Reappropriating anachronistic messaging infrastructure (which are really just props for pedestrian scaled billboards) into something potentially more useful. In this case a community book drop.

Even as they are rendered obsolete by the ubiquity of smartphones, I’m interested in pay phones because they are both anachronistic and quotidian. Relics, they’re dead technology perched on the edge of obsolescence, a skeuomorph hearkening back to a lost shared public space we might no longer have any use for. Something to be nostalgic for, in the way I can’t think about a phone booth without conjuring up images of an old, impatient woman banging on the door to one while I was inside using a calling card to ask for money. And of course they are nuisance, basically pedestrian level billboards that only blight certain neighborhoods (good luck finding a payphone in Tribeca, while there are eight separate phone kiosks on one block between 108th and 109th streets and Columbus Ave). But they can also be a place of opportunity, something to reprogram and somewhere to come together and share a good book with your neighbors.

However, the wall mounted tool rack has several huge advantages.  The tool is right there by your worktable and you can see it.  That is a huge advantage.  It is more efficient for space than a pegboard and a lot prettier.  If it is well designed, you can reach and replace tools with ease.   If all of your tools can be reached easily and replaced easily on a tool rack that is close by and where you need it, then it is possible to develop much better work habits that I currently have. So here are my tool rack ideals.  Large enough to hold a set of tools for a specific purpose and able to be placed right where it is needed.   Small and light enough to be able to be carried.  All tools must be visible, the sharp end hard to contact, but where you can see the sharp end.   All tools must be able to be removed with ease and replaced with ease.  The tool rack should be reasonably attractive and still easy enough to update or replace when things change.  Ideally since I work outside, the box should be water resistant if not waterproof.

…So first you attach the French cleat securely to your box, then you mount one securely to your wall. The Shakers often put a French Cleat along the entire length of every convenient wall in a building. I am planning to put several of them made from cedar, on exterior walls and fences. I love French Cleats.

We told our architect at our very first meeting that one of the most important elements was to integrate our books into the heart and soul of our home. He came up with a brilliant solution which we had never seen before, to build the shelves right into staircases (set into the wall) from top to bottom of house. So essentially "book spines" line the spine of our home. Amy Krouse Rosenthal Architectural Interventions

While many need light-filled rooms for inspiration, he wanted to avoid large windows opening onto a residential neighborhood and sought a cave-like atmosphere to disappear into his work. Subtle light was brought in by other means when the architect built a dome above his client’s desk (which Price describes as similar to the rotunda of the oracle’s temple at Delphi) and filled it with the books he uses the most. Davis whimsically calls the space his “Navajo kiva of knowledge.”

“‘You can tell how serious people are by looking at their books,’” Susan Sontag told Sigrid Nunez, long ago when Nunez was dating Sontag’s son. “She meant not only what books they had on their shelves, but how the books were arranged,” Nunez explains. “Because of her, I arranged my own books by subject and in chronological rather than alphabetical order. I wanted to be serious.” There are many varieties of nerd, but only two real species—the serious and the nonserious—and shelves are a pretty good indication of who is which. “To expose a bookshelf,” Harvard professor Leah Price writes in Unpacking My Library, a recent collection of interviews with writers about the books they own, “is to compose a self.” In Sontag’s case, a very rigorous self. And, of course, that’s just the sort of self someone anxious about his aspirations might shy away from. “A self without a shelf remains cryptic,” Price notes.

Early 17th Century. Of nearly square form, fitting into a slightly larger shaped and carved base and conforming upright frame with a rounded toprail with ox-nose bail handle to enable transportation, and with a pair of foliate-form spandrels where each upright arm meets the base, with two framed rectangular doors opening to the interior fitted with single shelf and a row of two drawers at the bottom, the front rectangular lockplate with square openings to receive the metal members attached to the interior shelf

After many years of planning and other projects to complete first, we have finally gotten around to my dream of creating a traditional victorian library. When complete, the walls will be wrapped in velvet, drenched in dark leathers and woods, and topped off with an oak wall-to-tall bookcase with a sliding ladder. There will be a globe in the corner that is actually a bar, tufted leather chairs that would be suitable for Gatsby himself, and a record player powered with glass tube amps.

Designer Sallie Trout built shelves in an inaccessible stairwell. She reaches them by using a bosun's chair that is fastened to a chain hoist hanging from the ceiling above.

Shelf-Pod is a private residence and study building, located in Osaka prefecture, Japan. The client owns an extensive collection of books on the subject of Islamic history, so he requested that we create this building with the maximum capacity for its storage and exhibition.

In order to satisfy this demand effectively, we designed a lattice structure made from 25mm thick laminated pine-board which serve as book-shelves. The dimensions of each shelf are as follows: 360mm height, 300mm width and 300mm depth. All of the architectural elements in this space (stairs, windows, desks, chairs, etc) have been designed on the basis of this shelf scale, with the aim of achieving geometrical harmony which is comparable to Islamic Architecture. This innovative structural system affords not only large amount of book storage, but the possibility of flexible floor level which can be delivered from every height of bookshelf. Each space for different activity rise up helically, giving the impression of exploring a wooden jungle gym.

The original image of this structure is derived from the Japanese woodcraft of Kumiko. The structural integrity against an earthquake is provided by a panel of plywood board nailed on the shelf. Initially, the horizontal resistant force guaranteed by the panels was examined in a real-scale model. Further to this, an analysis of the whole structure was performed in order to determine the placement of the windows and panels. The inter-locking laminated pine-board was manufactured precisely in advance and assembled on-site. Similarly, the pyramid-shaped roof was assembled on-site, from 12 pieces of prefabricated wooden roof panel. The completed roof has a thickness of only 230mm and sensitively covers the whole space like the dome of a Mosque.

In addition to its unique structure, the outer wall employs the construction techniques of a traditional Japanese storehouse Dozou. The bamboo net wall foundation layer was attached to the lattice structure and the clay and straw mixture was applied to the foundation by the trowel. Then the red cedar panels forms exterior wall. The interior clay wall was finished with white plaster. These techniques are in accordance with urban fireproofing specifications, as well as maintaining a suitably humid environment for the storage of books.

After scanning the hoards of chachkis lying on my bedroom floor I printed out life size puzzle pieces and arranged them into this curious thought bubble. Constructed of laser cut mdf, and pink foam, then fiberglassed and coated with molded polysterene. The interior is painted and flocked, with hardwood (dovetailed) drawers, and door. Stands 7 feet’ 6” inches high.

It’s the book store and the library on the second floor, so we wanted to connect those two parts of the museum with a book tower so that you could read the continuity from the stored books to the books that are sold and become eventually a part of every people’s life out there.…this freestanding wooden tower re-evaluates the concept of the ‘archive’. Its walls are made up of hundreds of shelves, holding thousands of second-hand books. Accessed via a spiral staircase, each floor includes a secluded reading chamber. Positioned to face inwards, the book spines form an exterior façade of monotonous white, whereas the interior view consists of a rich collage of colours and typographic textures.

The tower is a bookcase in itself, the first thing you meet is the white backside of the books and they don’t reveal themselves until you get to the inside where you get the spine of the book.

Corner built in local materials of the school library. As if in response, such as ceilings and beams continued YAMANAMI different height, four in the mountains that form a single spread, and made a space in which natural入Ritaku children. Each mountain is a four-seater tables, Komoreru in one corner, and a large exhibition area of materials that form a place of different quality.
yamakoya is shelf like mountain for library.It also make 4 different small space where kids enjoy to stay.

Nobody builds bookshelves for book people. Commercial shelves are always too deep and high, which wastes a great deal of space. Below is the solution I came up with for shelving way too many books in way too little space.

The shelves are CNC cut in oak veneered plywood to the customers measurements. They are intended to be used throughout life as storage for personal belongings. On death, the shelves are dismantled and rebuilt as a coffin.

Unistrut, a system of slotted metal channel, framing and tubing that can be connected and interconnected with various nut and bolt fittings to create storage racks, shelving, work tables, support for overhead lighting and a lot more. The parts are industrial quality (steel and/or pre-galvanized steel), but priced to be used everywhere.…You can buy Unistrut fittings online. Channel, the part which is expensive to ship, can be found next to electrical conduit at Home Depot.

The products presented here were designed and produced using an alternative design and development method that frees a designer to pursue creative expressions, realize them as industrially repeatable products and have the ability to globally distribute design.
In Open Design, the design is a two dimensional "cutout" represented as digital information. It relies on the Internet's communication resources, to publish, distribute, and copy the designs under a CreativeCommons license. Coupled with The flexibility of CNC production methods, all technically conforming designs are continuously available for production, in any number, with no tooling investment, anywhere and by anyone.

This custom-made bookshelf is made out of 12mm oak planks. Ninety six individual pieces have been handmade and marked to fit into the puzzle of the 4.0 x 2.5m wall. The shelving is designed as an expandable system, it is self-supporting and has no visible fittings so it can be dismantled and re-used.

A polar bear bookshelf, made of white laminated wood.

Here’s an interesting set of alternating-tread stairs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. They’re in a house renovated by Adam Jirkal, Jerry Kozaa and Tomáš Kalhous, located in Všenory, Czech Republic.

Beautiful bookshelves, but somewhat impractical, and difficult to dust.

Vertical fruitbowl

Awesome two-layered bookshelves.