Inside a book station

A book station is a living and breathing space where all sorts of people come together who love books and stories.

Imagine you are in the middle of a city, and suddenly you see trees and bushes and a gate shaped like a standing open book. As you get closer you see that each side of the book has an archway.

Curious you enter and find a large garden, dotted here and there with cottages, sheds, workshops and pavilions, in all shapes and colours. Between them are tress, garden patches, wild growth, winding paths and even some geese.

As you follow the main path, a central area comes into view, a building comprised of several buildings, all forming something of a vegetated mountain with people working and walking on the roofs. This building mountain is partly surrounded by houses which look like the backs of books, all lined up in a semi-circle, the titles punctuated by round windows.

As you get closer to the centre of the book station, you are amazed to see that life is buzzing everywhere as people print, repair and recycle (visible through large windows in the workshops), others read (lying in a hammock, lounging on straw or sitting in the reading café), rehearse (for the communal theatre or for an audiobook recording), recite (for the patients of the neighbouring clinic or for visiting pupils of the local school), garden and farm (for the book station and the neighbourhood), go for a stroll (visitors and staff alike), or like you, follow the main path to the centre of the book station.

Just before the entrance to the central building you see a map, indicating what you can find at the core of the book station.