egg-crate shelves

built-ins are the ultimate bookcase luxury, and my favorites are designed by architect hugh newell jacobsen. jacobsen [pictured at top} builds floor-to-ceiling walls of his signature bookcases into his all white, flooded-by-sunlight interiors. the nearly paper thin shelves are called "egg-crate cases", based on the design of antique wooden egg crates [see bottom image, above]. this means there is a basic outer frame to fit the wall recess, filled with slotted horizontal shelves that are then fitted with slotted vertical supports. he explained: “You are always taking books off the shelves and the rest all fall down... With this design, you can remove a whole foot and they won’t.” while these shelves are not commercially available, plans can be found here.



if you want a similar look ready-made, german company interlübke manufacture the studimo system [below], which promises to fill "the entire height of a room down to the last millimeter". studimo is not as thin and elegant as the jacobsen egg-crates, but at least you won't need a carpenter.

front and back

this modular system was designed by ugo la pietra for berdonini in 1967, and re-issued last year. it uses slotted, stackable elements to create an extremely unique two-sided bookcase with the straightforward logic of a folk solution. at first glance it seems a little bulky, but a longer look at the design shows it to be virtually irreducible, which is the essence of minimalism. while i'm sure there's nothing "minimal" about the pricing, this seems like very good thinking for a basic but stable stacking system. the single-file stack [at top] would be a great space-saver with the flat side pushed against a wall.

boxes

finding a good bedside bookshelf should be simple. something small and unobtrusive, providing easy access to books while still maintaining a surface for a clock, lamp, etc. "yes", i hear you say, "you are describing a typical nightstand, what's the problem?". for me, a traditional nightstand is too bulky and busy, and books usually end up stacked horizontally on a lower level of the nightstand. if the book i want happens to be underneath other books, i'll hesitate to attempt the maneuver from the awkward angle of being in bed. i'm trying to relax there, i don't want a juggling act. also, once books are stacked in a pile, my ocd won't let them be a haphazard pile; they will have to look neat, creating yet another level of apprehension at disturbing the stack. "so", i hear someone say, "line them up vertically with bookends". but, i counter, that would look stupid. currently, i've addressed the problem by stashing a few bedtime reads in a white componibili i'm using as a nightstand. years ago, i used a very simple dresser drawer found on the street in exactly the same way as this "crate" designed by jasper morrison for established & sons. my drawer wasn't sufficiently deep to hold most books, so i tossed it. the morrison design looks a little more ample, but a found dresser drawer, nice & roomy, could do the trick.

speaking of found dresser drawers, the unit below is made from such drawers as well as aluminum angles from the hardware store. a nice project found in the readymade dyi primer.

two collapsibles

the nuvola rossa, designed by vico magistretti in 1977, has the look (but not the functionality) of classic collapsible furniture. it's a beautiful object, but it doesn't actually collapse, and seems to hide nearly as many books as it displays. (correction: it does collapse. i can't remember where i got the notion that it didn't. sorry)

parallel shelving (below) by stephen burks is a true collapsible that retains a light, open look.

mogens koch

the library systems of danish designers like mogens koch achieve an almost weightless modular wooden cabinetry by making the walls as thin as possible. the cabinets lose very little by way of strength because they are made of solid wood and dovetail joined. this is consummate danish craftsmanship, still executed with exacting detail in the beautiful rud. rasmussen workshop in copenhagen. the boxes of the koch system can stack on top of and beside each other without looking bulky or clumsy because the total thickness of two sides placed together is still amazingly thin. of course, you get what you pay for, and when it comes to vintage danish masterpieces like these, you pay even more.




the ikea cases below (which already read a bit thinner than most of ikea's cases) go some way to answering the "thinness" problem by starting with one case, then providing add-ons with only one side. this prevents the doubling-up of sides that can make placing cases like the billy together into a heavy-looking affair. i don't mean to suggest they are anywhere near the league of the koch cases, but i do wish more cases had this option.

tomado

andy beach, of the excellent reference library, pointed me to the dutch tomado system.

hungarian bookshelves

apparently designed by an unnamed hungarian physicist, a good home project courtesy of corey at baltimore rowhouse (see comments under "supersystem" below).

plans here.

porro bibliotech

modular often means metal, but piero lissoni is a master at designing clean and modern shelving from wood. this system for porro proves the point.

ladderax

always on the lookout for good, flexible systems, i recently came across ladderax unit furniture. it was designed by robert heal and produced by staples & co. in the 60's. the following is from material cultures:


"The Ladderax System consists of a number of upright ladders, supporting shelves and cabinets. These are very simply fixed by resting on steel support rods, hooked on to the rungs of the ladders. They fit snugly into grooves under the shelves and cabinets. This allows the system to be very easily assembled and… gives the utmost flexibility. Ladderax does not require any permanent fixing to a wall, because it self-supports. Ladderax is furniture you can move about and rearrange as easily as you can change your mind."

already have a ladderax system (or any midcentury classic, for that matter)? get spare parts here.


see also.

supersystem

supersystem shelving by tom kühne comes in wood and aluminum. a nice simple construction suited to smaller-sized volumes, it also seems like good inspiration for a home project.

books in new york

while i'll still be posting to books at home, i've also started a new blog/project. you can follow its humble beginnings here.
(pictured above is three lives & co. in new york city)

hirsh industries

last august, i posted the personal library my good friend abby low (see top picture above). about a month ago her home was given the full treatment on design*sponge. many of the comments on the design*sponge post revolved around where abby got her bookshelves. abby got them from a local hardware store, but an intrepid web researcher found them supplied at walmart, where they were sold at a significant discount to most other suppliers. above are shown two easily found colorways, although i have also seen them in all black (black frame/black shelves). These are a good, very inexpensive solution. they require no tools, the parts themselves are extremely lightweight (in fact so lightweight, one might worry about stability, but they are very stable), and they are easily adjustable. they are quite deep however, and not stackable. a shallower, stackable version of these might be the ultimate cheap bookshelf solution.

reading chair

a bit of a diversion from my stated theme, but i couldn't resist. i've always looked to the ernest race classic "heron" as an ideal reading chair, but they've been out of production for so long that only british auction houses seem to get a hold of them. well, no longer. fashion designer margaret howell has teamed up with race to re-issue the chair. i'm not sure i'd choose this particular colorway, but just knowing the chair is newly available makes me very happy.





a vintage version. see the center "donkey" below for another great race design.

donkeys

three generations of the penguin donkey by isokon.

integral

an ingenious built-in.

slotted systems

a beautiful basic system, fnp modular shelving by moorman is a well known standard in germany. i'd love to see it more here in the states. there are quite a few of this type of system from companies in europe, but this one seems to me to be the best. the montana system out of denmark (not slotted, but also european) also presents some very nice possibilities.

donald judd/lehni

swiss company lehni manufacture the metal furniture designs of donald judd. they appear to have dealers in every small village of switzerland, but not a single north american rep. will someone please take them on?

update: see comments.

simple bookends

anyone who has seen the bookend selection at, say, barnes & noble is aware that most of the bookends out there are massive, sculptural productions of polar bears and ships and globes. even looking for simple ones at an office supply store will usually yield something that looks like a hand or gigantic paper clip. luckily, I work near muji and so was able to bring home these barely-there bookends, which get the job done without looking like dobermans.






i also came across this lovely adjustable bookend recently on manufactum, a german site that stocks simple everyday classics.



a few more from manufactum.