WeChat ID:ibookreview
『Every morning, read with 534,000 people』
Chen Ruixian
As a bookstore brand, the attractiveness of Eslite Bookstore may not only lie in its fragrance of books, but also its design, its comfort, its high and low warm lights, and it can sit on the ground everywhere in a free and peaceful manner. In the picture above, this gentleman has designed thirty or forty Eslite Bookstores and won the "Asia's Most Influential Design Award" with his Dayuan Hundred Stores in Kaohsiung. Chen Ruixian, an architectural photographer who was named one of the five most influential architects in the contemporary Greater China six years ago and was selected as the "Asia's Most Influential Design Award" for three times. There are many stories between him and Eslite Bookstore, and it is hard for us to tell who made whom he and Eslite. Today, he has tried to bring the bookstore feel to more places in other space designs, such as on an airplane.
Let the shadow of sunshine fall on the book
Beijing News: As the architect who designs the most Eslite Bookstore, which of your works do you like the most?
Chen Ruixian: Over the past twenty years, I have designed thirty or forty bookstores for Eslite. What I am most satisfied with is not the Dayuan Baidian in Kaohsiung, but the first bookstore I designed for Eslite, which is on Zhongshan North Road in Taipei. The bookstore was formerly a kindergarten with four floors. Each floor is not too large. Now it has been demolished and turned into a fitness center. That was my first time working with Mr. Wu Qingyou (the founder of Eslite Bookstore). When I saw many trees beside me, I suggested to Mr. Wu, should we not make so many bookshelfs? We gave the indoor space to the trees outdoors and let them "come in". So, when you walk in the bookstore, it is like studying under the shade of a tree. When the sun shines in, you can see a lot of sunlight falling on the book. I don’t want to make a bookstore a “palace of knowledge”. It’s too far away from people. I want to make a people-friendly bookstore, so I thought of one trick, which is to use a plywood. Plywood is very simple and cheap. Generally, a layer of vase is applied to the plywood. I dyed a layer of color on it. At that time, this design was once very popular in Taipei.
Chen Ruixian
Beijing News: What kind of relationship have you established with Eslite in the past twenty years of cooperation with Eslite?
Chen Ruixian: Mr. Wu Qingyou and I stand in a different perspective on the bookstore. Mr. Wu wants to create an environment where he enjoys reading, which is right. But as a designer, I hope the concept of a bookstore can keep moving forward. Sometimes I secretly do some designs and add my own new ideas to some details, such as the design of the lamp, or even the design of small iron parts that hold the board. When I travel to some places, I see that the bookstores there have certain special elements, and I want to bring them to Eslite Bookstore.
Beijing News: In your architectural concept, what should a bookstore be like?
Chen Ruixian: When I was a child, there was a bookstore in Taiwan called Oriental Bookstore. It was in a very old foreign building and it felt like an old Shanghai. The floor of the bookstore was almost bottoming out, the bookshelf was tilted as if it was about to fall down, and there was a large electric fan on the roof. I have read many books here, including "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", etc., but because I had no money when I was a child, I could only go there to read after school every day. I secretly made marks and folded a small corner on the pages. Next time I went there, I would sit on the ground and continue reading. That was my first bookstore experience. There used to be an old book street in Taiwan called Guling Street. When we were young, we always went there to find old books, which were very cheap. Later I went to Japan. The Kamibo Town next to the school was also old bookstores. The books in the old bookstore were stacked from the floor to the ceiling. I thought it was a bookstore atmosphere. The richness of knowledge and the desire to explore can only be aroused in that kind of bookstore. I still often go to old bookstores and flea markets in Paris. Sometimes when I open a book, the things caught in the book will fall out, and the pages will also have the thoughts written by others. There is a hidden feeling in that bookstore.
Beijing News: Compared with those used bookstores, how do you view the trend and order of Eslite Bookstores?
Chen Ruixian: As an urban bookstore, Eslite needs to take care of a wider readership, and may not be able to make such a feeling and taste. I think Mr. Yao Renxi’s design in Suzhou Eslite is very good. It is difficult to have an old soul in a new building. It is rational and it is too difficult to make it taste like time. Old souls need time to mature. Now some people will be old, this is people playing the role of God and want to control time.
Some buildings in Beijing have nothing to do with people,
has something to do with show
Beijing News: How did you embark on the road of construction?
Chen Ruixian: When I was seventeen years old, I felt that I might go in the direction of architecture or design. But I studied chemistry in Taiwan in college. Because my family opened a food company, my father hoped that I could take over. I was not a rebellious child, so I finished chemistry with a tough bullet. Later I had a chance to go to Japan and saw many beautiful buildings. I thought to myself, I don’t care, I want to pursue my architectural dream, so I went to study architecture, and later I went to Tadao Ando’s architectural firm.
Beijing News: What kind of person is Tadao Ando?
Chen Ruixian: Tadao Ando's office is very strict. He is serious and cold-faced because he was a boxer before, and his personality has a feeling that he must strive, win, and survive in this life.
The famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando, whose representative works include Church of Light, Sukiyoshi's Nagaya, etc.
Beijing News: How to evaluate Tadao Ando’s architecture?
Chen Ruixian: One of my views on him is that he transformed traditional Japanese architecture into a style that modern people can recognize and appreciate. I also hope to find this possibility in traditional Chinese architecture.
Beijing News: Are you greatly influenced by Japanese architecture?
Chen Ruixian: I was greatly influenced by the Japanese style before. After returning to Taiwan, I deliberately cut off the umbilical cord. In the ten years since I returned to Taiwan, I have never been to Japan again, nor have I looked at Japanese things at all, but have been running to Europe and the United States. My life is not only Japan, but also other parts of the world. I want to see and learn more.
Chen Ruixian's work "Private School"
Chen Ruixian's new library, designed by Shantou University
Taiwan Junpin Hotel's fifth floor ballroom "bright", is Chen Ruixian's work to pay tribute to the Paris Opera. With 16 luxurious crystal lamps and a ceiling draping design like a stage curtain, it points out the theme as grand as an opera house.
Beijing News: Are contemporary Taiwanese architects trying to establish a more local style?
Chen Ruixian: Taiwan’s cultural identity is very complex. Although Taiwan’s history is very short, the first Fujianese came here more than three hundred years ago, in history, the Dutch, Portuguese, British, Japanese, and the Kuomintang have all come here one after another. This complex cultural background determines that the so-called “cultural identity” is difficult to beat together and turn into a cup of juice to drink, so Taiwan’s design is still looking for its own direction.
Modern people probably look to the future because it is easier. There is a threshold for looking back at history. If you want to study, you need to know what happened and think about some problems clearly. The future is a feeling. Wherever you are more beautiful and comfortable, you will go wherever you are. So what the younger generation may pursue is something that is easier to get, but as I grow older, I will start to look back. When I was young, I felt that traditional architecture was very outdated, and now I will consciously use some artistic traditions of the East and the West. I watch dramas and operas and I also like Kunqu Opera. When I read Kunqu Opera, I found it interesting. With such a time machine, you will know what the Chinese people thought before. The expression of artistic emotions is very subtle, but it also makes people feel very avant-garde.
Beijing News: Who is your favorite architect? What is his architectural style?
Chen Ruixian: architecture has a very multi-level function. Some buildings are something that people worship, and it affects something at the soul level. For example, many of Ando’s buildings are admired by people. In it, people feel that their souls have been lifted, and you are a different person and are more wise. In fact, this is also a function of architecture. Some buildings will also inspire people. I personally prefer Kirby's stuff. Kirby is more artistic. When you walk into his architecture, you will think that this is a genius and very inspiring. I hope to do this instead of making others admire it, that is not my value.
Beijing News: You once said that you hope to build Taipei’s landmark business card through the form of architecture, and Beijing’s newly emerging landmark buildings in recent years have been widely criticized. What do you think?
Chen Ruixian: These new buildings in Beijing have nothing to do with people, and have more to do with shows. They are a display of power. Buildings are for people to use, they must be convenient and comfortable. How to make a city with such a large area and such a difficult life more cute is what Beijing needs to do.
I want to build the aircraft cabin into a study
Beijing News: Recently, Taiwanese artist Dong Yangzi's 54-meter long scroll "Linjiangxian" was exhibited in Suzhou Eslite. This is her first exhibition in mainland China. How do you feel as an exhibition designer?
Chen Ruixian: I like Dong Yangzi's words very much. They are her big fan. The four words "Yunmen Dance Collection" were written by Teacher Dong. I thought Dong Yangzi was a gentleman, but her writing was a state that ordinary men could not reach. I can't understand her words, so I can only look at her works from another perspective. In addition to the content of the work itself, Dong Yangzi's calligraphy also contains a lot of space interest and thinking - strong and sparse, the form of the front and the back characters, which has a composition and space possibility. She is not a calligrapher in the traditional sense, and I will not discuss her within the scope of calligraphy. She is a modern artist, but she only creates artistic creation through traditional Chinese cultural form such as calligraphy.
Dong Yangzi's "Linjiangxian" exhibition at Suzhou Eslite Bookstore
Taiwanese writer Yang Zhao, artist Dong Yangzi, and exhibition designer Chen Ruixian were at Suzhou Eslite Exhibition Site. When talking about the idea of space design, Chen Ruixian said that the oval egg-shaped space can completely enclose readers, and the circular appreciation movement allows readers' emotions to be coherent. The ground is covered with fine sand of different heights, leaving picturesque footprints after readers' walking and trampling. "Stop on the sand pile is like standing on the beach, enjoying the momentum of the rolling Yangtze River", which echoes the work of "Linjiangxian".
I am very interested in this kind of abstract art. Concrete art makes it easy for the audience to get close to, but at the same time we are bound by it: what the work tells us and what we think. Abstract art makes me feel that my ideas from artists may be different. There is a collision between the two, and the final result is that we create together.
So I am more interested in Dong Yangzi's calligraphy and Song Dynasty paintings. The clouds in Song Dynasty paintings were sometimes broken by the shade of mountains, and sometimes they were thrown into a lake. The content was not coherent, and many of them were non-logical - "non-logical" was my favorite way of creation.
Because buildings stand there for people to use, the design of buildings often focuses on functional orientation and rational thinking logic. If I were asked to do an interior design, there would be fewer restrictions and more possibilities for design.
Beijing News: Take the space design you made for China Airlines flights as an example. Are there any restrictions and design conflicts?
Chen Ruixian: (laughs) At that time, I was quarreling with engineers all day long.We consider the problem differently. Engineers are thinking about how aircraft can be designed to achieve safety, energy saving and durability. This is natural, but on this basis, I want to add cultural and aesthetic parts.
Chen Ruixian used design elements such as persimmon wood grain, Chinese painting and warm color light to bring the feeling of Eslite Bookstore onto the plane. Before
, no matter which airline flight I took, I felt like I was walking into a plastic factory. My intention to design the aircraft cabin is that I want to make a space that is relatively private, close to others, and comfortable. So, I want to build business class into a concept of a study: when you board the plane, a small book lamp is already on there waiting for you, giving people a feeling of going home.
Stick to the original book reviews.
▼
Click the following Keyword View exciting content
Happiness is also in the "Read original text" in the lower left corner.
