A request for the installation of a sophisticated front entryway came into the NEWwoodworks team—a door that not only welcomed visitors, but also emitted a feeling of grounding and balance.
The client ‘s inspiration for their door was science, specifically the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the “golden ratio.” The golden ratio occurs organically in nature, and has historically been influential in architecture, engineering, and technology. Natural shapes born from the ratio can be witnessed in galaxies and DNA strands. They also exist at a micro level in flowers, shells and fingerprints. The designs exist in an array of clockwise and counterclockwise reciprocal spirals. The client was also inspired by a scientific journal piece titled Helix of the Heart, where the golden ratio and its connection to the shapes inside of the human heart were examined.
Josh Savior design engineer at NEWwoodworks shared, “For this project the clients came to us with multiple designs and I kind of glommed them together and made one of my own that catered to what they wanted.
And so, the design for a golden ratio, a door from the heart, began. Savior, continued, “The whole thing is based around the golden ratio, so I figured out what the ratio was, and I drew that, and saw how it would fit onto a door. You have to compromise some things, the glass must be curved, the shape of the door has to be curved in some aspect. And we had to spill over into the sidelights. You see how it feels, not just how it looks.
What was essentially a standard door at its core, would be differentiated by its special curvatures, shapely lines and custom look. NEWwoodworks shop lead Charlie Bartholomew said, Doors are all boxes, but different shapes. All doors start out basic, it fits in the frame, you have square pieces, rectangles, the joinery is similar. What’s different here is the extra curves. They’re curves, but not lineal curves, they are flowing curves. Every bit of this door is sort of a standard thing-except for everything is different. Trying to get all the pieces to fit the same but working with curved pieces. The overall look of it is truly unique.”
The team started by crafting the cedar heart of the door. Then, they built the frame and forms around the central core for the two sidelights. The casing was constructed in one piece and assembled with glue and screws to avoid the use of nails.
Bartholomew added, “The panel itself had these curved trim pieces on it that usually aren’t there.” These specialized swirl patterns used on the front and the back of the door were developed independent of one another. The NEWwoodworks team created wood forms for the shapes as well as the sidelight glass patterns. The meticulous radius curves were cut on a swinger router and had to be perfect to match the pattern of the design.
“The tricky part were the sidelights,” says craftsman Geoff Woerner. “It was a challenge to locate the points for measurement because everything is curved. The reference points were hard to determine. But because of the concave and convex shapes in the door, accuracy was vital.”
An additional specialized element of the door besides its contours, was the customer’s request for the front facing veneer to dramatically blend contrasting pieces of lighter and darker cedar. Savior said, “I made the golden ratio my focus, but the clients also mentioned wanting to bring energy in, bring energy up from the ground showing directionality. That we accomplished with the grain of the door, placing the darker grains going up. Showing a cathedral look. We book matched it on purpose, showing a mirror image.”
To illustrate the movement of energy Bartholomew needed to find the perfect pieces of cedar. “We spent a great deal of time hand sorting pieces of wood, searching for the perfect match,” says Bartholomew. “We worked with the client to get a set of hues & tones they loved. It was well worth the effort.”
Various addendums to the door were the perfect finishing touch. A custom bronze lever handle and lock was affixed. Four heavy duty ball bearing hinges that hold the door in place were added allowing it to swing smoothly for a lifetime. Lastly applied was a clear European finish, a two-part polyurethane with a light sheen and amber tint that lets the carefully sourced cedar glow, expressing a magical feel that looks like a portal to another world.
What Savior is most proud of is, “How the door makes you feel. If you sit there and stare at it, how it makes you feel, and what it makes you think about is what’s unique about it. You will drive by and see a bunch of main entry doors and they don’t really mean much to you. But if you drive by and see this one, it’s like wow, that’s a piece of art. Its more personal, it makes the gears turn and makes you think about things differently.”
