Earthquake-Proof Climbable Bookshelf!

February 13, 2018 8:29 AM

You had me at earthquake proof, climbable floor to ceiling bookcase.
posted by MartinWisse (27 comments total)

I can imagine a kid sized version of this going over very well.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:35 AM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is awesome and I want one for our books and records. The only drawback I can see is that I'm occasionally in my cups when I'm listening to records and would probably fall to my death, but at least I'd die doing what I loved.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:48 AM on February 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

Design your entire house to accommodate a bookshelf? This is my kinda dude!
posted by selfnoise at 8:54 AM on February 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is cool, and looks good, but on one hand, if you need a slanted wall, it's sadly not exactly for everyone, and, not to stereotype, but I don't know if you can as easily make it sturdy enough to be climbable for average-sized people in the "west" as you can in Japan.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 8:59 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

If you're going to have a shelf like that, you should be required to adopt a sufficient number of cats to fill it up.
posted by Daily Alice at 9:01 AM on February 13, 2018 [22 favorites]

can't help but think, though: dust collection.
posted by Zed at 9:16 AM on February 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Can't justify giving up 3 or 4 feet of floor space along the wall. It could be storage, I guess but hard to access. I'd prefer of those chairs that unfolds into a step ladder...or one of those old time ladders on a rail.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:24 AM on February 13, 2018

can't help but think, though: dust collection

No worries. It looks plenty big enough to accommodate both your books and your dust collection.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:44 AM on February 13, 2018 [37 favorites]

can't help but think, though: dust collection.

Isn't this why people have cats?
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:35 AM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Shelve the mountaineering books at the top
posted by oulipian at 10:52 AM on February 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

I'm going to have a fairly high wall in my new house and I've been thinking about getting a really high bookshelf made for it so this is great to see. It's less out there than many of my other ideas for the house so perhaps I'll get some buy-in for it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:01 AM on February 13, 2018

I'm reminded of one of the inspirations for whatever William Gibson story it was that had people living on the outside of arcologies. Friends of his in NYC lived in a prewar building that had been hacked up into small apartments but still had something like 15+ foot ceilings. So they covered one wall with shelves and then devised a sort of counterweighted boson's chair setup so you could swing yourself up to get things from the highest shelves.
posted by tavella at 11:12 AM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Bookshelves (well, lack thereof) are one of the things that always bums me out about being a renter, especially in earthquake country. We have high ceilings for the first time in my life and visions of a Beauty-&-the-Beast-style wall of books with a rolling ladder keep dancing in my head, but the amount of work we'd have to do to anchor them safely would violate our lease. I'd love to be able to rig up a set of deep, angled shelves like these.
posted by Anita Bath at 12:22 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

What zed sed. Dust seems to pile up quickly in Tokyo, despite continuously running air filters. (I'm guessing Yokohama is not different in this regard.)
posted by oheso at 1:32 PM on February 13, 2018

I guess I am missing what makes this climbable other than shelves that are wider than the uprights and the items on the shelf. There are no handles that I can see and the first picture shows maybe 4 inches of space for her foot. Is there anything on the edge of the shelf that acts as a tread?
posted by soelo at 1:33 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

The bottom is further out than the top and the shelves are angled slightly upwards so I guess if you were to fall you would be more likely to fall forwards onto the shelf instead of backwards off of it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:08 PM on February 13, 2018

If I was young and spritely I could see it being nice, but with no handholds and the 'steps' apparently being only deep enough to get a bare toe-hold... yeah, no, I 'll pass.
posted by tavella at 2:47 PM on February 13, 2018

That top shelf is perfect for keeping all your superhero comics safe from the vindictive clutches of your elderly, disapproving parents!
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:01 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I want this so much. I worked in the library when I was in college and got to put it back together after an earthquake and it was a mess. Everything higher than two shelves was in the floor in a heap. I dread that happening to my books.
posted by Margalo Epps at 5:43 PM on February 13, 2018

I was wondering why it made sense to give up some space to make a slanted wall, but the outside shot makes it clear that there's no space being given up. The sloped outside seems kinda uninviting but at least when giving directions you could tell your friends to look for the Sandcrawler.
posted by Standard Orange at 5:49 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I like the way this looks. Making it climable is great, but making so the only access is by climbing isn't great. People get old, people get drunk, and people get pregnant, just to think of a few examples where a non-climbing option might be nice.

But still, even if this is a big accessibility fail, it makes me happy any time that there is architecture that isn't completely cookie-cutter.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:59 PM on February 13, 2018

Every time you climb the steps, you will instinctively lean to the right. This is what I hate about modern architecture. It forces us to conform to it, just like a bully.

https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/earthquake-proof-bookshelf-architect-shinsuke-fujii-8-682x1024.jpg
posted by Beholder at 6:06 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

You've really got to have contempt for books to think this is a good idea.
posted by Scram at 11:54 PM on February 14, 2018

You've really got to have contempt for books to think this is a good idea.

How so?
posted by Anita Bath at 10:34 AM on February 16, 2018

(Genuinely curious about what you mean here; the climbing indicates that the designers weren't really thinking about the needs of people who can't be hopping on and off shelves that require balancing on the balls of one's feet, but as for the books, it seems like a fairly standard, safe way to store them?)
posted by Anita Bath at 10:37 AM on February 16, 2018

Your feet were just on the floor and now they are on the shelf, including any dirt from the floor. There is nothing protecting the books from that dirt, or your foot for that matter.
posted by soelo at 2:48 PM on February 16, 2018

People generally don't wear their shoes indoor in Japan so the floor ought to be reasonably clean. If anything their socks/slippers might help remove some of the dust from the shelves they step on.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:25 PM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]