In a decidedly joyous celebration of the analog, the 60-key Read and Rest Hotel in Beijing is centered around a library stocked with the latest issues of leading lifestyle magazines from around the world. It’s a novel approach conceived by local firm Office AIO, which carved out a quiet, calming place to relax amid the bustling city.

While guests can access a huge collection of materials in the library—and even request specific topics upon booking or check-in—the firm’s challenge was to remake the mundane façade of a former print factory from the 1960s into an appealing hotel while adhering to the historical preservation requirements that allowed little change to the building’s exterior.

The Read and Rest Hotel occupies a gray brick building originally constructed in the 1960s

To that end, founder and lead designer Tim Kwan kept things minimal, opting to carve out parts of the second level to create a dramatic double-height entrance. Reached via a set of floating travertine steps and visible through extended window openings, the concrete form establishes a tunnel-like transition from street to quiet oasis. “The curvature and stepping form was inspired by the open edges of a book—or magazine—abstractly suggesting a notion of one being welcomed and received by binded pages,” says Kwan. “The series of gestures fittingly represent a new life to the old print factory, while also acting as a mediating device, creating usable public space between the busy streets of the hutong [narrow alleys characteristic of the city] and the hotel.”

In the library, floors and wall panels are lined in soothing white oak, including a long corridor with desks on one side and benches on the other, and pendants floating above. A staircase at the end leads to guestrooms, which are equally tranquil with walls and the ceiling swathed in a warm gray textured plaster to “resemble a modern, minimalistic cave-like aesthetic,” says Kwan. “The shell of the room is then furnished with details designed to be quiet.” Along with barely-there bulb pendants by Office AIO and delicate sliding doors in cane, floating benches along the walls provide a comfortable place to curl up with a magazine or gaze out the building’s distinctive square-shaped windows into the hutongs below.

Studio AIO designed the hotel’s 60 rooms as tranquil, minimalist retreats

The oak wood-swathed library features double-height ceilings and modern light fixtures