X+Living's Tianjin Zhongshuge Bookstore Renovation Blends Italianate Brickwork with Steel Sculptural Shelves

Architecture firm X+Living has completed a major renovation of a large Zhongshuge bookstore in Tianjin, China, transforming a building in the city's Italian style district. The project, shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2025 in the retail interior (large) category, uses approximately 400,000 custom-made bricks and dark-blue steel slats to create wave-like shelves, steps, and seating that flow around a central hall. The design responds to the neighborhood's early 20th-century classical Italian architecture by incorporating red brick facades with horizontal layers that evoke Venetian blinds, along with Italianate details like decorative columns, round arches, and projecting eaves. Founder Li Xiang stated the design aims to blur physical boundaries, reflecting the fuzzy nature of knowledge while maintaining a clear spiritual core. The interior continues the layered aesthetic with stacked steel plates forming bookshelves that rise into stairs and seating, using a pared-back palette of raw steel and earthy brick. The fluid layout is intended to create an open, inclusive public realm celebrating Tianjin's maritime history and global exchange of ideas. X+Living has previously designed several bookstores for Zhongshuge, including locations in Chongqing and Yangzhou. Li Xiang studied architecture at Birmingham City University before founding the firm in 2011.