Cultural Center "Books, coffee and other dimensions" | CNTR Architects

With the development of this bookstore design its original function has been given an upgrade to become a community cultural centre, the so–called “third place” being a comfortable public space for socializing and meeting people. This new Cultural Centre brings together an independent bookstore, a coffee shop, and a platform for lectures and master classes. 
 
The Cultural Centre is a part of a comprehensive renovation project for the integral and attached premises of a bookstore built in the 1970s, which also includes the adjacent territory of Uspensky Prospekt. The bookstore continued its work from the very moment it was founded and until its renovation.  It was first assumed that only cosmetic repairs should be made. However, when the project started, it appeared that the bearing structures were unsafe. Therefore, the whole building had to be demolished and then restored again from the basement pit in accordance with its historical plan.
 
After the renovation, lean volumes of the new Cultural Centre have inherited the shape of its predecessor, the 70s bookstore. The original bookstore project had a typical plan featuring large storefronts, an entrance lobby and concrete structures. The new face follows the lines of the historical project. Keeping the overall visual appearance of a single-floor building, it gained volume through unique shapes of its dimensional facades. This allowed us to shift the focus from the adjacent nine-storey residential building to this rather humble in size bookstore.
 
The face design brings original brass panels on the building subsystem. These panels resembling crumpled paper change their pattern of shadow and light during the day, following the sun rays. Their oxidized brass interacts with the environment, and the facades would be covered with patina overtime. Just like the colour of aged paper would change. According to the historical reference and the original bookstore face materials, the light-grey fibre cement panels were chosen for the base background tone, highlighting its dimensional brass structures.
 
By default, the shop floor was rather small. Therefore it had to be expanded by adding one of the ground floor apartments from the adjacent residential building. But not only was the in-store area expanded. Overall space has been visually enlarged through replacement of solid girders in the ceiling with trusses with cavities, which now bring the sunlight in.
 
The shop floor has three halls with books and places where customers can sit, and with other items, such as stationery, arts & crafts and more. One of the smaller halls offers various souvenirs and antiques. A large area on the ground floor has been turned into a convertible space for holding lectures and events like film screenings and book launching. Part of its chairs can be converted into floor-level seats to transform the hall into a single-level stage for master classes. It's easy to create privacy in some parts of this hall using movable partitions. 
 
Trying to stick to the original project's framework and bookstore format during this renovation, we have also decided to keep the original interior style called "Retrofuturism". Veneered wood furniture, large floor pots with green plants and terrazzo take us to the authentic atmosphere of the late Soviet period "Palace of Trade Unions" or the "Palace of Culture" aesthetics of the 1970s.