tiny 24-hour bookstore by SZ-architects crowns former prison watchtower in china

"The footprint of the tower measures just seven square meters on the ground floor, while its former patrol platform on the second level offers panoramic views of the park. Original window grilles, once fitted with machine-gun mounts and observation ports, remain legible, preserving the clarity of the former role of the structure. The new program, a tiny bookstore open at all hours, introduces a radically different rhythm into this formerly controlled and surveilled environment."

"The project began with an accidental discovery. While visiting the site for an unrelated restaurant project, the Shanghai- and Tokyo-based architects noticed the abandoned guard tower and learned it had been left untouched during the broader renovation of the park. They proposed converting it into a micro-bookstore for local residents, a place that would remain open and unguarded, in contrast to its original function."

"This conceptual shift resonates with the philosophy of A Very Small Bookstore, which originated by the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. The bookstore operates on a principle of openness: its books come from personal collections and donations, its walls are covered with handwritten postcards, and its staff consists of four adopted stray cats. Rather than being curated as a commercial destination, it functions as a social archive shaped by its visitors."

SZ-Architects converted a former prison guard tower in the Hechai 1972 Creative Park, Hefei, into a 70-square-meter, 24-hour neighborhood bookstore. The tower's ground-floor footprint is seven square meters; a second-level patrol platform offers panoramic views of the park. Original window grilles with former machine-gun mounts and observation ports remain legible, maintaining the building's surveillance traces. The bookstore adopts an openness model: books come from personal collections and donations, walls hold handwritten postcards, and four adopted stray cats function as informal staff. The continuously open, unguarded micro-bookshop transforms a controlled, surveilled space into a participatory, communal reading room.

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