A sea of stone, rock and green, at the edge of the Yangpo village defines the setting; the Nuijiang River cutting a valley through the natural landscape of the Gaoligong Mountains. A concrete structure—cleaved down its middle—rises from a slope, like a natural part of the cascading topography of the mountains. The Nuijiang Grand Canyon Bookstore of Librairie Avant-Garde, designed by Trace Architecture Office (TAO), is perched at the edge of Yangpo village, bridging the rural settlement to the wilderness beyond. The strong central axis of the bookstore with a distinct gabled roof mimicking the surrounding context creates a strong momentum towards this sculptural retail space; the striking structure placed at the entrance to the village appearing as an “arrow on the bowstring”. For the Chinese architects, this reference ties back to the local Lisu ethnic group's heavy usage of crossbows and arrows, due to the harsh terrain, becoming an empowering totem and inspiration for the project.

The Lisu settlement, now the village in China where the bookstore is located, developed along the mountainous terrain, presents a narrative of growth and construction—adding layers to the built fabric over the ages—that is complemented by the form and material of the cultural architecture. Of the three Librairie Avant-Garde projects by the Beijing-based practice, this bookstore design takes a much more contemporary approach to its form compared to its successors. While the Weishan Chongzheng Bookstore and the Xiadi Paddy Field Bookstore employ techniques of adaptive reuse and restoration, here the brutalist architecture becomes a beacon of the village’s developing context. The tripartite comes together as a quintessential urban insert for greater cultural and public development in the rural region.

As the design team mentions, “The bookstore can be understood as an extension of the village’s public space facing the canyon where contemporary architectural language merges with vernacular mechanics…Taking the bookstore as a fulcrum, Librairie Avant-Garde will further rejuvenate the village’s cultural vitality and draw global attention to both the ethnic minorities and the Nujiang Grand Canyon in the future." To this end, the public building combines various aspects of public and cultural infusion through the use of its functions. The layout is a layered take on several degrees of public interactions. The terrace, the cafe, the bookstore and the theatre come together to create a synergetic whole, creating spaces for the local community to gather.   

As visitors travel through the village, they find themselves standing in front of exposed concrete walls protruding from the ground creating an artificial canyon-like space. This central trail flanked by bare walls leads one to the breathtaking vastness of the mountains and the valley. Here, visitors can gaze upon the serpentine flow of the Nuijiang River parting the mountains. The external pathway is designed to create a picturesque framework guiding one to traverse through the narrow passage into the openness, adding to the experiential quality of the building. The alternate way to experience this moment of reprieve is to approach the terrace towards the left. This acts as the roof for the bookstore underneath it. Walking through a cutout in the wall, the visitors experience a sense of pause, as they watch the clouds rolling by in the valley below them. The oblique walls in the space shelter visitors; while reflecting the duality of partial openness and enclosure provided by the design.

Within the spaces of circulation, one experiences the project as a series of frames, fragments that open and then shut; the scenic forest and mountains blinking in and out of sight. The lofty spaces of the cafe are accessible through the terrace. One sits underneath the slanted roof and looks towards the canyon as if cocooned within a crevice amongst mountainous contours. Illuminated by large windows and the corner cutouts in the concrete structure, one then steps into a grove of books. For readers, niches in the wall and windows allow them to immerse themselves with the Nuijiang canyons as their backdrop.

If the bookstore can be considered the heart of the project then the theatre is perhaps its spirit. Navigating through the aisles of books, one steps down into the womb of this vessel of concrete and wood–where culture and social interactions gestate. Stair-like seating for the theatre design facilitates cultural events and can also act as an extension to the bookstore above, where readers can choose their nook to sit and read in peace. Geometric cutouts allow natural light to filter in, adding to the cosy environment. This space is where stories are shared, invented and presented for and by the people. Shutters open out the enclosed space to the magnanimity of the mountains in front of the theatre’s occupants at will; like experiencing a play of natural forces.

For their design of the bookstore, TAO crafts spaces guided by a desire to uphold and embody the village’s culture and evolving Chinese architecture. Through a journey moulded by the contours of the mountain, concrete and wood, the bookstore recontextualises how an urban insert must, at its core, respect its geographical and cultural context. The public architecture sets itself as an example where the geometric design can be seen conversing with the natural tapestry of the mountains, like a tangible form of shi (or Chinese poetry), as the design team describes, the form as a way of “lifting the crossbow of the Lisu people towards the far reaches of poetry.” While simultaneously pushing ahead to re-contextualise existing typologies, the project creates an interactive and meditative sojourn through built form.

 (Text by Arryan Siingh, Intern at STIR)