Shrine / Storage

architects Miljenko Bernfest, Lovorka Prpić
project Bookstore AGM, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Tomislav Pavelić

 

All wall surfaces of the AGM bookshop are covered with bookshelves. At the back, even the windows are covered by them as if there was not enough space, so they simply continued on. The shelves are wrapped like ribbons around the whole bookshop always taking up the same belt within the cross section, left after the simple operation of deducting space reserved for services (heating/ventilation) or the given architectural facts (parapet/window). Within the defined height, individual shelves change the interspace, upwards, from smaller to bigger. The authors play with our senses. The depth of the shelves is varied in a similar way, behind the uniform appearance – somewhere it is standard, in other places it is doubled for a double row of books, while in the shop window it is reduced for displaying covers. Shelves are made of steel, without any vertical dividers because they are cantilevered from the walls.