Wildly Ambitious Bookstore Design in Tianjin China

Tianjin Zhongshuge is a renovation that tries to solve a very specific problem: the site sits in Tianjin’s Italian-style district, where century-old brick buildings have a strong visual identity, but the original bookstore was a more generic modern box.

X+Living’s answer was to rebuild the experience around the one material the neighborhood already “speaks” red brick, so the store feels rooted in its surroundings without turning into a period piece.  

The mesmerizing fabrication inside references science fiction, with a bit of H.R. Giger thrown in for good measure.

Brick isn’t used as a background finish here; it’s the structure, the circulation, and the display system. The facade is brick, the spiral staircase is brick, and the individual book “rooms” and arches are brick as well.

The project used about 400,000 custom bricks, hand cut, with different sizes and types made to fit each area’s requirements. Much more like a fabrication job than a typical interior build.  

In the main central space (the article describes it as a “nave”), the design shifts: layers of dark blue steel slice through the brickwork to add contrast and a more industrial note.

X+Living says this section is inspired by blinds, the idea is that gaps and slats break up what would otherwise be heavy masonry, letting the space feel more open and encouraging sightlines through the building.  

What makes the whole thing work is that the brick-and-steel logic continues into the details. Shelving, benches, and built-in seating read as extensions of the architecture, not furniture placed afterward, so you don’t get the usual retail clutter of mismatched fixtures.

The result is a bookstore that feels highly designed, but still practical: clear paths, lots of places to stop, and smaller reading pockets that balance out the big headline space.  

By Moss & Fog Staff