The Vitality Villages in Cities Action is a regional development strategy deployment of the Longgang District in Shenzhen to achieve the improvement of urban environmental quality throughout the district. The Wo Piang Lau Wuk Demonstration Zone is the first batch of demonstration projects in the Vitality Villages in Cities Action, with main spatial functions including bookstores, cafe, exhibition halls, and studios.
This project hopes to build an experimental space in cultural and living atmosphere in “villages in cities”, allowing this once forgotten ancient village to reintegrate into the rapidly developing city of Shenzhen with a brand new appearance and function. The Castle Bookstore, located on the first floor of the project, adopts the design concept of "time corridor" to explore the ocean of books in the space. As an important function of the Wo Piang Lau Wuk Demonstration Zone project, which is open to the public for business, using books and coffee as media, by managing a slow paced lifestyle and integrating it into the lives of community residents over time, the old village is once again revitalized. This should also be the most valuable and meaningful aspect of urban renewal for a city and residents living in this area.