Ma Yansong/MAD Architects collaborated with Life magazine to design a movable reading space called "Wonderland" for the PAGEONE bookstore in Sanlitun, Beijing, on April 23, World Book Day.

Reading, for people in big cities, is a kind of self-space construction. Everyone has a fairyland in their heart. When you put on headphones and face the sunshine, green trees, and blue sky outside the window, you will become your own elf.

The design of the reading space is like a rabbit with headphones immersed in its own world, with its back to the bookstore and facing the distance outside the window. People are lying or sitting in it. They don’t need to communicate with others now. They seem to have grown two long ears.

Ma Yansong said, "Architecture exists to protect people's emotions. Therefore, architectural space must get rid of the form of dogma and return to the original intention of personalization and emotionalization. Many times, "innocence" is considered by people in big cities to be contradictory to "reality", but I can see that everyone actually has a small universe in their hearts. Through reading, they can realize the dialogue with their own fantasy and enter a different world."

Ma Yansong's recommended books for World Book Day in 2015: "The Dog of Babel", "The Alchemist", and "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils".

The “Wonderland” mobile reading space will be on display from April 23 to May 22.

"Wonderland" movable reading space
Location: PAGE ONE Sanlitun Bookstore, Beijing
Type: exhibition space, art installation
Installation size: 6 meters long, 3 meters wide, 2.8 meters high
Reading space area: 6.5 square meters

Leading designers: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Hayano Yosuke
Design team: Yin Ming, Sear Ng