Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Book lockers


When Biloxi Junior High students return to school this August, they might be surprised at what they see in one of the hallways. Some teachers are spending part of their summer working on a very creative project. They are transforming some old, unused lockers into a larger than life library. 
WLox

Friday, 3 July 2015

Private libraries are enjoying a renaissance


Not everyone who wants something new to read can satisfy their urge with a trip to Waterstones or a scoot around Amazon. Some want to have a copy of every book ever written on their chosen specialised subject. Others want to build a library of titles handpicked for them... In the age of e-readers and instant gratification, the writing is far from on the wall for the printed word. “If not exactly in rude health, books are… alive,” says Nicky Dunne, head of rare books at Heywood Hill.
Read more at Daily Telegraph

Thursday, 11 June 2015

Extend



A bookend on which books can be placed in the air as an extension of a desk. It can be fixed to a tabletop by a clamp and the length can be adjusted as you like. It is formed by bending 2 mm steel plate in order to make it strong enough to hold books.
Material : Steel
Dimensions : H180 W300 D100 mm
Photos: Yasuko Furukawa
YoY

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Blow


A shelf that looks like a paper blowing up in the wind, formed by bending A4 size thin steel plates with molds. There are 5 types of shape and they can be used both upside and downside. It can be fixed to the wall with a hook.
Steel Dimensions : H210 W300 D20 mm
YOY

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Bin Ladin's Bookshelf


A sizeable tranche of documents recovered during the raid on the compound used to hide Usama bin Ladin. The release contains two sections. The first is a list of non-classified, English-language material found in and around the compound. The second is a selection of now-declassified documents. The Intelligence Community will be reviewing hundreds more documents in the near future for possible declassification and release. 
Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Monday, 18 May 2015

Open Book


I was on BBC Radio 4's main book programme Open Book over the weekend talking with Mariella Frostrup about my latest book Improbable Libraries but also a little bit about Bookshelf the book - you can listen to it again on the BBC Sounds thingy here. As an added bonus, Julian Barnes was on just before me (I come in at around the 17 minute mark).

Monday, 11 May 2015

Bookdesk


Bookdesk is a combination of desk and bookcase. Legs of the desk are steel frames with shelves on various heights. Frames are separated by steel nets. Table top is made of plywood.
Dimensions: 195cm x 70cm x 75cm
Materials: steel profiles, steel mesh, plywood
Adam Wiercinski

Thursday, 2 April 2015

Lacuna


Lacuna is a monumental, participatory art installation being built for the inaugural Bay Area Book Festival to be held in downtown Berkeley, June 5-7, 2015. Constructed from 50,000 books donated by the Internet Archive, Lacuna will sit in MLK Civic Center Park for the duration of the festival weekend, creating a reflective space that offers contrast to—and respite from—the busy energy of the festival. Admission to Lacuna is 100% free, and visitors to Lacuna can take books from its walls at no cost.
Project Lacuna

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Improbable Libraries

A video of me talking about my new book Improbable Libraries on the BBC flagship news programme Today.

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Kosha meditative space

An innovative, original and decidedly different concept. More than a luxury piece of furniture, Kosha is a sort of protective sheath. This exceptional object consists of 33 strips of wood machined one by one then assembled by hand with a watchmaker's precision. 10 niches provide spaces to store one’s favourite books, always within easy reach. The ideal place to retire to be alone or in the company of a book.
Kosha

Friday, 6 March 2015

Building with books



An excellent step-by-step description by Zoe Toft of building a den of books on World Book Day to raise money for Book Aid International (please donate via the link).
Playing by the book

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Wine barrel bookcase

Made from large retired Napa Valley wine barrels that have been carefully taken apart and fashioned into a fully functional sturdy bookcase.The deep red on the inside comes from years of exposure to quality wine. The outside of the barrel racks show visible barrel marks on the outside so you can see where the banding was and where wine was spilled during bottling.
Wine Country Craftsman

Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Kosha Heritage Bookmark


The Bookshelf staff recently roadtested this lovely stainless steel 'feather' bookmark from Kosha and enjoyed the experience very much - it flattens out while inside the book, then springs gently back into feather form once released. Heartily recommended, it comes in a variety of colours.
Kosha

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Bookshelf

 
We usually tilt the last book on the shelf in order to prevent the books from falling. Likewise, a wide variety of bookends are on the market for the same purpose. 'Bookshelf' has its own radian, which can keep the books on the shelf to one side

Monday, 9 February 2015

Library hotels


A hotel arranged by the Dewey Decimal System, Britain's only prime ministerial library, and a converted public library.
The Independent
(Also featured in my new book out in April, Improbable Libraries out April 6)

Monday, 26 January 2015

Little Free Libraries installed at the former Athletes’ Village



Residents of East Village are now able to access free reading material, with the arrival of Little Free Libraries in the neighbourhood.  Two miniature libraries have been installed at the former Athletes’ Village that provide residents of all ages with free access to a varied selection of books. The libraries have been designed by local artists, bringing a flavour of East London artistic talent to the area.

The chosen artists, illustrator Evelyn Rowland and jewellery designer Bianca Loh are both East London residents, and were selected for both their talent and passion for the area. The arrival of Little Free Libraries at East Village is part of an ongoing commitment to bring art and culture to the neighbourhood. The libraries are the latest in a series of artistic ventures following the installation of local art in the foyers of East Village residential buildings and a competition to win an art commission with a £70,000 budget.

Thursday, 22 January 2015

The Longboat Library

A fun and playful bookshelf designed to inspire children to read. The product is crafted from ash wood and hand painted in the style of a Viking longboat.
Joshua Thorpe

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Hash modular bookshelf



Make many combinations based on two modules as well as combine them under different angles (turn to 90 degrees). The shelf is made of painted steel.
Max Voytenko at Line Studio

Monday, 12 January 2015

PinPres




PinPres is a kid’s room shelf that makes the act of sorting up the room a playful experience where the shelf adopts its form to the toys, books and other things that are being stored.
OOO My Design

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Tom Gauld's colour-coded library

Archive quality giclee prints on 300gsm Hahnemuhle photo rag paper  in editions of 100 signed and numbered copies.  The image size is 16 by 9.5 cm and the paper is 25 by 20cm. £75 each
Tom Gauld

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Novel Living


Lisa Occhipinti presents her ideas for preserving, collecting and displaying intact books and also deconstructing them to make craft projects.
Novel Living

Monday, 20 October 2014

The London Magazine


Not technically a bookshelf I know, but this is the first in an occasional series highlighting literary magazines that would suit any shelf. So it seems suitable to start with the oldest of the lot, The London Magazine. It was established in 1732 and has naturally undergone a variety of relaunches - what hasn't changed is the standard of writing - contributors have included Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Evelyn Waugh, TS Eliot and William Boyd. It comes out bimonthly and the current issue includes Harry Mount on 'My London', Edward Lucie-Smith on The Magic Realism of Julio Larraz and Tom Sutcliffe on Digestible Opera. Well worth buying.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Baa-Baa Bookshelf



Also available in black. 
Dimensions: Width 65cm, Height 38cm, Depth 27cm
Rowen and Wren

Monday, 29 September 2014

Printed books loved by teenagers and twentysomethings

The 16-24 generation is still firmly in favour of print books, new research shows, with 73% saying they prefer print over digital or audio formats. Exclusive research conducted by Voxburner for The Bookseller showed that while nearly three-quarters of young people said they prefer the print form, only 27% prefer e-books and 31% said they don’t buy e-books at all. The Bookseller

Monday, 15 September 2014

Undergrowth bookshelf



Mosses and lichens are very primitive organisms that grow in damp places, including rocks and trees. They form the lowest layer of forest vegetation and are equipped with chlorophyll giving them a green colour of varying degrees of intensity. alcarol recovered some logs from the undergrowth of the Italian Dolomite mountains and cut planks that preserve the natural edges with their native populations of plants, which are embedded in a resin resembling the water that generated their life. Undergrowth particular: wood, steel rod, moss and resin. This bookshelf is a self-supporting structure looking for utmost essentiality, giving the sections of the mossy log the effect of being suspended in the air.
alarcol

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Book benches


50 unique BookBench sculptures, designed by local artists and famous names to celebrate London’s literary heritage and reading for enjoyment. Runs until September.
Books about Town

Monday, 30 June 2014

Stockwerk


Stockwerk appears to negate its material properties. Due to the cut side walls the solid wood construction becomes a foldable object reminiscent of a compressible paper model. As an alternative to plug and screw connections this shelf needs no assembly and is delivered folded up. The side walls are split, mitred and fixed with piano hinges. The system is fully linked together; the shelves just have to be unfolded. The system is self-stabilizing via the mitre-chamfer on the side wall edges. Despite having fewer and simpler production steps, a complex functional system is possible. The final height of the shelf is customisable, as some compartments can stay closed according to requirements.
Meike Harde

Monday, 23 June 2014

Are Little Free Libraries illegal?


A north Leawood man will have to decide whether to remove a Little Free Library he recently installed in his front yard — or face a citation from the city.
More at the Prairie Village Post and Kansas City Star.

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

28books

Books hang by a piece of ribbon which also acts as a bookmark. Supports up to 60 volumes.
Momu Design

28books

Books hang by a piece of ribbon which also acts as a bookmark. Supports up to 60 volumes.
Momu Design

Monday, 19 May 2014

Silent bookshelves

Each bookshelf is made from a sheet of metal to mount on the wall to create a skyline effect with just a dash of color that all but disappears under your books. The shelf features a small roof form that helps you find your books with ease. Available in white, yellow and white+yellow. Designed by Antigone Acconci and Riccardo Bastiani

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Hidden library door

A door hidden within a wall of bookcases at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, owned by the National Trust. It is decorated with real book spines, with tongue in cheek titles that reference events and people from the history of Oxburgh.

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Controvento



Controvento, with its apparently precarious balance, is a refined dispute between visual instability and actual stability, it is a dizzying challenge to the force of gravity, the expression of a profound aspiration to a transparent, metaphysical lightness.
alcarol

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Booken



By Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay at design studio Raw Edges for Italian brand Lema. The idea behind the design is that many novels, once read are never reread, but passed on to friends, given away or even destroyed. Booken uses these books as an intrinsic part of the support system of the bookshelf (or side table for books). Conversely, favourite books can also be stored in this way with favourite passages marked by one of the 20 oak ‘bookmarks' supplied as part of the shelf. Booken can also be wall hung and comes in two open pore colours allowing the texture of the wood grain to show through the lacquer colour.
Go Modern

Monday, 31 March 2014

Deer

Inspired by wild deer in the forest. Material: Solid Oak 1070mm x 930mm x 215mm
Be Design

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Serif 4 Shelf


In her Seamless collection, Iraqi-British “starchitect” Zaha Hadid fuses complex curvilinear geometries with detailed ergonomic research, invoking a new design language driven by advances in digital processes and cutting-edge fabrication techniques. Produced in 2009 by UK-based manufacturing brand Established & Sons, this collection includes the dynamic wall-mounted Serif 4 Shelf, offered here in a bespoke white color. This biomorphic design is part of an edition of 12.
L'ArcoBaleno

Friday, 7 March 2014

Spineless Classics


An intriguing alternative way of 'shelving' from Spineless Classics, an entire book in poster format designed around each book's central theme. We've been roadtesting The Hobbit at Bookshelf HQ but there are lots of other examples from The Origin of Species and the Bible to the MGB Haynes Manual and Shakespeare.