Project type: Interior

Status: Built
Area: 100 m² 

Year: 2017

Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Team: Laura Malcaitė, Dmitrij Kudin, Marija Stonytė, Gintautas Gutauskas 

Photographs: Darius Petrulaitis

To create a different bookstore. This was an interior design objective as set by the customer.  It is the first physical store of the trademark Knygos.lt engaged in online book trade. Then, the store serves as a pickup point of books bought online.

So, it is not accidental that the idea behind the store is a blend of technology and tradition.

Technologies. It is formation of new buying habits and experience. It is a semi-virtual store.  To find out the prices, the buyer scans the book bar code with a phone application or with scanners inside the store.   While scanning a book, the buyer may also read book reviews.

Traditions. Here the book is respectfully treated as a value, it is personalised and displayed upfront. The interior objects, selection of materials, restrained design and domination of wood - all these allude to Lithuanian traditional building materials.

The store perimeter is lined with spruce veneer panels resting on walls, forming a tactile background for books on display. The space centre is given to tables as if referring to the archetypal desk. These tables are likewise intended for book display.

To encourage a close relationship between the book and the reader a non-binding and democratic environment is being created here.