Sleeping among the books of a library in an ancient village in China

In the deep forests of Tonglu in eastern China, Atelier tao+c transforms a traditional building made of wood and earth into a capsule hotel and public library where the book shelves become the walls of 20 mini rooms.

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Foto Su Sheng Liang

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Photo Sisi

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Foto Su Sheng Liang

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Photo Fengyuzhu

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Foto Su Sheng Liang

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Photo Sisi

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Foto Su Sheng Liang

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Photo DX

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Site Plan

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Axonometry

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 North Front and Section

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Ground Floor Plan

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Plans

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel e Biblioteca nel Villaggio Qinglongwu, Cina, 2019 Section

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Bianca Pichler
29 July 2020
Tonglu, Zhejiang Province, China
Atelier tao+c
232 sqm
Adaptive Reuse
2019

In an old village hidden in the deep forests of Tonglu in Zhejiang Province, the local architecture firm Atelier tao+c redesigned an old building made of wood and earth by inserting a capsule hotel that can accommodate 20 people, a community bookstore and library. The old building is completely emptied and equipped with a new internal steel structure to contain the new functions.

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel and Bookstore in Village Qinglongwu, China, 2019. Photo Su Shengliang

The designers created a "building within the building", seeking a balance that guarantees privacy in the suspended accommodation area and continuity and openness to the public space of the library on the ground floor. The project is therefore solved in its section: horizontal floors connected by light metal stairs overlap at different heights in a complex and articulated spatial solution where shelves made of bamboo wood preserve books and hide the modular rooms of the Capsule Hotel. The result is an interweaving of visual axes, perspectives, spatial compressions and decompressions within the volume and in relation to the surrounding forest.

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel and Bookstore in Village Qinglongwu, China, 2019. Photo DX

The outer shell of the original building is pierced with new openings that reflect the organization of the interior spaces, while the gabled astern front of the original building is cut and replaced with a wooden structure and corrugated polycarbonate panels, introducing the surrounding landscape into the building.
The architectural intervention gives a new meaning to the place and, together with the light similar to that of a lantern at night, the scent of bamboo and books, has a power of cohesion for the community of the village.

Atelier tao+c, Capsule Hotel and Bookstore in Village Qinglongwu, China, 2019. Photo Su Shengliang

Capsule Hotel and Bookstore in Village Qinglongwu
Tonglu, Zhejiang Province, China
Atelier tao+c
Tao Liu, Chunyan Cai, Guoxiong Liu, Lihui Han
Tiwuworks
Yun Zhao, Xiaowen Chen
Shanghai Fengyuzhu Culture Technology Co., Ltd.
2019