Before we began pouring our identities into online profiles, eagerly baring our likes and dislikes for the world to see, there existed a simpler material means for such a ritual within the everyday home: the bookshelf. Privacy settings were a little higher of course—only those who were permitted to enter your home could look, pry and judge—but the bookshelf was and is the primitive mantel for the you-are-what-you-like portrait of the self. Whether you like it or not, spines of books and other media align to form a self-conscious representation of the inner mind. Monographs interspersed with curated tchotchkes might accentuate a person’s artistic flair. Music buffs can line their walls with discs and vinyl. Meanwhile, self-help books, if not hastily destroyed after reading, are likely tucked away out of sight.

Well, it’s about time the revealing shelving unit had a space for your bike, and the designers at Italian design firm BYografia have created a freestanding bookshelf for those who subscribe to the you-are-what-you-ride philosophy. The Bookbike combines a vertical compartment to hang a bicycle with a series of stacked storage spaces for books and other shelf-worthy belongings in a versatile, minimalist design. As cities around the world accommodate a growing population of cyclists, the Bookbike emerges as a prototype for the urban home, a way to not only save space but to also uphold the bicycle, a timeless emblem of the symbiosis between body and machine, as an object worthy of self-expressive display.

[Images courtesy BYografia]

by Kelly Chan

posted in Product

tagged bike, bikes, biking, bookshelf, design, home, interior design, shelving

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