This Is The Bookshelf Of Your Dreams, Everyone

You know that feeling when you move into a new apartment and — horror of horrors — there's not enough room for your bookshelf? Or what about when you fit that very last book on the very top shelf and are faced with the question of where you'll put new books in the future? Japanese design studio Nendo has a solution: a collapsible bookshelf.

For the 2015 London Design Festival, designer Oki Sato created the Nest bookshelf, a modular carbon fiber shelving unit that can grow from two feet across to four. When fully compressed, the Nest appears to be just an ordinary three-shelf bookcase, but pull out one of the ends and it becomes a grid of nine squares. Keep pulling and you get a six-shelf bookcase double the size of the original. It's BRILLIANT.

Nendo is known for its whimsical but simple designs, which include Winnie-the-Pooh-inspired tables, transformable dog beds, and glasses with magnetic hinges, as well as more traditional furniture and installation pieces. Founder Sato calls his inspirations "! moments," small but striking details that he builds into a design. "I come up with my ideas from everyday life. Small differences hidden within the normal routine," he says. "The smaller the better, to let it sneak into people's minds and emotions."

Here it is in action:

Unfortunately, the Nest isn't yet available commercially, and there's no indication that it'll be for sale in the U.S. any time soon. But if you happen to be in London this week, you can see this cleverly designed bookshelf on display at Somerset House. The rest of us will have to settle for adding it to our book-themed Pinterest boards.

Image: YouTube/Narain Jashanmal