Close-up of a black perforated metal surface with a circular pattern and small circular and elongated holes, with some colorful reflections and a blurred background.

Perforated metal gate with abstract geometric patterns, located indoors in a modern building.

Colorful mural featuring a large eagle with outstretched wings, a golden moon, and abstract patterns with bright colors and geometric shapes.

Perforated metal panel with geometric and abstract patterns, including dice and heart shapes, with faint colorful reflections underneath.

Modern building entrance with black decorative gate, glass doors, and windows, featuring signage for Suite 3 and a business named Aki.

Colorful mural featuring blue abstract shapes, a bird, a rainbow-colored building, a large golden circle, a detailed creature with wings, and a silhouette of a person playing guitar.

KhepRa – District Portal

Laser-cut metal breezeway gate and mural

Bryant Manor Apartments, Central District, Seattle, WA. 2024 ·

Commissioned by First AME (FAME) Housing Association
Fabrication in collaboration with Terrene, Inc.

Khepra reimagines a building entrance as a threshold of cultural memory. The gate's panels translate traditional African textile patterns into laser-cut metalwork, casting shifting plays of light and shadow across the breezeway throughout the day. An innovative dot-matrix technique varies the density of cut-out negative space to suggest tone and color, so the piece reads differently up close versus from across the courtyard.
For Bryant Manor's returning and incoming residents, the gate stands as a daily symbol of Sankofa, honoring the past while building toward the future, and reflects the deep cultural fabric of Seattle's Central District.