Columbus, Indiana, USA
Developed for the 4th cycle of the biennial exhibition Exhibit Columbus, Sylvan Scrapple responds to specific site conditions with transferable tactics: urban activation, mass timber construction, and reuse. Sylvan Scrapple scribes a 110-foot-long snaking wood wall into an existing planter to form a wooded oasis.
Sylvan Scrapple by After Architecture, received an 2025 American Architecture Honourable Mention from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Columbus, Indiana, has a unique architectural legacy and collection of over 80 significant works of architecture. Mid-century urban design privileged grand urban moves out of scale with Columbus’ modest population of 50,000. Sited between the visitors center and library, Sylvan Scrapple inserted a 110-foot-long snaking wood wall along an existing, 2000 ft2 landscape planter. Scribed to the planter’s brick perimeter, the curving wall shaped two elevated seating areas, two street level seating areas, and a gateway which scaffold new activity around the underutilized planter.
The project identifies nonlinear wood as an extensive, underutilized, carbon-sequestering construction material. The project team developed an electric, computer numerically controlled (CNC) sawmill for processing logs, augmenting an analog, gas-powered sawmill with sensors, motors, and guides choreographed by digital toolpaths.
This project is the first full-scale prototype of a freestanding curved timber wall assembly that deploys computer numerically controlled (CNC) sawmilling methods to process waste wood in the form of nonlinear logs. Sylvan Scrapple instrumentalizes their curvature in service of thin, lateral-force resisting structures.
For straight walls, reclaimed lumber from a decommissioned barn is gathered and planed. Straight segments have a uniform final width of 3” and vary in vertical thickness, allowing for reclaimed 2x4s (1.5” x 3.5”) to be maximized, while still making use of larger boards.
A post-tensioning system is deployed to address the ease of human labor, embodied carbon of heavy machinery, fuel costs, disassembly, and decommissioning. Panels are assembled without adhesives. Wood is stacked, threaded, and post-tensioned using vertical rod secured to a steel tube base. An integrated spring detail allows for expansion and contraction in response to seasonal fluctuations in the moisture content of the wood, as well as rapid disassembly.
The existing brick planter wall on site was augmented with custom gabion cages which form screen, dining table, stairs, and coffee table. These cages collected 2,500 bricks salvaged from the Irwin Block (1892-2022, destroyed by fire), a significant Queen Anne-style building, and 500 bricks from Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church (1942-, restored 2023). After exhibition, the cages become standalone furniture elements.
Wood, bricks, and scraps form a 15’ long dining table that creates a center for the installation. Bound with bioresin, this table closely resembles scrapple (a traditional dish that makes use of scraps and trimmings). A game of “I spy” uncovers panels salvaged from Eliel Saarinen’s church tower and branches from Mill Race Park.
Architects: After Architecture
Design Team: Katie MacDonald, Kyle Schumann, Shiza Chaudhary, Ammon Embleton, Isaac Goodin, Emily Ploppert, and Margaret Saunders
General Contractor: Before Building Laboratory
Client: Landmark Columbus Foundation
Photographs: Courtesy of the Architects
