Press Release
Ferrying Compound Bookstore by Xixi Quan and Kau Chan Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Xixi Quan and Kau Chan for interior space and exhibition design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 21, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Ferrying Compound Bookstore by Xixi Quan and Kau Chan, designed for MUST Design Digital Construction Laboratory, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Ferrying Compound Bookstore
Ferrying is a compound bookstore set on two floors and covering 1500 square meters. The layout follows the logic of a traditional water town block, where a river connects areas for books, goods and salons. Small bridges, village houses, miniature squares, octagonal pavilions, wooden boats and a pixelated Qilin figure shape the interior. Contemporary elements are added, such as parametric subway train lines, an augmented reality experience and a tea area. Simple local materials keep the construction budget low, including cement self-leveling, terrazzo, clay bricks and granite.
About Xixi Quan and Kau Chan
MUST Design Digital Construction Laboratory belongs to Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). MUST Design Digital Construction Laboratory was established in 2017. Adhering to universities' and colleges' scientific and humanistic spirit, it explores the application of parametric design and related materials and construction technologies. Research innovative metal hybrid printing manufacturing, complex structure manufacturing, automated manufacturing, and other technologies and hybrid technologies.
Award Record
Xixi Quan and Kau Chan is a winner of 2 A' Design Awards, including this recognition. The awards were granted between the 2022 - 2023 and the 2024 - 2025 editions of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award
The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Typical entries include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. The awarded interior designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/interior
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/163085
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/163085
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!163085
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/336552
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Ferrying Compound Bookstore
- Function
- Compound Bookstore
- Category
- Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Packaging & Retail
- Colors
- Saddle Brown, Black, Gray, Dark Slate Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- MUST Design Digital Construction Laboratory
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Xixi Quan and Kau Chan
- Country
- Macau (China)
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #163085
Credits
- Team
- Xixi Quan, Kau Chan and Junming Chen
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- An abstract local traditional water town block is used as the logic of spatial organization: the river connects the space of books, commodities and salon, including small bridges, village houses, miniature squares, Chinese octagonal pavilions, ferries and mythical beasts "Qilin". They are also connected with contemporary technological elements such as local subway trains, AR experience and modern tea. The contrast between ancient and modern times makes this bookstore full of interest and attraction.
- Inspiration
- The project intends to create a literary living room full of a sense of belonging for Nansha residents and children. Nansha's traditional villages were built in the Pearl River system in southern China. Boats were an important means of transportation, and Western artillery and Western buildings from hundreds of years ago are still standing. The ancient village believed that the Qilin was an auspicious beast, and contemporary residents have inherited the Qilin dance of their ancestors.
- Research
- How to define a composite bookstore? How can we make it a highly utilized community “literary living room”? How should its functional settings, product and book category selection, and spatial aesthetic form be established? How to make residents feel a sense of belonging in this space? The design team conducted field surveys among residents of Nansha community, used MAXQDA to analyze qualitative data, and conducted qualitative research data collection, and came to the following conclusions: 1. Residents have a strong interest in continuing the traditional cultural context. 2.
- Challenge
- The traditional octagonal pavilion in the salon space needs to present a contemporary sense of form to coordinate with the modern atmosphere of the community. Therefore, the simplified logic, color matching, lighting methods, and nodes of the traditional structure should be unique and original. Therefore, the design and construction process is challenging and needs to balance the relationship between the cost budget and the workers' wages. During the construction process, the octagonal pavilion must be completed on site with the workers to save budget and time.
- Realization and Technology
- This is a public welfare space. With a low construction budget, the ceiling is exposed and the local traditional simple floor materials are used: cement self-leveling, terrazzo, clay bricks, granite, etc. All the houses and their sloping roofs, octagonal pavilions, and subway trains are composed of simple steel structure lines, and the rhythmic subway train lines are parametrically generated using Grasshopper. The steel structure and the metal keel of the fort style white arch book corridor are prefabricated in the factory, which can also save costs.
- Operation and Interaction
- This "water town market" is a fusion of ancient and modern, East and West. It not only provides reading, learning, work space, tea, coffee, light meals, AR experience, workshops, but also full of imagination and scene experience, like: there are houses on both sides of the "river", which contain books, various interesting products and cultural and art salons. The wooden boat booth seems to be sailing in the river, making the space dynamic. At the end of the "river" is the salon area.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project is located in Huangge Town, Nansha Economic Development Zone, Guangzhou, China. Construction began in November 2022 and opened in April 2023. It has become a well-deserved "literary living room" in the hearts of community residents, a leisure and comfortable ocean of knowledge, and an elegant aesthetic space.
- Specifications
- 1500 square meters, two floors
- Keywords
- multifunctional bookstore, literary living room, local water village aesthetics, mix and match of Eastern and Western styles, factory prefabrication, parametric technology, Traditional handmade wooden boat
