Who wouldn’t want to take up residence in a library filled with dusty books and lush plants? But these images often present bookcases simply as decorative elements, superfluous to the actual design of the space. Like so many things, when architects began designing bookcases they became so much more: recessed and hidden, cantilevered, patterned, embedded, the list goes on!

We've collected some of the best examples that combine practicality and ingenuity.