Some shelves can be reached from a floor, adjacent landing or triangle-shaped spiral stairs, but what about the rest? As it turns out, a remote-controlled chain hoist attached to a bosun’s chair (stable climbing harness) while readers ride up and down to retrieve volumes.

Sallie Trout went fairly far out of her normal interior, furniture, lighting and hardware design experience to create this towering family library right int the center of her own home.

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The shaft provides more than simply shelving for old books, serving as a multistory light well, natural ventilation shaft and decorated atrium – an arcane computer language shaped the strange forms of each individually-designed shelf unit as well.