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Academic Bookstore
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Academic Bookstore
The Bookstore - A Cultural Institution Offering Unique ExperiencesThe Renovation & Reinvigoration Project of the Bookstore1. STRATEGYThe ChallengeThe digitalisation of media poses serious challenges to bookstores all over the world. Companies such as Amazon.com have steadily eroded the commercial viability physical retail environments for books. The Bookstore in Finland is not immune to these challenges, and has to reinvent itself in order to survive in the 21st century. The reinvention is also necessary to ensure that the historically significant architecture it currently occupies does not become a clothing or electronic retail environment but remains a bookstore. In order to survive, the Bookstore must evolve, both as a physical environment and a commercial enterprise.The Answer - An Experience You Cannot DownloadThe Bookstore is both a 20th century architectural masterpiece, and a cultural institution. It is universally loved by the locals, and internationally renown - a must see sight for all tourists and a shrine for book enthusiast and connoisseurs. The Bookstore is uniquely positioned to overcome the challenges facing bookstores today by delivering ‘an experience you cannot download’.A Northern PiazzaThe existing Bookstore building design draws on an earlier proposal for an indoor public space, 50 years prior, on a central urban site. The concept extends the urban space to the interior in order to create a climatically protected public meeting place - a Northern Piazza. The design systematically undermines the distinction between the city and the building, the inside and the outside, through the extensive use of daylight and monumental architectural form. The massive, cantilevered marble walls around the Piazza form what seems an interior facade. The design has a strong sensation of drama. Just like the vast Piazzas of Italy, which are entered from tiny, compressed street spaces, the original entry to the bookstore is small and compressed, as if you were entering it from the narrow streets in Venice. The Wow effect is perfectly generated through a tension between the vast, bright Piazza and the dark, compressed ‘passage’ surrounding it.The Reinvigoration of the Bookstore The Bookstore desires to reinvigorate itself and emerge even stronger as a cultural institution which offers unique experiences, a new beacon of innovation, with a new way of experiencing books. The Bookstore will exceed all expectations. The ambitious goal of Helsinki, to become a major brand within the cultural circle in the world, grant the unique opportunity to incorporate culture with books in a revolutionary new way. Having the Bookstore behave like a traditional “bookshop” is no longer the primary objective – it is much rather a necessary asset in achieving the grand idea: Turn the Bookstore into the cultural meeting point of Helsinki and Finland, or even Scandinavia. Create the ultimate bookstore globally, which constantly inspires and updates its customers.Delivering Authentic Experiences and Intellectual Stimulation For the Bookstore to succeed in todays market place dominated by internet retailers such as Amazon.com it has to strongly appeal to peoples’ emotions and deliver authentic, meaningful experiences. For a modern, educated consumer the most important experience is intellectual stimulation, which the academic bookstore is well poised to deliver. People look for a sense of fulfillment by learning new skills, building new networks, and participating in culture and politics. Contemporary restaurant culture is a good example of how the role of information and knowledge is heightened. People are increasingly taking responsibility for their wellbeing, they are ecologically aware, and look for real stories. The questions they pose are intelligent and informed, and their choices smart. Truth, transparency, trust, sustainability, ethical goals and ecological values are important.Appealing to Multiple SensesConsumers are more likely to purchase a product if it appeals to multiple senses. Many retailers are increasingly operating like ateliers where art, design, and for example books intermingle. In France and Austria some wine merchants have rebranded themselves as ‘wine libraries’, thus appealing to a more critical consumer who is seeking authentic stories and intellectual stimulus. The sales personnel work like gallerists, offering informed, personal service and reliable information. This has been the case for Bookstore for a long time, with its famously dedicated, educated and informed staff. Embedding TechnologyContemporary technologies offer new possibilities for creating new experiences. Lighting, media, and data technologies can be integrated in architecture seamlessly. The plan for the Bookstore is to enhance use of (natural)light through contemporary technologies, and embed interactive media into the materiality of architecture for example by projecting on clear windows on the facade, or by backlighting Marble of Corian surfaces with LEDs in order to provide information to the consumers. Digital CraftThe latest digital design and manufacturing technology make possible a new approach to design. It enables the creation of unique, highly specific objects such as furniture and lighting fixtures through the use of novel materials and fabrication technologies like additive manufacturing. These technologies are used in the bookstore for example for the creation of one of the kind lighting fixtures to accompany original designs. In general terms, uniqueness, immaterial aspects, such as sensations and experiences enabled by technology are increasingly significant, and technical functionality is expected or taken for granted.EventsThe Bookstore has a long history in organizing lectures and cultural events. Building on the role of cultural curator and producer will make the Bookstore stand out amongst its peers. Currently, art enthusiasts need to travel to multiple destinations around the globe to visit and experience a broad spectrum of cultural book fairs and sights (museum, exhibitions like ART Basel, Biennale Venice, Frankfurt Book Fair or private Lecture performances etc.). Some of these events could be focused, combined at one location with a guaranteed audience to show up. The Bookstore could offer a unique setting in which world famous cultural and intellectual book happenings could be on display – indulging curious visitors to explore new areas, and surprising loyal customers. Teaming Up With Other Brands The shopping experience at the Bookstore can be enhanced by strategically cross-marketing products curated and created together with companies whose brands share the authentic heritage -quality. Also, unexpected teaming up with global brands such as can offer a unique opportunity for surprise and reinvention, exceeding consumers expectation and attracting global attention. Essential to the teaming up concept is that the collaboration produces genuinely new innovations. All of these aspects combined could form the foundation of an even stronger Bookstore brand. The challenge will be to test and demonstrate this new approach, find out what really are the differentiators, and the real value drivers that make Bookstore stand out globally.2. DESIGNGround FloorAn Urban Cultural InstitutionThe Bookstore is located a very central and urban site. The interior of the Bookstore is inherently public and urban, organized on three floors around a large interior Piazza. The renovation and reinvigoration project strategically emphasizes the urbanity of the various interior spaces of the bookstore, conceptually entitled the Piazza, the Passage, the Playground, the Media Facade, and the Street Corner. The aim of the reinvigoration effort is to build on the urban nature and high design quality of the original, historically protected building, in order to create a vibrant, commercially successful, contemporary cultural institution.The PiazzaThe Piazza is the heart of the Bookstore. Rather than a storage space for books, it is a space for changing displays, events, themed campaigns and bustling life. It is the place people can quickly visit in order to see ‘what new is going on’. The Piazza is conceptually a crucial part of the original building design. In the reinvigoration project its nature as an urban meeting place is further enhanced by creating a new central stage for events. Strategically, the Piazza is the space which sets the Bookstore apart from its competitors, and positions it as a place for events and content - a cultural institution offering ‘experiences you cannot download’.The PassageThe Passage is a low, compressed space lined with floor to ceiling book shelves which wraps around the Piazza. It’s definition is strengthened by placing new vertical two sided book displays at the perimeter of the Piazza in order to form a continuous space looping around it, while maintaining views to it. A similar arrangement of higher bookshelves at the perimeter was also a part of the originally realised furniture arrangement at the Bookstore. The Passage is for focused shopping experience, punctuated by different atmospheres and categories or ‘shops’ of books, moody lighting, and comfortable furniture, which make the browsing experience enjoyable. The new vertical book displays offer opportunities for ‘marketing through recommendation’ -concepts such as ‘John Irving’s bookshelf’ or ‘Top Ten’ both to the direction of the Piazza as well as the Passage.Second FloorPlaygorund - Childrens' DepartmentPlayground is a space for children. It is located in an area which was originally occupied by offices, not the bookstore. The new design is inspired by original architecture's spirit of innovation, and Children’s desire to explore space through movement. The central element of the Playground is the Book Dragon, a large sculptural, white, formally fluid, free standing bookshelf. It renders the space exciting for the children, organises the area into distinct zones for different products, and provides display area for up to 12 metric tons of books. The new floor of the childrens’ area, as well as other areas in the second and third floor, is made of the state of the art Dienesen Natural Oak. In the Playground the floor is patterned with small swarms of burn marked figures, such as birds and dragons, in order to introduce fantasy into the design. The furniture of the Playground are soft, colorful, and the large. The clear windows have interactive projections for the children to play with, which make them highly visible feature in the cityscape though the large second floor windows.Furniture CollectionThe Bookstore is historically protected, therefore the principal physical instruments for its reinvigoration are new furniture and objects. The current collection of furniture at the Bookstore is an incoherent mix of things accumulated over time. The original Bookstore furniture included several lighting fixtures and a couple of furniture by Alvar Aalto, but the majority of the original furniture, including the large book displays ('bookships'), and floor to ceiling bookshelves were imported from another interior, and designed by the owners in-house interior design department. The new furniture design collection aims at forming a coherent family of designs together with the original furniture - a layered Gesamtkunstwerk from the historical to the present. All of the designs are characterised by a spirit of innovation, high quality materials and meticulous execution.Media FacadeThe aim of the reinvigoration project is to clear the facade windows of the Bookstore of any films and tapes in order to open the large windows of the building to the street. Laminated 88% clear rear projection film and data projection technology will be used to project commercial information and real time interactive media directly on clear glass. The strategy makes the life of the building visible to the street, creates a seductive, contemporary interactive building skin, and an efficient delivery method for commercial information regarding products and events on the facade.
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