Home libraries feel like they are of the past, a faded glory from a decade that smells faintly of Shalimar perfume mingled with the smell of pipe tobacco. Maybe it's the lack of space these days, maybe it's technology (shameless plug: the iPad. April 3rd)--whatever the case may be, you just don't see 'em that much anymore. That is, of course, unless you find yourself strolling in the Kokubunji district in Tokyo, Japan and happen upon this home designed by Atelier Bow-Wow.
This is actually a two-story library in a very tall, very narrow building of a home with the various areas of the home on different levels. Side note: As impressive as I think this home is, I just can't stop relating it to Unhappy Hipsters.
First floor of the Library
Let's head up, shall we?
Ba-BLAM! Second floor of Library
Other side of the room
See more photos of the Ikushima LIbrary by Atelier Bow-Wow on their site, as well as their portfolio.
(Images: Atelier Bow-Wow)
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A bookworm's heaven! :)
wow. lovely
What's great about books printed in Japan: they're all a uniform size. Look, no wasted space!
beautiful space! Interesting about all the books being a uniform size.
The books are not a uniform size, rather the shelves are different heights to accomodate closely their different sizes. Most store-bought shelves you buy in this country are much taller and deeper than required by the average book -- which is usually no deeper than eight inches or higher than 10. Thus there is a lot of wasted, messy looking dust collecting space.
@monarda: So true. Its unfortunate. I've had the hardest time finding an affordable, low, bookshelf that was less than 9in deep to place my paper backs into. I really dislike having tons of space behind my books, but having worked a library for many years, I also need to have my books all be flush to the front of the book case. For now, I just the space behind to hide items i don't use very often, like spindles of cds. Heh.