London-based architecture and design studio Levitate has come up with an ingenious solution to book-storage problems, especially for those with a lack of space in their homes.
The ‘Bookcase Staircase’ is a stair structure with shelves and steps that also act as shelves, to accommodate over 2,000 novel-sized books.
“Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client’s desire for a library to form a ‘library staircase’ in which English oak stair treads and shelves are both completely lined with books on three sides,” Levitate wrote on its website.
With a skylight above illuminating the staircase, and steps wide enough to perch on, the staircase library becomes a perfect place to sit and read.
Each step also has toe guards to protect the books from getting damaged by users walking up and down the stairs.
Additionally, the staircase ‘floats’ over the existing floor, and is suspended from the floor above.
“The stair structure was designed as an upside down ‘sedan chair’ structure’ that carries the whole weight of the stair and books back to the main structural walls of the building,” the design studio added. “It dangles from the upper floor thereby avoiding any complicated structure.”
[via Levitate]