Thursday 30 November 2017

White House library Christmas tree

What do these books have in common? Esquire’s World of Golf, Robert Daley’s thriller Tainted Evidence, Simon Stow’s political analysis American Mourning, Dianne E Gray’s coming-of-age story Holding Up the Earth and James Hall’s “odyssey into the spirit world of Africa”, Sangoma?
Well, they’re all green. That was enough for them to be selected as part of the Christmas tree of books that currently stands in the White House library. Melania Trump’s director of communications Stephanie Grisham told the Washington Post that they were chosen “based on their varieties of green colour tones”.
The Guardian

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Metropolis

A system composed of seven pieces (coffee table, desk, wardrobe, console, bookcase, horizontal and vertical wall system). Precious walnut wood volumes, framed in black-varnished rectangular structures, evolve through space in increasingly different ways: they outline architectural shapes that, in addition to responding to specific demands, evoke archetypal metropolis skylines, crystallized over time and locked into the collective imagination.
Giacomo Moor 

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Drizzle bookcase

Inspired by the visible lines made by falling rain, Drizzle is a bookcase system based on long vertical poles. Made from metal and lacquered in a range of colours, these elements can be arranged asymmetrically to support transparent or frosted glass shelves.
Nichetto Studio

Monday 27 November 2017

Comfy Cargo Chair

The ‘Comfy Cargo Chair’ originated from the idea to create a piece of furniture which does not predetermine the surface for the user. The object is not finished, but rather requires creative collaboration by the owner. The chair’s form is reminiscent of a three dimensional grid. It consist simply of hollow spaces whose open structure requires filling with personal things such as books.
Stephan Schulz

Tuesday 21 November 2017

Beijing underground trains 'bookshelves'


Subway trains in Beijing transformed into QR code audio libraries as part of the city's literacy programme. More details at Mashable (in English), Golem (in French) and Weibo (in Chinese).

Monday 20 November 2017

MinimumBook bookcase


The Suspended Bookcase is characterized by a single bar in stainless steel and a series of shelves in solid seasoned rooted oak (quercia in radice), attached to the bar by nuts and bolts in stainless steel. The shelves can be adjusted in order to fit your cataloguing requirements or simply to accommodate books of varying sizes. Suspended model which is fixed to the wall using stainless steel attachments.
Minimum[Book]

minimumbook from Zetalab on Vimeo.

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Tianjin Binhai Library


The library, one part of a larger cultural complex masterplan,  bases itself around a spherical auditorium which, coupled with the main atrium, forms an eye that acts as a focal point for the interior space. Terraced bookshelves echo the sphere throughout the atrium, leading users up into the heart of the library, before continuing around the building as louvers.
MVRDV

Monday 13 November 2017

The New Yorker

At the Strand by Jenny Kroik
“I like to loiter around the city looking for interesting things,” the artist Jenny Kroik says. Her painting for this week’s cover depicts another loiterer at the Strand Bookstore, a beloved institution in lower Manhattan. “I have tried to do a painting a day since I moved here from Oregon, a year and a half ago. Bookstores are really good places for inspiration–you see people interacting with the books they have an affinity for, you see how people consume the culture. Sometimes someone will be dressed in a similar way to things he or she is looking at. I love these sort of poetic fun moments.”
The New Yorker

Thursday 9 November 2017

Pacioccò - hammock bookcase

Paciocco is an armchair in solid ash wood. The assembly of the structure is completely without screws, nails or glue, it is simply to draw. The sitting is suspended, to emulate the thrill you get when you relax in a hammock.
By Tomas Bordignon for Punto Soave

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Picturebook frame

Display your favourites in this wall-mounted, specially designed book frame (3 in a row look stunning!). Everyone has a favourite book - it may be one with an iconic cover; a much loved childhood classic; or the one you've written! Unfortunately, short of ripping the front cover off and destroying a beloved book, there's no way of putting them proudly on show in your home. Until now. 
Suck UK

Monday 6 November 2017

A Book of Book Lists


If you liked my previous books - Bookshelf (inspired by this blog) and Improbable Libraries - then I am quietly confident you will like my latest one too, A Book of Book Lists which has just been published by The British Library (keenly priced at just £7.99). Here is the official bumph:
This is a book of book lists. Not of the ‘1,001 Books You MUST Read Before You Die’ variety but lists that tell stories. Lists that make you smile, make you wonder, and see titles together in entirely new ways. From Bin Laden’s bookshelf to the books most frequently left in hotels, from prisoners’ favourite books to MPs’ most borrowed books, these lists are proof that a person’s bookcase tells you everything you need to know about them, and sometimes more besides.Perfect for bibliophiles looking to expand their bookshelves or to learn what their bookcase says about them.
It's already had positive mentions in the Times Literary Supplement and The Idler magazine ("amusing and enlightening") and is available from all the usual places, but ideally from your local independent bookshop or The British Library.