The Newspaper House Revealed
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 03.10.08
Londoner's have three free newspapers foisted on them every day in the streets. This adds up to a lot of waste and a lot of people are getting pretty upset by it. As a response to this litter, and as a political statement about "making something high-quality out of something that has no value", Sumer Erek has created a five metre high Newspaper House out of all the discarded free papers around. The house has been "built" in a London square. Along with numerous volunteers, he has been constructing it out of donated papers for the past five days. Using almost 150,000 discarded free papers carefully packed inside a wooden frame for the construction, people were encouraged to write their own thoughts and wishes on the paper before it was rolled into "logs".
Saturday was the big opening of the almost finished house. A grey drizzle descended on the hundred or so spectators and volunteers (decked out in paper hats) who came to watch the tarpaulin be removed, and the house exposed in all its glory. Sumer Erek paid tribute to all of the (mainly) women volunteers and noted how appropriate this was, since it was International Women's Day. To great applause and cheers the wonderful neat and tidy little house was revealed and we were welcomed to walk through it.
As seen from the photos, the house was meticulously constructed. Each rolled up tube of paper "log", made with a specially invented paper rolling machine, was perfectly lined up.
The windows were an engineer's dream in their detailing.
The floor, probably ironically, was made out of the pink sheets of the Financial Times.
The house is an ongoing art installation. It will disappear after the weekend and be re-installed in another community. Presumably more volunteers will be welcomed to participate in the ongoing work of finishing the house and educating the public about waste in our society. :: The Newspaper House
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Ahhh, those ubiquitous plastic zip ties. They take a fully reusable commodity - paper - and turn it into unrecyclable mixed crap. I pull them apart and reuse them but I have this feeling that the thousands used in this project are about to be thrown "away"; wherever that is. The newspapers may rot away but will those lovely little self-tightening nooses be released into the environment to join the Great Global Garbage Gyre as a testament to our innovative sense of ironic modern artistic style?
could have used string. Let's hope they think twice the next time they assemble it.
bryan,
I can but agree with you. While I can understand why one would use tin cans, e.g. soda cans, for building a house, this newspaper one is a waste of time, resources (as the paper could be used in different ways), and with the added cable ties, it is an environmental nightmare. One can bu wonder how many thousands of them plastic things have gone into making this house.
Definitely not a treehugging idea.
well done...
another clever usage of stupid man's wate...
great deal in communication..
when will we finally understand something more...???
come on people...let's do it together!
As installation, or as art, i wouldn't say it's a waste of time at all. The practicality of such a house is questionable. It is great that the installation will relocate among neighborhoods. Hopefully, simultaneous to the exhibition, there is available information about how to effectively reduce (or reuse) newspaper waste, also, effective green building.
Ahhh, those ubiquitous plastic zip ties. They take a fully reusable commodity - paper - and turn it into unrecyclable mixed crap. I pull them apart and reuse them but I have this feeling that the thousands used in this project are about to be thrown "away"; wherever that is. The newspapers may rot away but will those lovely little self-tightening nooses be released into the environment to join the Great Global Garbage Gyre as a testament to our innovative sense of ironic modern artistic style?
Millions of houses have been made with newspaper - stabilized cellulose insulation. It is fire retardant, insect retardant, mold retardant and when installed properly contributes to a well insulated, air-tight house. I am willing to bet you could make the same sized house with 1/5 of the newspapers as insulation.
Couldn't you just stack it up like a straw-bale?
A far better way to turn that paper into a REAL house is to make it into PAPERCRETE. See www.masongreenstar.com for some very cool examples. Also see Mikey Sklar's stuff on YouTube.
Paper houses are very cool and would be so neat to live in. It's good for the enviroment, and there is always a newspaper around!
Maybe it is a waste of ties, but what better way to waste them, than while demonstrating the amount of wasted paper we have in our world. Hopefully this will help some people to see what is going on and it won't be such a waste of ties after all.
smile, the world hasn't stopped turning yet
Legalizing the growing of hemp in North America can take the pressure off of the world's forests. Hemp paper is more recyclable than wood paper, and one crop of hemp can be grown each year as opposed to one crop of trees every twenty or thirty years in a given area. Hemp fiber is being made into sheets for construction in China as we speak, and Hemp grows well on semi-arable lands in America. The Americans however, have their heads stuck right up their asses when it comes to growing hemp. Canadians, on the other hand are about to make a killing selling the fibers to the world, and have pilot project hemp farms in four provinces of that great and progressive land, and will soon market the many hemp products to the world! Currently China exports primarily hemp fiber only. Houses in London made of hemp fiber paper and panels grown locally. What a thought!
i found an interesting video about converting newspaper waste into recycle bag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSfusvAP1vw
What does this paper rolling machine look like then? Who's made one? I quite fancy one.