CityWood Artwork

About CityWood Artwork

CityWood is a wooden map artwork that presents a city as a three dimensional object. City streets, water and landscape are represented by separate wooden layers, and the layers create depth. Each layer of fine quality plywood is cut with laser technology, polished for a smooth surface and assembled by hand. The layers are set in a wooden frame that measures 450 mm in width, 450 mm in height and 30 mm in depth. The artwork can hang on a wall or stand on a desk. The natural grain of the wood makes each map different.

Positioned within the contemporary tradition of cartographic art and precision craft, Hubert Roguski's CityWood Artwork transforms the familiar aerial view of urban geography into an object of sustained aesthetic contemplation. This meticulously executed relief sculpture employs multiple layers of laser-cut birch plywood to render the intricate street patterns, waterways, and building blocks of a major metropolitan area as a three-dimensional wooden tapestry. The work participates in a rich lineage of map-based artistic practice while simultaneously engaging with contemporary digital fabrication technologies that enable unprecedented precision in material manipulation. The technical achievement here proves remarkable: thousands of individual cuts create the dense textile-like quality of urban blocks, while careful attention to layer registration ensures that each stratum contributes meaningfully to the overall topographic effect. Chromatically, the work draws upon the inherent beauty of natural wood, allowing subtle variations in grain and tone to provide visual interest without competing with the geographic information being conveyed. The composition demonstrates sophisticated understanding of figure-ground relationships, with the smooth, uncut background layer representing bodies of water while the raised, intricately carved sections delineate the complex patterns of human habitation. Shadow plays a crucial role in the work's visual success, with the physical depth of each layer generating natural chiaroscuro effects that shift throughout the day as ambient lighting conditions change. Thematically, the work invites reflection upon the organized complexity of urban environments, transforming what might otherwise appear as chaotic density into a pattern of profound visual harmony. The warm material presence of wood offers a humanizing counterpoint to the abstract geometric precision of cartographic representation. Viewers may find themselves drawn into close examination of individual neighborhoods, tracing street patterns that become almost calligraphic in their accumulated rhythm. What patterns emerge when we view our built environments from above, and how might such aerial perspectives transform our relationship to the spaces we inhabit?