These Designer Bookshelves ($439) have been awarded with a well deserved prize in the international design competition organized by the Furniture Manufacturers’ Association of Asahikawa, in Japan.

The innovative design lets you fold down the exact space you currently need.

The shelves are made of tough and steady cherry wood, but they possess the lightness of rice paper: they can be laid down, stood up, turned 90 degrees, used horizontally or vertically, turned into the absolute protagonists of a room or into almost invisible entities so that the colors and textures of the walls are the true protagonists.

(Via Coolest Gadgets & Freshome)