Bookshelves have a basic design flaw. When books are neatly arranged for storage and display, they tend to tip over and lay on the shelf in confused disarray. This vexing problem has been solved by the Korea-based design group monocomplex, whose Lean/Bookshelf uses the force of gravity to keep things in order – no bookends required.
Bookshelves are functional pieces of furniture and it is a bit difficult to imagine how to improve the age-old paradigm of a bookshelf as a vertical arrangement of horizontal shelves.
The new twist applied by the designers at monocomplex to the concept "bookshelf" is to angle the tops and bottoms of the shelves. The Lean/Bookshelf has a set of four Finnish birch shelves, stacked together with a flexible geometry which is visually appealing while at the same time quite practical in function.
A common feature of new designs is that new problems (or opportunities) appear in the solution of old problems. In the case of the Lean/Bookshelf there's no flat, level space that can be used to store piles of materials which do not need to be neatly displayed. Perhaps it's just the price of progress.
At this stage we are not aware of any plans for commercial production.
Source: monocomplex
