Located at the confluence of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, "ROCKBUND" is the largest urban revitalization project in the Bund area of Shanghai since the beginning of the 21st century. The overall challenge of the project is to achieve balance between historical preservation and real estate interests. Tightly juxtaposed, a total of sixteen buildings, including preserved and newly developed, occupy a high-density block with mixed-use program. David Chipperfield Architects have restored the heritage buildings of colonial era along Yuanmingyuan Road, while new towers along Huqiu Road, designed by Arquitectonica, accommodate up-to-date apartments, offices, and commercial. In-between the old and new structures, narrow alleys and fragmented storefront form labyrinth-like public domain.

During Shanghai's transition into the largest modern metropolis of East Asia, the neighborhood, nowadays called Rockbund, has been playing its role as a cultural hub. The site was once home for China's first public museum, first modern art gallery, and the most prestigious theater of the city. Among many landmarks, the China Baptist Publication Building and Christian Literature Society Building, designed by Laszlo Hudec and completed in the 1930s, were the cradle of Chinese modern publishing institutions and bookstores. The community has always been in the center of dialogue between China and outside world. Today, the new development goal of Rockbund is to re-establish a cultural destination highlighted with diversity and vibrancy.

Backed by Imaginist Group, the renown Chinese independent publisher, "naive IMAGINIST " is not simply a bookstore. Unlike traditional operation, the multi-functional space aims to tackle with the changing behavior of consumers, by creating open and flexible territory for general public. Under pressure from the rise of internet economy, the store owner works to find common ground for readers and authors. "naive IMAGINIST" is the place where people could meet, sit together, create shared experiences.

The "naive IMAGINIST" at Rockbund is the third venue finished by designRESERVE team for the brand, with the other two located in Beijing CBD and Aranya Seaside. Project’s design director, Fangzhou Lydia Song, determines to avoid any preconceived aesthetic formula for the different “naïve IMAGINIST” spaces. Examining the contradictions of urban context and restrictions, the team explores specific thread for each site. The three projects in different cities, like a trilogy, each distinct with its own plots and scenes, while sharing spirits of the “naïve IMAGINIST” brand.

The new Shanghai space is located at the heart of the Rockbund neighborhood, bound by steep alleys, like crack between skyscrapers. The entrance is facing a pedestrian intersection linking historic quarter with new commercial complex. The space is visible from the main roads while maintain relatively hidden from the crowd. The initiative of designRESERVE is to restore the value of street as the center of community life.

The existing space was concealed by fixed fire-proof curtain due to the restriction of adjacent evacuation passage. To make the interior an extension of outdoor space, designRESERVE provides a new facade solution incorporating automatic fire shutters, which then allows glass doors to be fully opened to the street. As a result, the boundary between inside and outside disappears, forming a permeable façade interface. Visitors navigating through the alleys of Rockbund, find themselves encounter at the porch of naive IMAGINIST, an intersection with flowing city life.

The bookstore and café occupy ground floor with L-shaped plan layout. The long wing is lined with bookshelves and shared reading tables, while the other side features coffee bar and alcove seating. The overall space is immersed with warm brick red tones, in contrast to vast grayness of surrounding buildings. The vivid colors of the interior cast lively atmosphere to the intersection through open facade. By sensitive choice of materials, designRESERVE pays homage to the old YWCA building at the end of alley, known for its use of textured red brick.

To further enrich the architectural language of the site, designRESERVE constructs an internal facade with curved bookshelves like folding scroll. A series of alcoves on the wall provide readers semi-private spaces, while shared tables are where people come together for reading and drinking. Well selected books by Imaginist Publication represent the best minds from many fields, which focus on quality instead of quantity. Therefore, as most projects by designRESERVE, the spatial design of naive IMAGINIST addresses intimate experience and tries to guide individuals to capture the moment of enlightenment.

The second-floor space, known as "author's room", portraits ideal living scenarios for writers, who maintain privacy while staying not far from public life. Shanghai was the incubator for China’s first generation modern urban intellectuals. Many leading figures in 1920's New Culture Movement, such as Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi, had spent most of their lives in western style apartments first built in Shanghai. During this period, the growing influence of domestic culture in dynamic urban environment contribute to nourish social awareness towards modernity. Inspired by the historic transition, designRESERVE builds an imaginary apartment to reveal the lifestyle of creative soul.

Access to the "author's room" is hidden from the street. Visitors need to seek the special elevator to upper level which is located beside Otta Gallery (designed by Heri&Hu Architects). Upon arrival at the second floor, people immediately face an obscure volume which seems like a section of building envelope inserted into a low-ceiling corridor. Protruding surface patterns composed of concrete and wooden panels form a mysterious enclosure. Lights luminate through a portal-like translucent glass window, indicating occupied interior and leading curious guests to the room entrance.

Entering through the foyer, visitors are invited into the study room fitted with a writing desk. Behind the desk, four windows frame the view towards alley of Rockbund. Two historic landmarks, Somekh Building and Lyceum Building, stand so close to the window that their silhouette seem like prints hanging on the wall. Reinforced by the ceiling outline, the perspective extends through the alley to the old British Consulate (rebuilt in 1872, the oldest existing building on the Bund), and further to the skyline of Pudong's skyscrapers beyond the Huangpu river.

The writing desk not only provides a viewpoint to outside street, but also to every internal area of "author's room". Three steps lower than the "study", is the "kitchen" highlighted by a bar covered by jade-green marble from wall to counter. This center of social life surrounded by books and bottles, provides state-of-art cocktails inspired by classics from IMAGINIST's publication. It is a place one could, not only read but also taste great ideas.

Embedded in the study, a semi-enclosed area called "bathroom" crystalizes the idea of private domain on the second floor. The capsule-shaped space is adorned by white mosaic tiles inlaid with black mosaics. In the center lies a cast iron white bathtub filled with books. The bathtub rests against a mirror, reflecting the scene of the study. Everyone who walks into this room feels like an intruder, subconsciously playing the role of the voyeur and becoming the object of the voyeur's gaze. In the book "Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media" (MIT), Beatriz Colomina mentions Sigmund Freud's last apartment in Vienna, where he hung a mirror with a decorative gold frame on the window. Making a parallel to this famous image, designRESERVE explores the intriguing relationship between the subject of cultural space and its projection in mass media.