Lake Cabinet & Bed
House on Lake Okoboji, Iowa, 2008
Built by Colley Furniture Studio

The cabinet is the primary built feature in the master bedroom of the Okoboji House. All sides of the cabinet are finished with horizontally-laminated Baltic Birch plywood (stacked slabs of plywood with veneer edges exposed). The front side is a large headboard for the bed, facing the lake view. Studying the morphology of rippling water, we developed a range of parameters for a computer animation of the water's surface. We then optimized this surface for fabrication and output code for a 3-axis cnc-router to cut the wave-form into blank slabs of plywood prepared for the job. Here, the uniqueness of the supple surface is contrasted by the repetitive horizontality of the veneer layers.

• 2008 AIA Nebraska Honor Award for Detail