1. At first I thought of hanging glass shelves from the ceiling using crossing wires at either end. The shelves could be supported by steel rods that tighten onto these wires at either end with a screw. Like those tracking halogens? Muchos weight on the ceiling though. Ignore this for now.

2. front But you could use this idea if the wires were suspended from some ’tower’ like structure at either end. Maybe looking like this from the front. Probably something simpler is better.

3. front Like this! ’Thats not simpler’ you cry! Well. It would be made from steel rod welded together so and if polished should not be too distracting. It would look very lightwieght (and indeed would be) but strong due to the triangles. The cables hang like this and are attached at the bottom and tensioned with a tensioner like the ones for wire fences. You’d probably be better with two sets of short glass shelves and 3 supporting structures to accomodate the weight of books.

4. Or the ’pillars’ could be like triangular prism frameworks. It would be cool to build the tensile members of these out of cable too and give the whole thing a ’mysteriously-standing-up-when-it-shouldn’t’ kinda feel.

5. This is all pretty complex so maybe back to basics. Shelves that slot into notched towers at either side? Made of wood? Pretty imposing. A steel tube with slots in? With a sturdy base of course.

6. Ah yes the golden ratio. I like it. I think you should ahve it in your house. You could make a few of these steel or wooden squares in golden proportions and have the shelving within these. The whole thing is modular so you can play with it and the shelves adjustable. The little squares could be for ornaments or one big book, maybe Tipler. Does that make sense?

7. You could always get some of these and stack up your own system of course… Thats all my ideas for now. More may follow. Tell me what you’re thinking. Love R