Housed in a small two-story building off Beijing’s well-known Liulichang Street is Rongbaozhai Coffee Bookstore. Built by the government in the 1980s, the building was constructed in a pseudo-classical style. The original space was a bookstore that specialized in selling Chinese paintings and antiquarian prints. The redesign maintains the building’s previous identity as a bookstore, but employs a sleek modern aesthetic that eliminates the rigid and stuffy atmosphere many people associate with traditional bookstores.
荣宝斋咖啡书屋，位于京城知名的琉璃厂古文化街街口。这个由政府在上世纪80年代兴建的仿古建筑，原本是一家经营中国书画与古籍的书店。今次的再设计，既保留了建筑原本作为书店的存在，同时也应用现代设计的美学理念，一改传统书店给人的粗重、刻板印象。
Building off the original structural grid, the ring-like interior has an island-style space in the middle of the room. On the first floor, the central island is a cashier’s desk and a barista’s workstation with iron shelving wrapping around the exterior. On the second floor, the centerpiece of the room is a meeting space constructed with switchable glass that has the ability to change in transparency, allowing for privacy when necessary.
基于建筑原有的柱网，室内呈现出环状的空间结构：中央区域为岛式空间，周边为铁制书架墙体。首层中心岛作为收银台及咖啡操作台；二层由调光玻璃围合成一个发光的盒子作为会议室，调光玻璃可改变内外的透明状态，在有需要的时候提供私密空间，让会议室使用更加灵活。
The 300 square meter space is also strategically populated with plants, which are used to imbue a sense of vitality into the space. Housed in boxes integrated into the shelves, ferns are the main types of plants used throughout the store. Herbs like mint and apple pelargoniums can be found on the coffee tables and in front of windows, lending their refreshing fragrance to the space.
这个总面积约300平米的空间到处安置了绿色植物，使得整体充满生机活力。室内植物主要选择蕨类植物，放入盆栽里并嵌入于各处的书架中，与周围融为一体。而香草类的薄荷，碰碰香等小型植物则放置在窗前及咖啡桌上，散发沁人心脾的芬芳。
The designer behind the store’s transformation is Wen Qiang Han, founder of ARCHSTUDIO, who took into consideration of the fact that traditional bookstores are no longer able to attract readers. By implementing a café into the minimalist-style redesign, he hoped to attract a different crowd and bring in more foot traffic. With the redesign, Qiang Han envisioned a place where people could stop by and comfortably relax with a book and a fragrant cup of coffee for an afternoon, a sanctuary away from the fast-paced frenzy of our digitized society.
此次改造的主设计师韩文强，为建筑营设计工作室的创始人，他考虑到在如今的信息时代，以往书店的单一模式已经无法吸引读者。在对传统书店进行改造升级的时，他引入咖啡厅元素，结合极简的设计风格，以吸引更多元化的读者群体和客流量。韩文强旨在打造一方舒适的书香之地，希望来到这里的人们可停下脚步，以暂时远离奔波的现代生活，伴随着一杯浓香的咖啡，享受一个美好的午后。
