The St. Mark's Bookshop located in New York City has an unusual setup for its interior space. Instead of the tall, standard rectangular bookcases, you'll find shelving that flows throughout the store in a smooth, wave-like motion. There aren't any hard angles here; sharp corners were eliminated by its designers, Clouds Architecture Office.
The New York-based practice created the innovative bookcases to stimulate visual experience while shopping. Vertical supports are pulled back to showcase the horizontal edges of the shelving, and the lower rungs are canted to tilt the book spines up towards the viewer. Different section titles are etched into the wood to maintain the continuity of lines and keep them free from signage.
St. Mark's Bookshop hosts events, and the bookshelves were designed with this in mind. The perimeter of the store is wrapped with the unique furniture and creates flexible, usable space in the middle of it. In addition, there are variously-stacked display units that double as tables and informal seating for book readings. This helps create a visually interesting place whose diagonal shelving faces towards the store's entrance and shows off all of the intriguing reads that they have to offer.
Clouds Architecture Office website
via [This Isn't Happiness]
