Concrete Playground

Welcome to the shelf-pod, the creation of architect Kazuya Morita, who converted just about every available surface of a home's interior into shelves for a man who was having trouble housing his extensive book collection. The space in Moruguchi City, Japan, provides maximum storage space without sacrificing the openness of the room. The shelves are built from interlocking laminated pine boards, aiming to create geometrical harmony in a similar way to the principles of Islamic architecture, and also features a pyramid-shaped ceiling and wooden steps which rise up helically, giving the impression of a wooden jungle gym. Not only that, but it's earthquake proof.

As someone with a lot of books kicking around their room, I empathize with this man's pain. My friends, when asked to describe me to strangers, have been known to say "she reads too many books." At the moment they take up two Ikea bookshelves, double layered, with some haphazard piles on and underneath my desk, and if I want to find my copy of Norwegian Wood I have to remember that I was reading it in July before it got wedged behind another pile of books I took on a road-trip to Queensland and didn't read.

[Via Deezeen]