Serpentine Bookhouse

The Serpentine Bookhouse sits among the trees along the Dasha River Ecological Corridor in Shenzhen, adjacent to the 13-kilometer Xili section of the riverside walking path, near a children's play area and surrounded by dense residential communities. The approximately 300-square-meter building houses a children's themed library and public restrooms open to park visitors around the clock, serving residents since autumn 2022. The design by One Tree Architecture Studio takes its cue from the site's fishing heritage, using a conch shell as the formal prototype. The building rises like a spiraling sculptural object, returning ground space to planting and visitor activity. The open balcony at the spiral's terminus faces the river park at treetop height, giving visitors a place to relax among the canopy, which is why local residents call it the ring treehouse. Inside, the reading space spirals up around a courtyard tree, with stepped reading levels that encourage children's curiosity and exploration; a slide opens at after-school hours. The facade uses continuous vertical louvers as sun shading, producing changing light patterns indoors. Openable windows at each reading step and fully operable sliding doors on the second-floor balcony ensure natural ventilation comfort during cooler months. The challenging structure uses steel, with spiral vierendeel trusses on inner and outer rings defining the curved form, and diagonal cables supporting the large cantilevered second-floor balcony. All structural members were factory-fabricated and site-assembled to minimize construction impact on the park. From design to completion in less than a year, the project embodies Shenzhen's urban activation strategy of inserting small public buildings into existing parks with modest investment and rapid delivery.