If you gave me 40,000 dowels, all you'd get would be a very long game of pick-up sticks. In the hands of a Massachusetts architectural firm, those dowels met pegboard and created a one-of-a-kind undulating feature.
Seeing an opportunity to flex creative and technical muscle, Merge Architects designed and fabricated these walls with built-in shelving. One wall even conceals the entrance to a revamped bathroom. The architects used a computer program to figure out the exact length of each maple dowel that would make subtle waves, and the 80-hour assembly was totally hands on. "It was literally peg, glue, stick in hole," the firm principal told Dwell.
While this application clearly isn't practical for everyone (hello, dust), it's a cool re-imagining of what walls or shelves can look like.
Find out more and see additional photos in Dwell.
Images: John Horner for Dwell
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I would not like to be the person who has to dust that!
Yeah, can't imagine how this wall is going to look in three months--ugh.
My first thought was...Cleaning Nightmare!!! But definitely creative.
dust?
just get out the leaf blower.
done.
dust?
just get out the leaf blower.
done.
I think this is very do-able on a smaller scale. And just a couple of blasts from canned air will take care of the dust.
I wonder how the book binding will react.
My hats off the the folks that had to cut and sand and finish and glue those dowels in place. Dwell mentioned that the backing board was made using a CNC machine, but I think each dowel had to be cut by hand. The designer wanted to use inexpensive materials for his work, but 40,000 of them sure do add up!
On a side note, what would happen if you dropped a little ball down between the dowels in the top?
Besides the dust I'm thinking bugs! We have a terrible stink bug problem in PA. It started in Allentown, PA coming in cargo from China and they are spreading. They're coming for you!! AGH!!! They get in anything and everything and let off brown liquid. They would be in hog heaven in that.
What could have been totally stunning would have been to also run the wave pattern vertically as well as horizontally. Transcendent.
My only criticism now: Not that are items on the shelves, Only what's there is utterly pedestrian.
I would LOVE to do this (or something like it). And my wife would kill me, for all the abovementioned issues. Oh well.
Beautiful!
Wow! This reminds me of those things with all of the needle things that you put your hand on.
Seeing an opportunity to flex creative and technical muscle:quote vs hand wringing about dust, dirt, bugs. No doubt they're proud of their effort; no doubt it's probably "Never again!".
Dust shmust... this would endure in all its glory for approximately five minutes before I accidentally bumped into that patch in the middle, knocking hundreds of dowels to the floor.
SPIDERS
who gets to dust? lol and how much did the person who put it together get paid?
there is no way i would have the time, or the patience to cut, glue, stick these..
PLINKO!
All I'd like to know is how long that took?!
I love it. I have a wall calling out for something like this, but I don't think it should try to support books or knickknacks. Pic 1 shows that some of the dowels are out of alignment and they jump right out to my OCD-eye. It would drive me nuts.
Wow, amazing!!! Both in idea and execution. I'm not afraid to be a voice echoing concern (well, curiosity mostly) about dust removal, though.
I guess that's secondary to the creative aspect of this idea. Cool!
What a waste of wall space. To the cleaning issues already mentioned, add small children inserting toys or food, basically anything they can get their hands on, into this. Or the dog chewing on it. Or someone falling into it and the facial injuries that could result.
Big ol fail.