT
LISM Landscape Design

STRUCTURE CONSULTANT
Huazhu Architecture Design Group

LIGHTING DESIGN
Jenna Tsailin Liu, Qiuwei Zheng

DESIGN TEAM
Jenchieh Hung, Kulthida Songkittipakdee, Kanchaporn Kieatkhajornrit, Pimpasson Gangvanpanich, Qin Ye Chen, Panhuili Cheng, Zhongjun Dou

WOOD FURNITURE
Chongqing Longyi Decoration Project Co. Ltd.

KITCHEN CONSULTANT
Chongqing Bailey Kitchen Co. Ltd.

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Jason Yin

CLIENT
The Glade

PHOTOGRAPHS
Yu Bai

AREA
1360 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Chongqing, China

CATEGORY
Retail Interiors

The Glade is a cultural brand, as well as a compound bookstore providing a new lifestyle. It is a place for a bookstore, coffee, afternoon tea, restaurant, bar, cultural and creative industries, and irregular exhibitions.

The Glade Bookstore
a continuous big roof of modern bookstore. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the lines of the roof and wall gives the reading space a sense of porosity. Image © Yu Bai

The origin of The Glade came from two famous initiator teams in Chongqing, The Razor's Edge and One Day, who have cooperated to provide a quiet and restful place of the void to Chongqing, or even busy metropolises in China.

The Glade is situated in the center of Chongqing. Hundreds of years ago, in a military book named Six Secret Teachings, this place was called “the mountain city".

The Glade Bookstore
gradient bunches lines brings guiding experience in the space. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
lines from the top to the bottom composed as a wall as a filter of the light. Image © Yu Bai

What is more, from the work of the mountain city of Chongqing painted by a well-known Chinese ink painter, Guanzhong Wu, we could also feel the specific topography of the mountains and various senses of scale.

However, at the present time, the superb landscape is occupied by a great number of super high-rise, and the organic natural condition turns into lackluster concrete constructions.

The Glade Bookstore
the detail of thin book shelves and the light. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
bookselves used as space dividers. Image © Yu Bai

Only in the countryside away from the city could we occasionally find the beauty of the mountain city and its distinctive Stilt Houses.

The Glade is not only a compound bookstore, but as the meaning conveyed by its name, it means tearing the cold concrete ground and planting a spiritual space in the high-density city. The design continuous this philosophy.

The Glade Bookstore
multifuctional space. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
impressive curve roof. Image © Yu Bai

It connects the split first floor and second floor with the spatial form of stilt houses; the lower floor is like the grey space of stilt houses, providing functions of reading, talking, resting, sharing with space of intervals, and with the design of undulating stairs, it creates a micro-mountain city to form dynamic and explorative reading space.

The upper floor is a continuous big roof of the stilt houses which integrates the space of coffee, afternoon tea, restaurant, bar, and bookstore by using 6mm lines.Besides, in the distinct space, the change of light and shadow, time, site, and environment are still tangible.

The Glade Bookstore
semitransparent frosted glass blurs the boundaries. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
all equipment is designed to hide for a sense of blank in the space. Image © Yu Bai

The project finally shows the combination of materials and space and demonstrates unique constructional aesthetics.The Glade began with adaptation to Chongqing in the ancient form of stilt house and progressed in the exploration of complex function so as to think over the standardization, multifunctional, and flexibility of modern bookstores.

The importance of The Glade is more than its special philosophy. It also provides a cultural symbol and a sense of belonging beyond the busy city life in diverse and delicate spaces.

The Glade Bookstore
the light and the lines swing with the wind creates lightness feelings. Image © Yu Bai


The Glade Bookstore
roof line connecting all of spaces. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the arc roof in the western restaurant brings dramatic variation of light. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the joint detail of the lines and the bookshelves. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the unique lighting and space. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
walls made of lines blurs the boundaries. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
reading area. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the wooden bookshelves and the light. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
semitransparent frosted glass exhibits books. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
natural light and wooden furniture. Image © Yu Bai


The Glade Bookstore
different spaces integrate into one under the continuous big roof. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
the lines blurs the definition of traditional space division. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
roof line space. Image © Yu Bai
The Glade Bookstore
The Glade is situated in the high-desity city center of Chongqing. Image © Yu Bai


The Glade Bookstore
Concept Diagram
The Glade Bookstore
Axonometric


The Glade Bookstore
Research Diagram


The Glade Bookstore
Details
The Glade Bookstore
Site Plan