Edifice Shelving
Angular, nested cubbies create displays for books or objects
Furniture, 2018 | Scratch Studio
“This will kill that. The book will kill the edifice.”
Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris
Typical shelving is generic and one-size-fits-all. Edifice Shelving is tailored and specific. Its angled, saw-tooth shelves accommodate books of varying width, and its graduated vertical spacing books of varying height. Fully packed, a double-sided 3’x6’ unit holds up to 500 books.
Like library stacks, the shelving is freestanding and porous, and acts as a room-divider. The design is modular. Multiple units tile together into larger assemblies. The prototype shown here is fabricated from ½” Ultralight MDF, CNC-milled with mortise and tenon joints and finished with satin lacquer in an off-white similar to book paper.
Featured in the 2019 LaunchPad at WantedDesign Manhattan during NYCxDesign, New York’s celebration of global design, presented with Design Milk.
The shelving is freestanding and open, a screen that reveals and conceals (model credit: Stephanie Beamer)
The shelving ends terminates with chamfered edge and inner fold.
Some planes come together at inside corners; others overlap.
The freestanding, double-sided shelving is tall enough to act as a room-divider but not so tall as to make the top shelf unreachable.
Prototype with books.
1/2”=1’ scale model.
Detail of prototype with books.
The modular shelving expands with the multiplication of the basic 3’x6’ unit.