Enough shelves! (at least for a little while)

[nancylebov]

The client owns an extensive collection of books on the subject of Islamic history, so he requested that we create this building with the maximum capacity for its storage and exhibition.

It's carefully designed to be earthquake-proof, but now that the subject has come up I wonder if it would be good to have a little something to restrain the books from falling out of the shelves if the building is shaken.

Link thanks to haikujaguar.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

That's really lovely design.

I wonder if it would be good to have a little something to restrain the books from falling out of the shelves if the building is shaken

I don't think so. If the walls and ceilings stay in place, and the shelves don't collapse, it's not a disaster if books fall off the shelves. Several kinds of restraint are possible, but nothing is going to prevent book movement in case of a severe quake. How much trouble and expense and inconvenience and ugliness is it worth to keep books from falling off the shelf in a mild quake? I don't hear much about books falling off shelves in mild earthquakes (I hear about fragile stuff falling, or about shelves collapsing, but those are different.) Is it a common problem?

1) The seatbelt approach--some kind of strap or rope across the front of each cubbyhole. These are an obvious precaution, and they don't add much weight or cost. They can be retrofitted. I think they'd really detract from the visual appeal of this setup, which is mostly about clean lines, good proportions, and no fiddly bits. A really strong quake will shake books past any kind of restraint, but a seatbelt would need to be fairly wide and tight to be of any value at all. Readers will need to unhook the seatbelt every time they put a book on the shelf, or take one down to read it, and possibly just to browse the titles. I doubt it's worth it.

2) The cabinet approach--it would be possible to put a door in front of each cubbyhole. The books would still be visible if the cabinet doors were glass or clear plastic, even though it wouldn't look as open and available. It would be tremendously heavy and expensive to add reinforced cabinet doors, with strong latches, to every cubbyhole. I don't think it would be worthwhile overall--it would be inconvenient to use, as well as expensive to install, and spoiling the clean lines of the piece. If there are a few especially fragile books in the collection (antiques, or art books, or stuff like that), it might be worthwhile to put them in display cabinets with doors, while the rest of the books are on the little open shelves shown.

3) The front of the shelf can have a little flange to prevent books from sliding forward. This only protects against mild shaking (but nothing in the bookcase is going to protect from a really severe quake.) It's cheap and unobtrusive, if it's built in from the beginning. It's not easy to retrofit, so unobtrusive I can't tell from the picture if the shelves have it or not. (The bookshelf by my bed has something like this. I don't think of it as earthquake-proofing, but it's great for keeping pencils from rolling away.)

4) Put the books at the back of the shelves and pack them tight. A row of books LOOKS best when the spines are lined up near the front of the shelf. But pushing them up against the back wall of the shelf may be a little bit safer.

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

Green with envy.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful space. I'm not just saying that because I'm trying to get rid of books, again, because I have no space for them. It's hard to have floor to ceiling shelves everywhere and still create such a light, airy feeling...

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at it again, and wondering appearance and storage for the very tall ladder or ladders would be.

[arundelo.livejournal.com]

Drool.

Ditto on the ladders, although with all the vertical dividers the shelves themselves are probably pretty climbable.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Just wow. Reminds me a bit of what a parental friend in upstate NY has done.

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

That's fabulous.

Books falling out of shelves in an earthquake aren't so bad. Whole bookshelves falling over, that's a problem. Especially if they're metal storage shelves and get all twisted when they fall, like mine did in '89.