2017/11/27      Author: Urban China

Urban China started calling for interior design proposals for its bookstore among all the architects and designers at HDD in September. In two months, Urban China has received many creative ideas and finally settled on nine of them. On November 21, the evaluation meeting for all the participant proposals was held at 7^th floor of Tongji Science Building, which will also be the location of the bookstore. Candidates that enter the final list gave presentation of their proposals in front of a judge team made up by renowned architects, scholars and HDD leaders.

The judge lineup includes Yang Cai, general manager of HDD, Shen Yi, chief architect at HDD, Li Juan, director of Urban China Research Center, RIGI Design founder Liu Kai, Professor of Chinese Language at Tongji University Tang Weijie and Xiang Nan, chief architect at Bengo Studio.

 

Yang Cai, general manager of HDD

First Place: The City of the Sky

Second Place: City Garden

Third Place: Empty

Fourth Place: R-Shelves

The proposal of Nest, although didn’t make it on the final four list, impressed all the judges with its bold creativity. Nest plans to build the bookstore in a nest-shape building outside the entire building on the 7^th floor. If implemented, the design can be quite a hype and make a splash at least on the Internet.

 
 Representing the design proposal Untitled, HDD architect Wu Hao is giving his presentation

HDD architect Chen Jianfei is presenting the proposal of his team

HDD architect Li Di is presenting the work of her team, Empty, which is the third place winner

HDD architect Yao Qiwei, is presenting the NO.1 design, The City of the Sky

HDD architect Zheng Xueyi is presenting City Garden, which won the second place

HDD architect Zhao Shuang

HDD architect Xu Hang is presenting the Nest project, the wildest proposal in the competition

HDD architect Len Changzong

HDD architects Osei Asante Ebenezer (left) and Luca Forteleoni are presenting the R-Shelves project, which won the fourth place

After reviewing all the proposals, judges discussed and shared their opinions with each other. Xiang Nan believes that the design of the bookstore should lend an urban and SOHO vibe. Tang Weijie suggested that architects and designers should be more open and original by thinking out of the box. He added that designers should be more creative and think from their own perspective: what do I want if I was using the space. Liu Kai pointed out the importance of feasibility. And when implemented, the consistency of the design concept and brand ideas should be maintained, he said.

Shen Yi pointed out that as the space is quite small, how to accommodate all the functions is the most crucial issue every designer should pay attention to first. Shen said that because of the space limits, the design should not be too “over” in decoration. Yang Cai echoed Shen’s idea. He said that an overly decorative design will make the space look even more crowded. He suggested that designers should set the most frequent and common functions as the priority and to fulfill them first before other not so necessary functions. 

The evaluation meeting is just part of the beginning of the Urban China Bookstore project. In the future, designers will revise their proposals based on feedback from the judges. For the young architects and designers at HDD, it is a good opportunity to go through the entire process of planning and design, which they is an experience they might not have during their everyday job. Best luck to the architects and designers! We are looking forward to the final result of the project.