You probably won’t be taking this small mobile bookshelf outdoors, but you’ll at least be able to enjoy your favorite novel anywhere indoors.
Most of us have our favorite corners at home, our small areas of solitude and calm where we can curl up with a book and maybe even a hot mug of cocoa for comfort. It can be the couch, or it can even be your bed, any place that offers a smidgen of isolation that you could let you enjoy reading or thinking in peace. Not all places have such a nook or cranny, though, especially in more public indoor places like libraries. In those spaces, you might want to escape to a far-off corner of the room with your selected books to read, and this rolling cart for books lets you do exactly that and even offers something to sit on while you get engrossed in that new favorite book of yours.
Designer: Farhan Syahmi
Libraries are designed for reading books, of course, but most of them seem to make that a cold and alien experience that often scares off even bookworms. Long tables force many to uncomfortably share spaces with strangers, while chairs provide little comfort even to your back, let alone your posterior. There are exceptions to these, of course, with reading spaces designed to make reading feel enjoyable and comfortable, but most public spaces, including company libraries, turn the activity into something clinical and mechanical, more for dry studying than getting lost in the pages of a book.
Imagine, then, a library floor plan with more open spaces than unwelcoming rows of long tables, areas where you can pull up your own seat and read in isolation and privacy. You’d have to provide many personal desks and chairs, of course, which will inevitably lead to a lot of distracting pulling and pushing of furniture across the floor. That’s where Gambus comes in, presenting a sort of makeshift movable library within a library, one that you can silently roll around to your chosen spot and let you immediately sit down and read without missing a beat.
The movable library seater takes inspiration from a real gambus or qanbus, a wooden lute-like musical instrument with a large pear-shaped body and a narrow neck. The body of this Gambus seater is likewise made of wood, with a large cavern inside to fit a good number of books. The top surface serves as your seat so that you can sit down and read right where your books are. Alternatively, it can also function as a stepping stool to reach books on high shelves, though the wheels probably make that a bit risky.
The thin neck of the seater curves upward and ends with a tabletop where you can put the book you’re reading or even some of your stuff. You pull or push the Gambus using the tray, and the stem can actually function as a makeshift backrest as well if you’re so inclined. The Gambus is primarily designed so that you can pick a few books from library shelves and the plop down and read where you are (presuming you’re not blocking anyone’s path), but it’s not hard to imagine how the concept could be extended to create more personal reading experiences anywhere that has plenty of books and space to set up your own tiny fortress of solitude, even for just a few hours.
