Bookverse: X+living Architecture and Interior Design

Bookverse: X+Living Architecture and Interior Design tells the story of how the groundbreaking architect, designer and founder of X+Living, Li Xiang, revolutionized bookstores across China. Beginning with the now legendary Zhongshuge Bookstore in Shanghai, this bilingual edition in English and Chinese takes readers on a thrilling journey through dozens of stunning bookstores built over the past couple of decades all across China, showing how Xiang helped to breathe new life into an industry; brick and mortar bookstores, that was in crisis. Reimagining the bookstore experience, Xiang celebrates the traditional virtues of physical books while also accommodating the modern world, creating spaces that delight and enchant avid and casual readers alike. Each featured case study, lavishly illustrated with diagrams, plans and photography, shows how Li Xiang developed the bookstores from a core concept inspired by the project’s location, implementing original and stunning designs, layouts, and furniture that lead browsers into a magical world. The texts also provide a revealing insight into the architect’s underlying philosophy and the thinking that went into every work.

Li Xiang, who obtained her degree of Architecture at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom, founded X+Living Architecture and Interior Design in 2011 and later crossed into the field of interior design. She has created numerous representative design works across diverse sectors such as commercial real estate, culture, retail, family-oriented business and hospitality. She leverages her distinctive insights into art and culture to construct commercial spaces teeming with emotional tension, crafting sensory escape points for the general public and infusing the brands she serves with design creativity that confers a competitive edge. Her work has been globally recognized with numerous accolades, garnering over a hundred design awards, and she has also been invited to serve as a judge for international competitions such as the Dezeen Awards, the Frame Awards, and the A’ Design Awards . She has been named one of Forbes’s Designers with the Most Potential, German Iconic Design’s Interior Designer of the Year, and won a Global Interior Retail Design Award at the Prix Versailles. In 2020, she was the only Chinese designer selected by FAST COMPANY in the ＂Most Creative People in Business＂. In 2021, she became the only Chinese designer listed in the PMI Future 50.