Here is Moriah Jovan’s idea for The Perfect Bookstore. The Espresso elements have nothing to do with coffee but relate to the new print on demand machine that is quietly sweeping the nation. While I agee with Jovan that the current publishing/bookseller model is in tatters and in need of serious revision and that we are in dire need of a “new breed of independent bookseller” I’m quite sure this new model, by itself, has nothing to do with books.
I would call this destination a Print on Demand/Digitial Download Station before I would call it a Bookstore.
But as Jovan points out this could be the first floor of the bookstore of tomorrow and the second floor could be filled with actual real life books. Now we’re on to something. The successful “bookstore” of tomorrow will have to include both; the book as object and the book as bytes.
And what might the classroom of tomorrow look like? The 2009 Open Architecture Challenge might provide a glimpse.
“According to the World Bank, educating all children worldwide will require the construction of 10 million new classrooms in more than 100 countries by 2015.” The folks at the Open Architecture Network “asked designers and architects to partner with students and teachers to envision the classroom of the future.” Over 400 plans from 65 countries have been submitted with the winner to be announced in September.
Now if we could get the Open Architecture Network to promote a challenge to design the bookstore of the future….