Chengdu’s Innovative Children Bookstore KIDSWINSHARE 2.0

PANORAMA Design Group’s KIDSWINSHARE 2.0 in Chengdu receives an honourable mention in the 2021 ASPDA Awards’ Retail Category. 

“Our pleasure to receive many recognitions in the inaugural APSDA Awards,” said PANORAMA Design Group. “It’s a solid confirmation for the values and unique experience PANORAMA has created for the users in different spatial typologies.”

With the ‘book-scape’ concept in mind, the team created this non-traditional bookstore where parents and children can escape from reality to this relaxing learning space. Visitors can enjoy the bookstore’s four primary functions: retail, learning, dining, and amusements.

The spatial layout introduces an abstract outdoor garden, a vivid scenery sprung out of a children’s storybook. This provokes children to embrace their imagination and adventurous spirit. Symbols and shapes in the garden direct visitors to the functional requirements and generate memorable spatial experience for different zones.   

Near the main entrance, the retail area sells children’s reading materials, stationery, and various teaching and learning products. The bright yellow colour theme enables children to stay upbeat and illuminates the space for reading. Visitors will find giant glowing petals in the sky on the ceiling, which function as a directory system within this vast bookstore. 

At the end of the bookstore is a row of cave-shaped multipurpose classrooms of different sizes. The organically shaped suspended ceiling within the learning hub activates the children’s interest in gaining new knowledge. Installing round windows on the ceiling allows natural light to penetrate, where children can read in a natural environment while preserving energy. 

The family restaurant in the third zone is divided by a row of decorative bookshelves. Regular visitors can sit in the banquette seating or booth seatings underneath the irregular ceiling, while VIP visitors can sit near the windows where arcs of wooden blocks hover above the dining tables. 

The bookshelf guides visitors to a multifunctional amusement area designed with irregular patterns. While playing, visitors can view a starry sky above created by LED lighting, stimulating an illusion of outer space. The 360 degree circular, open-space theatre functions as a playground and stage for events such as book launching or seminars. As the speaker presents, the dome ceiling delivers longitudinal sound waves to the audience sitting in all corners without using a microphone. 

To exit the bookstore, visitors will walk through a quadrant-shaped corridor made of mirror steel and colored LED lights, creating a visual of a rainbow tunnel. The transition of this abstract space is the key to bring them back to the outside world.