DETAILS / MERIT

Entry: Scribble Wall @ L Residence, Omaha, Nebraska 
Firm: Min | Day
Masonry Contractor: Thunn Construction, Inc.
Owners: Withheld at owner’s request
Photographer: Paul Crosby

15’ oak walls separate public from private areas within a penthouse apartment in a renovated Art Deco hotel in Omaha. To express the thinness of this surface we sheathed the wall in rift-sawn White Oak veneer, carefully hiding the actual thickness of the substrate. In particular areas, and in a nod to the surface ornamentation common to Art Deco architecture, we milled a pattern of odd-shaped holes derived by digitizing quick pen scribbles. In some instances these perforations are open to areas beyond and in others they are grilles covering diffuse recessed lights. The pattern never repeats in the apartment. Once developed and optimized to specific parameters in the computer, we cut the pattern through the panels with a 3-axis cnc-router.

In areas where the perforated panels are open to naturally-illuminated spaces beyond, we painted the inside edges of the holes the same color as the surfaces beyond (a vibrant blue). This effect heightens the apparent thinness of the veneer surface and amplifies the volume of color beyond. In other areas, the perforated surface is backlit with a diffuse glow through soft white acrylic. The contrast between the crisp edge and the diffuse background vibrates in the eye.