The antiquarian bookshop occupies the three side bays of a seven bayed apartment block, whose tri-partite centre projects, thus causing a break in the continuity of the shop facade. By giving it a very strict symmetry, the squaring of the windows while maintaining an entrance arch and setting in two small showcases to the sides of the entrance with their faces flush with the buildings central projection, the visitor is not immediately aware that the shop is devided internally in the reverse way: the office occupies one of the recessed side bays. This division of a previously unified space permitted the solution of an otherwise awkward angle in a perspectivized manner, leaving the main room with an orthogonal plan. The back rooms are intended as galleries. These rational devices allow the shop to express its own character, as well as permitting the carpenter to concentrate on the special elements while the bulk of the bookcases have orthogonal corners. Ist modernity lies in the apparent fact that it will look like a bookshop even in twenty years time.

Wilfried Wang