Posted on 12/11/2015
In the retail world, bookstore interiors are arguably changing more radically than in any other sector. Time was when bookshops appealed for being old-world and fusty, with their labyrinthine layouts, faintly musty smells and eccentrically bookish proprietors. One example might be Paris’s Shakespeare and Company bookshop, founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919.
Fast-forward to the 1990s, and bookshops had become megastores incorporating cafés and comfortable leather armchairs where customers could browse for hours and sip cappuccinos.
Since then, scores of bookshops have closed because of competition from online retailers, cut-price supermarkets and e-books. Yet booksellers are fighting back, commissioning cutting-edge archi...