enormous, but not overwhelming

Inhabitat recently posted a single shelf bookshelf from an Amsterdam-based design house called Studio Frederik Roije. (Not re-posted here, but it's the first thing you see on the sfr site.) That one was a bit severe-feeling for me to put it in my own space, even though I like the design idea. Digging around the rest of their designs I found this (picture below) more extensive bookshelf called 'long legs.' The amazing thing to me about this design is that the space looks so open for having such a huge piece of furniture in it.

It's a cool modern piece but it reminds me of some of the intricate Asian wood patterns ( -> ) where the lines are all very clean (well spaced, horizontal & vertical only), but they can start and stop unexpectedly.

[edited for picture clarity - Fri afternoon]