BOOX, the modular storage system originally designed in 2006 by Alberto Basaglia and Natalia Rota Nodari, is being transformed by LEDs. The new BOOX LED integrates lighting in a unique way–inside the aluminum bars that compose the shelving’s frame. What’s interesting about this design is that it enables each single shelf to be illuminated. The capability to light up gives BOOX LED new opportunities for showing off whatever you keep inside the system.

BOOX LED. Designed by Rexite.

Given the modular aspect of BOOX, which allows for building anything from a sideboard to a bookshelf, you can highlight objects as diverse as handblown glass vases and multi-horned Uglydolls. Looking for a particular book? Use BOOX LED’s integrated lights to guide you toward the right title. I want BOOX LED for my ideal library, which some readers may recall includes one of every bookshelf I ever fell in love with (and there are lots). If I were to arrange my collection thematically, then all books relating to light will be shelved in my BOOX LED: I envision copies of Everything is Illuminated, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Light in August, Darkness at Noon, To the Lighthouse, and Heart of Darkness, to name a few.

BOOX LED. Designed by Rexite.

BOOX. Designed by Rexite.

BOOX. Designed by Rexite.

BOOX. Designed by Rexite.

BOOX LED, like its predecessor BOOX, combines a natural anodised aluminum frame with methacrylate panels. Besides back and side panels, BOOX can also come with sliding panels. All methacrylate panels come in “various full, transparent or frosted colours,” including primary red, blue, and yellow. Shelves are of transparent or etched glass. Besides the fantastic lighting capabilities, BOOX also offers fabulous modularity: “The system can be freely combined, both in terms of height and width, and is also available with double depth, which enables its use on both sides. Boox means free choice of size and colours. The maximum height is 229 centimeters (901/4") with five shelves, whereas the width can be endlessly extended.” Because of its possibility for being lengthened to any degree, BOOX is the perfect shelving to pair with The World’s Longest Table for All Cultures. If that isn’t the set design for the next Dr. Strangelove, I don’t know what is. That is actually a fitting comparison for Rexite, the Italian company that produces BOOX LED. Founded in 1968, Rexite still believes in “encouraging unexpected and ironic aspects.”