Help

Brain Pickings takes 200+ hours a month to curate and edit. If you find any joy and value in it, we would really appreciate a modest donation.

Subscribe

  • Subscribe by RSS feed
  • Subscribe by email

Connect

  • Follow on Twitter
  • Stumble It
  • Add to del.icio.us
  • Become a Fan
  • TwitterCounter for @brainpicker
ted.com

24

Feb

2010

The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs

Elegant anarchy, retrostalgic modernism, and what short circuits have to do with multitasking.

Last year, we did a spotlight feature on five brilliantly innovative bookshelf and bookcase designs. The piece enjoyed unprecedented popularity, so we decided to go and look for more. Today, we return with five more such pieces of book-storage innovation — and an irreconcilable desire to own them all.

PUCKMAN

We have a soft spot for what we call “retrostalgic modernism” — the nostalgia-driven trend of retro revival bent through the prism of modernist aesthetic sensibility. Bonus points if it lets odd bedfellows like video game geeks and design aficionados unite. Naturally, we love this Puckman bookshelf by (of course) Italian design studio Ginepro.

And it’s even in our favorite color.

SHORT CIRCUIT

We raved about this Short Circuit Bookshelf by Philadelphia-based designer Alexandra DiCairano some time ago on Twitter.

It’s a slick design-driven metaphor for the incredible capacity of circuit boards to hold information with extreme minimalist and efficiency — a place where you can proudly place A Brief History of Time and Helvetica side by side.

SWOLLEN WALL

From French architect and designer Paul Coudamy comes this fabulous, space-age-meets-Scandinavian-minimalism Swollen Wall bookcase.

Designed to articulate the different living spaces of the apartment, Swollen Wall runs floor-to-ceiling from the bedroom to the office, through the hallway, offering various pockets of display and storage for books, speakers, posters, vases and other home decor objects.

We love the contrast between Swollen Wall’s fluidity and the inherent angularity of traditioal living spaces. There’s something elegantly anarchist about it.

THE BOOK

Granted, this project by designer Isabella Vaverka is closer to experimental, exploratory art than to literal bookshelf industrial design — but that makes it all the more enticing. Part rebellion about the commodification of books in the digital age, part celebration of her personal collection, the project shifts focus away from books’ content and towards their history and the designer’s personal relation to the objects themselves.

The result: An bookshelf adapted to Vaverka’s own collection of literature, which we find to be a beautiful embodiment of the age of hyper-customization.

TIME-SHELF

Multitasking may be a bad idea when it comes to the brain, but it’s a win for objects. Like this delightful, colorful Time-Shelf by Belarus-born, Paris-based designer Dzmitry Samal, which combines two simple functions in a playful way: time-telling and book-storage.

We don’t normally feature concept designs, but this one is so ingenious it’s only a matter of time until it hits the production line. And we’ll be waiting at its end, open-armed and drooling.

Brain Pickings takes over 200 hours a month to curate, edit and publish. If you find joy and inspiration in it, please consider supporting us with a small donation — it lets us know we’re doing something right.


Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

16 Responses

  1. Reading: The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs: Elegant anarchy, retrostalgic modernism, and what sho… http://bit.ly/aZh4xb

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    actbetter on February 24th, 2010 at 5:41 am
  2. The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/cRwvjz

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    catmyn on February 24th, 2010 at 8:02 am
  3. The Bookshelf Rethought, Part 2 – five more brilliantly innovative bookshelf / bookcase designs http://ow.ly/1aO0G

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on February 24th, 2010 at 8:04 am
  4. RT @brainpicker: The Bookshelf Rethought, Part 2 – five more brilliantly innovative bookshelf / bookcase designs http://ow.ly/1aO0G

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    mmatthews on February 24th, 2010 at 8:05 am
  5. RT @brainpicker: The Bookshelf Rethought, Part 2 – five more brilliantly innovative bookshelf / bookcase designs http://ow.ly/1aO0G

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    devindenny on February 24th, 2010 at 8:05 am
  6. The Bookshelf Rethought, Part 2 – five more brilliantly innovative bookshelf / bookcase designs http://ow.ly/1aO0G /via @brainpicker

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    RaviVora on February 24th, 2010 at 8:10 am
  7. The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs RT @brainpicker The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs http://ow.ly/1pdu7S

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    olmocs on February 24th, 2010 at 8:14 am
  8. RT @brainpicker: The Bookshelf Rethought, Part 2 – five more brilliantly innovative bookshelf / bookcase designs http://ow.ly/1aO0G

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    warmstrings on February 24th, 2010 at 8:14 am
  9. I

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ElenaTheRican on February 24th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
  10. If you missed it: The Bookshelf Rethought – 5 (more) brilliantly innovative bookshelf/bookcase designs http://su.pr/1Wr8Uo

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on February 24th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
  11. “the bookshelf rethought.” particularly enamored of #4: http://j.mp/aciyId

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    monstro on February 24th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
  12. The Bookshelf Rethought-5 brilliantly innovative bookshelf/bookcase designs http://su.pr/1Wr8Uo – @hardluck_hotel something for you:)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Kisandie on February 24th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
  13. [...] [via Brain Pickings] [...]

    B.B.E. « Lemonade Was A Popular Drink… on February 25th, 2010 at 9:09 am
  14. Love Puckman! Which of these 5 Fantastic Bookshelves rocks your book? http://bit.ly/ben8nf

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Joelwillans on February 28th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
  15. Swollen Wall! Swollen Wall! http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/02/24/the-bookshelf-rethought-2/ (via @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    KathyFoley on March 1st, 2010 at 4:24 am
  16. The Bookshelf Rethought: 5 More Innovative Designs http://ow.ly/1pdu7S

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    _Lindiwe_ on March 7th, 2010 at 12:26 am

Comments? Give Brain Pickings a piece of your mind: