In the era of e-books and online shops, when the classic book trade has come under increasing pressure, the success of a bookshop is by no means a foregone conclusion. Booksellers confront these new challenges with very different economic strategies and conceptual measures. Spatial concepts, furnishings and design are indispensable ingredients of a successful sales strategy for newer as well as more tradition-steeped bookstores. People like to linger and buy where they feel comfortable. This volume is dedicated to the most beautiful bookstores in the world. The old and the new, classical and innovative, giant stores and paradises in miniature for bibliophiles: What they all have in common is that they create a desire for books and prove that the bookshop as institution will always fulfill a need and without a doubt enjoys a future.

Everybody knows Athens? Acropolis, Paris? Notre Dame or the Victory Column in Berlin? and nobody can imagine any of it without its impressive pillar constructions. Pillars always act as a symbol of grandeur and power but often they also have crucial func.

Balconies are an architectural accent of a special kind. Forced to looking up from below while passing by on the street the balcony serves as an eye-catcher. However, regarded down from the perspective of the balcony it is providing a refuge.