LIBRARIES AND DENS

The love of books has led Chinese home owners through the ages to build household libraries for keeping them and enjoying the quiet act of reading. Today, the home library in the middle-class Chinese house is becoming popular as a proprietorial space. Even the sequestered den—a space that is part library, part office and part bolt hole to escape to—has given way to the high-tech and aesthetic demands of the modern home office. On the high-tech side, dens now house entertainment, so design needs to accommodate music and video systems, while computers naturally have their place. On the aesthetic side, libraries and dens are also becoming places for display, utilizing built-in bookcases and shelving for books, mementoes, family photographs and artwork. Unlike the more strictly focused study, there is a demand for comfortably upholstered furniture for sitting and lounging, and a favorite or special chair often appears. Lighting, too, is important for creating atmosphere, and for applying changes when a den is sometimes used as a home entertainment center.

In a Hong Kong apartment, the owner’s study/music room looks out towards the dining area. The sliding screen has been painted by the owner with a trompe l’oeil effect of shifting gauze curtains against a background that matches the dining room beyond.

The view from the dining area, across a table in granite and glass, to the owner’s study/music room shown above.

The club-like atmosphere of the top floor study, beams exposed, of a restored 1930s British colonial residence in the French Concession district of Shanghai.

A seventeenth-century huanghuali painting table is the main feature of this library in a modern house in Chicago. On it are a scholar’s rock, a carved bamboo brush pot from the eighteenth century made by Feng Ching, a seventeenth-century bronze brush holder and an eighteenth-century hong mu calligraphy brush. A traditional Chinese ladder rests against the bookshelves.