Make Yourself at Home in This Giant Bookshelf

See this giant bookshelf? According to Inhabitat, it’s an architectural installation that also serves as a cozy reading nook. Slovenian designers created the structure's high, sloping surfaces to be shaped like seats or steps, allowing you to select a book, clamber up the installation’s walls, settle down, and make yourself at home. The project is called “Home at Arsenale," and it's currently on display at the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy, which opened last week on May 28, and ends November 27.

This year, the 2016 Biennale's theme is “Reporting From the Front." The event's head curator, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena, told The New York Times that he asked participants to examine “what it is like to improve the quality of life while working on the margins, under tough circumstances.” Designers from 37 countries submitted projects to the Biennale that offer architectural solutions to social and environmental challenges facing today’s cities, and explore the ever-changing notion of “home.”

Slovenian design duo Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič of Dekleva Gregorič Architects decided to make “Home at Arsenale” because “the notion of home requires re-addressing," explained Dekleva and Gregorič on the project's website. "Since the dawn of civilization, structures for dwelling have constructed the predominant part of our built environment, and have served to fulfill our most basic needs. Yet, they should aim beyond securing mere survival to provide the conditions necessary for a meaningful life."

"The project [Home at Arsenale] proposes the concept of home as a public curated library that operates as a platform for exploring the notions of home and dwelling, within the current critical social and environmental conditions," they added.

According to Dezeen, the bookshelf is filled with 300 works selected by architects, designers, critics, and artists that address the concepts of home or dwelling. As for the shelf’s latticed nooks and crannies, they’re made from Slovenian timber. Thanks to the nation’s abundant forests, Gregorič and Dekleva wanted to highlight the material as a building resource. The wood also pays homage to Venice’s timber building foundations, many of which were constructed from wood harvested from Slovenia’s Karst landscape.

Check out some more pictures below, or visit the project's website for more information. 

Photos courtesy of homeatarsenale.org.

[h/t Inhabitat]