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The Infinity Bookcase

By Alex in Arts & Crafts, Book & Lit, Home & Garden, Pictures on Nov 15, 2008 at 7:02 pm



Photo: Job Koelewijn – via KNAW Pressphoto

Dutch artist Job Koelewijn sure knows how to make an awesome bookcase. Behold his lemniscate (look it up) bookshelf that represents the infinite power of books and learnin’ – via Book Patrol


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COMMENT
  1. Jacki
    Nov 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

    Must be hard to get to the books in the center?

  2. nick
    Nov 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    it just goes on forever!

  3. silentwatcher24
    Nov 15th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    that is epicly cool.

  4. phil
    Nov 15th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

    Would have been cooler as a mobius strip :-)

  5. Matt Blank
    Nov 15th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    Hehe if it was a mobius it would have books spilling everywhere.

  6. lovemeordie236
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 12:12 am

    I'm imagining my cat running mad circuits around that thing nonstop..

  7. Rocky Rook
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Infinate books.

  8. Simon
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am

    That looks really nice, in response to the first comment post: it looks like the shelves have no backs so the books in the centre are those on the outside edge.

  9. gamernaveen
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Some of you might think it would be hard to pick up the books at the center , but take a closer look , it wont be a prob at all , its in 8 shape.

    Anyway , cool bookcase !

  10. doubleh
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    On close inspection it is just as topologically pleasing as it looks at first glance: There is only one shelf. Simon, it does run on both sides of the structure. It runs on the first and third rows*, up a coil, then on the second and fourth rows, and up the other coil back to the beginning of the path.

    *regardless of how you number the rows, but I chose top-down and traced the shelf left-right on the closest part for it to go "up" at the coils.

  11. brian
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    that's a photoshop...sorry to disappoint. and even if it wasn't, it's not entirely useful now is it.

  12. Desmond
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Check out this list of the BEST 30 bookshelf designs. Amazing stuff. This could be the 31st.
    http://besttoptenlist.blogspot.com/2007/11/30-of-most-creative-bookshe lves-designs.html

  13. hjh
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.

  14. Sean O' Grady
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    Nice design, not very clever though for the books in the inner circle

  15. Tommie
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    nice! someone should make a pi = 3.1415...bookshelves :)

    http://shoppingoak.com/freebies

  16. Sean
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    You have to crawl under the bottom shelf to get to the books in the center

  17. Jake Smith
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    This is actually two bookshelves. Follow one of the sides and you will see that there are actually 2 sides that are just connected so that if it were to spin like a baggage carousel, you would only ever see half the books, no matter where you stand.

  18. ntopics
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Hey, this is a great bookshelf design.
    I love to see curves in all types of furniture.
    Just one problem here - are all the books inside
    the loop easily accessible?

    Thanks from Tony

  19. grail
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    you're stupid the books are only one deep so the middle books are also the outside books. "boom baby!"

  20. Mitsi
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    Understood that there are no backs and that the inside books are accessable from the outside, but what if you accidently push one through to the middle and it falls to the floor?

  21. Leanne
    Nov 16th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    Mitzi - my question exactly! Thank you for someone finally asking that one. If you push one through, then what? Probably wouldn't be that hard to do accidentally.

  22. Ethan
    Nov 17th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Really cool! Also i would like one to see in my castle :)

  23. sw
    Nov 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    mitsi - that's why people have kids, to retrieve things from small spaces. just dangle them by their ankles.

  24. y@
    Nov 17th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    How does one tell someone where to find a book? "It's on the right side.. er left.. doh!"

  25. MENLOHEAVYWEIGHT
    Nov 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    SWEET, BUT IMPRACTICAL

  26. Rowan
    Dec 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    You can see, on the right side of the photo, that the shelves are two books deep. They just put the bindings facing the outside on each side. Four shelves isn't that high, you could just hop over into the loops. Besides how often do you need to reference every book every day? Just put the ones you don't read as much on the insides.

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