Design Practice

FAN Wenbing: Xi Chao bookstore 

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A university should not be just a series of functional units with a simple functional behavior of local occurrence, such as teaching, research, administration, associations, etc. It should also be a human community where the young students explore life independently and grow up. The goal of Xi Chao bookstore is to create a community space for those who are interested in the humanities in SJTU.

 The humanistic meaning mentioned here refers to pursuing one kind of impulse to transcend the immediate interests of the present, which may point to the future, or may be free and useless, but can nourish the mind and enlighten the mind. This kind of impulse should occupy a significant place in all humanities, arts, social sciences, science and engineering, especially today.

​The goal of this design is to hope that the groups of students who own the above-mentioned values or who are interested in such values can often travel through a series of physical or virtual spaces by visiting this bookstore and participating its planning events. They can not only read books, but also watch movies, listen to lectures, watch performances, and group activities, etc. In the most important period of youth, make it be an indispensable part of the growth memory of these people by slowly forming an acquaintance community where the warmth accompanies growth.

The basic tone of this design is not a superficial fashion or simple patchwork, nor is the doctrine of conservative fear of breaking the rules, nor rigid dogma or narcissistic stiff. In the in-depth interaction and research with customers and users, we discover, analyze, and solve problems, and plan the spatial and morphological patterns that adapt to specific groups of people. It includes the following characteristics and design response: ①high IQ (space partition logic is clear, easy to read); ②idealistic (morphological and spatial vocabulary self-complete, clear motif); ③young (variable, direct); ④open (easy to approach, cordial entry).

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Main Designer: FAN Wenbing,  School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Design Team: SIZUO Studio