Architecture studio AKB is bewitching Toronto’s book lovers with an inviting design known as the Story Pod. As its name suggests, it’s a pod for stories. Located near Main Street in the town of Newmarket, the compact construction serves its purpose as a book exchange where visitors can take a book, leave a book, or lounge on the built-in seating for a relaxing reading session. Regardless of the reasoning behind a person’s visit to the pod, each person is met with an artistically designed structure with a series of vertical slats. When the slats are closer together, they look like an opaque wall, but they reveal book stacks when the openings are widened. There are also gaps backed by transparent plastic, which allows light to filter through and add to the piece’s dynamic nature.
To invite readers into the space, Story Pod‘s doors pivot open in the morning to mimic the covers of a book. Once nighttime falls and the doors are locked to protect the books, energy efficient LED lights (which are powered by the roof’s solar panels) make the structure look like a lantern. For those who are walking around at night, the Story Pod doubles as a beacon of illumination.
AKB: