After months and months of tumult St. Mark’s Book Shop has landed in its home and it’s a beauty. The space, designed by Clouds Architecture Office, will give St. Mark’s a fighting chance as it navigates the new book landscape.
From the project listing on Architizer:
The perimeter of the space is wrapped with full height shelving, freeing up the interior as a flexible use space. Variously stacked display units provide table display space while doubling as informal loose seating for readings and events. A windowed office space is created by pinching and pulling the shelves in towards the center of the space.
The book shelving is designed to stimulate the ocular experience. Vertical supports are pulled back to pronounce the horizontal edges of the shelving. Sharp corners are eliminated, smoothed into a continuous series of horizontal bands which allow the eye to glide around the space without visual friction. Vision is further privileged by adjusting the form of the shelving. Lower runs are canted so as to tilt book spines towards eye level of the viewer. Section titles are literally etched into the wood of the shelving to maintain the continuity of the lines.
“designed to stimulate the ocular experience…without visual friction” = Wow!
Photography by GION