Here's something that's happened to everyone. You've got a pile of books just sort of hanging out, looking like a bomb went off. So you decide to buy some shelves for them. You buy a perfectly sized shelving unit, arrange your books on the shelves with care—then fast forward three months, when your book collection has exploded again, and your perfectly sized shelving unit has proven comically inadequate.
Enter Japanese design firm Nendo, who just hit the 2015 London Design Festival with this killer shelving unit. Called the Nest (no relation), this carbon fiber shelving unit stretches like taffy to accommodate any space, and as much stuff as you can throw at it.
In essence, the Nest is a matryoshka: a nesting pair of super thin shelving units. By default, these units are folded together into a stock three-shelf configuration, but you can double or even triple the amount of shelves and storage space available to you just by pulling the Nest by the sides. Then, it folds out almost like an accordion, giving you three to six more shelves to store things on, depending on how you configure it.
It really is a clever idea, and thanks to the fact that the Nest is reinforced with carbon fiber, the shelves remain strong enough to handle a lot of weight even when they're stretched thin in a 3x3 configuration. Extended fully, the Nest is 4.25 feet wide, but can be compressed down to just half that size.
If you want to see it for yourself, the Nest will be on display at Somerset House as part of the Ten Designers In The West Wing Exhibition, taking place at the London Design Festival's Somerset House next week from September 21 to 27.