For the 1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition in 2010 the Victoria & Albert Museum invited nineteen architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of refuge and retreat. From these nineteen, seven were selected for construction at full-scale and lucky for us one of them was The Ark Booktower by Rintala Eggertsson architects. 6,000 books fill the space and there is a reading space at the core of the 3-story tower. All the spines face in so one must enter to discover the treasures within. Introduction to the installation: As we are reaching the end of the first decade of...
Bookcase with Moss
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...
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.
Space saving bookshelf holds your dining room table
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/43568516[/vimeo] Welcome to ‘As If From Nowhere’ a project by Irish designer Orla Reynolds that originated from Reynold's “imagining the home as a theatre stage.” Through her research focused on small living spaces, she found "the walls seemed to be the most wasted space" so Reynold's "decided to work within the dimensions of a bookcase" with the movement from bookcase to dining mimicking a scene change. Story in The Irish Post h/t Shelf Awareness
Sandy Hook propels Melbourne man to invent a bullet-proof bookcase
[youtube]http://youtu.be/pCY0kd9KMIg[/youtube] Craig Harwood and his 11 year-old daughter were watching the events at Sandy Hook elementary school play out on television when she turned to him and said, "'Dad, can't you invent something to stop this from happening?'" That was all Harwood, who was a a special operations and anti-terrorism police officer, needed to get to work. While the US gun lobby called for teachers to be armed, Mr Harwood thought about how to protect people from gunmen in the terrifying wait for police to arrive. The business partners hit on dFence - a movable bookcase fitted with three anti-ballistic layers that can...