Bookcases are a fundamental piece of furniture in any room and study. Even if you do most of your reading now using a tablet or an e-reader, chances are you still have the books that shaped your life very fondly.
And okay, your book collection may be austere, but that doesn't mean a bookseller should look like a desolate wasteland. Quite the opposite! This furniture not only acts as an altar for your hardcover editions, but also as a display and above all, as part of the decoration of a space.
We firmly believe that bookcases are essential in places of study and work, especially when it comes to creative disciplines, and in the following paragraphs we will tell you why.
We often forget that a piece of furniture fulfills not only physiognomic purposes, but also symbolic ones, and with this it can influence our cognitive processes and finally our behaviors. In the case of a bookcase, it is not a simple shelf on which to place books. Rather, it has a load of meanings that can ultimately promote learning, concentration, and reading.
And how does that happen? Well, very simple:
The immediate availability of anything encourages its use or consumption. Put in simpler terms: if you have something on hand, you are more likely to take advantage of it. For example, if there is a fruit bowl in the middle of the table full of tasty apples and bananas, you are more likely to eat fruit throughout the day than if it were stored in the refrigerator.
The same happens with books: if they are stored in boxes or trunks, as soon as you have a free moment, the easiest thing will be to take your cell phone and scroll indefinitely on Instagram. On the other hand, if you have a collection of varied volumes on hand in a piece of furniture that is also stimulating to the eye, it will be more attractive to read a little, and in the long run, your reading habits will improve notoriously.
And to all this, why should we prefer a book about the infinite scroll of social networks?
Although through the internet you can see the world, through books you can know the universe. As reading is an exercise in which you must actively strive to give meaning to written words, the only limit is your capacity for abstraction.
You can immerse yourself for hours in the most captivating stories and enrich your baggage of experiences and emotions, and in the end, your mind will be full of new ideas, ready to be applied in your projects and work.
Reading is not just a leisure activity, but it is an exercise in freedom, something that we all need, especially in these times of quarantine
As we said, a bookcase doesn't have to be your typical boring, monochromatic, orthogonal shelf of a lifetime. There are highly thought-provoking designs that can contribute to an imaginative and inventive atmosphere. Our definitive selection is this:
Something very characteristic of most bookshelves is the sound that books make when you collide while you put them in place. This is because the overwhelming majority of this furniture is made of wood.
For this reason, our list is headed by this piece from the Paper Patchwork collection: a series of furniture made of cardboard, wood veneer and polyurethane. This unusual combination of materials, together with the vivid colors used, makes this bookcase cause many unexpected sensations that will undoubtedly make more than one think “outside the box”.
The works of Marten Baas are not to everyone's taste, but there is no way for anyone to be indifferent to them. His chaotic and unusual approach to form-function (im) balance results in visually striking pieces that could well star in an Escher painting.
Such is the case of his series of bookshelves, the result of ordering a chair to stop being one and better to become a bookcase. It is definitely an inspiration for creatives who like the surreal.
-4401BJ Bookcase by POLART
One of the bases of the creative process is Gestalt psychology: the current of psychology that studied the wonderful phenomena of human perception, such as the background-figure relationship, the principle of closure and other concepts that make it clear that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
And this is the case with the POLaRT Bookcase 4401 BJ. It is a piece of unexpected sobriety that evokes the opposite: the luxury and intricate shapes of Louis XV furniture. Such a juxtaposition of elements is sure to be the trigger for many ingenious ideas. One of its main advantages over other design books is that it is made with affordable and resistant materials, and the background and frame colors are fully customizable.
-Tree branch bookshelf, by Olivier Dollé
This bookcase is a complete metaphor: its design, which emulates a simplified tree, is made in such a way that the books perch on its branches like little birds, free, playful, each one in a different place. Although it can also be interpreted as that the leaves of the atoms make up the foliage.
There are those who see an irony in this bookcase. Isn't it enough that the paper comes from the trees, but that they must also be supported by one?
Everyone can make their interpretation of this piece, and in this lies its value as a proposal, since detonating symbolic thought is key to any creative process.
-Bias of thought, by John Leung x Clarkehopkinsclark
This unusual bookcase brings Escher's optical illusions into your study. Constructed of steel with shelves (if you can call them that) of glass, the Bias of thought will delight those looking to see all possible angles of things.
Complex as well as practical, its construction is an invitation to try new approaches and to get out of the ordinary.
And you, what bookcase would you like to put in your study? -