23 October 2015

Blueprint Awards 2015: The winners

Best Interior Design Project or Product - Leisure

Winner: Studio mk27, São Paulo, Brazil
Cultura Bookstore, São Paulo, Brazil

Studio mk27, São Paulo, Brazil

JUDGE'S COMMENTS
'The clarity of function, spatial organisation, and material continuity is refreshing - a breakthrough - for the retail typology that generally relies on visual overloading. It's masterful at providing the openness of the public scale without sacrificing intimacy at the human scale.' Lyndon Neri

Cultura Bookstore, situated in the Iguatemi shopping centre in the Jardins neighbourhood of São Paulo in Brazil, started with the premise, 'a bookstore with a meeting place'. More than just a place to shop, the store has been designed as an inviting place to stay and hang out.

The configuration of the bookstore floor plan, with open circulation, sought fluidity and spatial continuity. The glass entrance leads to the ground-floor book displays and a cafe in the garden, before a sweeping set of escalators brings visitors up to a large, multi-purpose room on the top floor. Here there are tables and comfortable chairs, as well as wide wooden steps that can be used for reading during the day and occasional small concerts and lectures. Books on white shelves encircle the space, while 11 large display tables are arranged around the perimeter. The shelves have built-in LEDs to distinguish them from the darker wooden floor and ceiling. The impression is of a cube internally clad with books.

Says Studio mk27: 'The architectural journey begins in a cosy space then arrives at a monumental area, where most of the products and visitors can interact with one another, where one can take a book and read a chapter even before purchasing it, where one can simply rest and watch the movement. We thought like this, with inviting and pleasant spaces that end up promoting a type of socialisation among people, these are the bookstores of the 21st century. The program is the very life of the store.'