Apartment made out of books

Rintala Eggertsson's Ark is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Small Spaces exhibition: 6,000 books turned into a small and delightful flat.

I Want to Live Inside The Bookshelf Apartment

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

Just looking at it makes me feel nervous and fussy.
Anonymous

Er.. guys, it’s not a flat (or even supposed to be a flat)!! It is a pretty interesting exhibit however (I’ve been). For this particular installation, from the V&A Website:

“Nestled against a staircase that leads up to the V&A’s National Art Library – itself a site of refuge and retreat – this free-standing wooden tower re-evaluates the concept of the ‘archive’. The faÃ§ades of the tower consist of hundreds of shelves, holding thousands of books. Oriented to face inwards, the book spines gather together to form a rich collage of colours and typographic textures. In contrast, the exterior faÃ§ade of the structure is dominated by the minimalist white of exposed page edges.

The project investigates how small spaces can focus our energies and thoughts in moments of study, meditation and self-reflection. Accessed via a spiral staircase, the tower invites visitors to explore the structure, have a leisurely browse through the books, and select a private reading chamber in which to enjoy their selection.”
mdh

Is the framing lumber to be used in future to make wood pulp? I don’t get it? I see nice bookshelves.
WaylonWillie

hmmm, i don’t get it either, and i don’t really want to live there. it doesn’t look very well insulated. how about a regular tiny apartment, with built in bookshelves?
neurolux

But is it “firesafe”?
Grey Devil

Not really an apartment by any stretch of the imagination. It appears to just be a stairwell with bookshelves lining the sides.

It’s really cool and i like the idea of it, but it’s far from what the title of this implies.
kmoser

Around 1990 I attended a party at a Manhattan apartment in which virtually every wall was covered with bookcases and filled with books. Many of them went fully floor to ceiling, even sometimes stacked over the door frames. The story I remember was that the people living there had once owned a bookstore.
juanolator

Right. It’s all a prop-filled stairwell, from what we can see.

Where is the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom?

Or, for that matter, a book than is slightly more than 1mm size beyond its neighbor?

It’s all a put-on.
- rtresco
  
  I think the fact that the books are all the same height is supposed to be part of the “art”; clean lines. The mood of the “piece” would be radically different if it were a mix of hardcovers and paperbacks of different sizes – much more cramped or cluttered.