Are you still looking for that perfect bookshelf to house your natural history, botany or nature writing collection? Well, I think we found it. Created by Alcarol, the bookshelf is called Undergrowth and was recently on display at the London Design Festival. The bookshelf retains the vegetation present on the log when it was retrieved from the forest. The mossy edges are then cast in resin and preserved. 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...
Little Free Library Love at the Seattle Design Festival
This year's Seattle Design Festival included A Little Free Library Design/Build Competition called Libraries on the Loose! The challenge: To design, build and steward a Little Free Library (LFL) prototype that promotes community and literacy in Seattle’s neighborhoods! The budget was $150 and all entrants had to submit documentation of their efforts including assembly instructions. One goal was to establish an inexpensive prototype that could serve as a template for future LFL builders. Twenty teams entered and the winner was “Spinning Stories” by Johnston Architects. Gotta love the umbrella. From the call for entries: Little Free Libraries are small-scale book shelters that function as “take-a-book, leave a-book” gathering places....
The Really Small World of Tim Sidford
We all know good things come in small packages but British artist Tim Sidford takes the cake with his meticulous miniature interiors. Bordering on unbelievable, Sidford recreates the stuff that dreams are made of within the smallest of structures. Here's his take on his "bonkers hobby of creating miniature interiors": I love the drama of many historic interiors. Creating these models helps allows me to indulge my 'inner designer'! The rooms are constructed from wood and card and wooden moulded decorative trim, as well as bits of old cereal packets, drinking straws, balsa wood, beads, plastic food packaging etc. The most...
Making a Case For Books
[youtube]http://youtu.be/JPL3kJPsVdA[/youtube] Here's a perfect video for Labor Day weekend. A seven minute animation on the making of four bookcases by Frank Howarth. Construction never looked so fun.
Reading Room for One
For the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale artist Marta Wengorovius teamed with architect Francisco Aires Mateus to produce this little slice of paradise; a reading cabin for one. The simple wood structure is fit for one person, holds one bookshelf and has a raised seating area and that's it. It is light by a skylight. The artist populated the bookshelf by asking 20 guests to choose three books each for the library. "Sharing this itinerant project creates a community between people who read the books, the guests who chose the books and the people who will read the books wherever the cabin shall...