House. News. Paper.

Sculptor Summer Erek, part of an organization called Creative City, created a piece of public art that was unveiled Saturday, March 8 in Gillet Square in London. The 12 foot high house was conceived to call attention to the need for recycling. Karen Janody, another member of Creative City, was so annoyed by the mounds of newspapers blowing around the streets of London, she decided to build a house with them to illustrate the degree of waste.

The project is also interesting just as a piece of architecture. First the wooden, black structure above was constructed. Then two tons of newspapers left by commuters were donated by train companies, while another 10,000 newspapers were contributed by Project Freesheet, a consortium of local residents.

The second image shows the papers rolled and inlaid into the the frame of the black structure. Erek created solid paper "sticks" by layering individual newspaper pages, hand-rolling them, applying glue to the edges, then tightening them with a special three-roller gizmo. The third image shows the sculpture once the black walls were removed.

Newspaper house is a good example of how public art can bring communities together to raise the profile of issues like recycling and reducing waste. Members of the public were invited to write messages on their own papers before adding them to the structure.

Newspaper house remained on display through Sunday, March 9, after which it was...recycled. Other newspaper houses are scheduled to be erected by Creative City and local community participants throughout the United Kingdom. The project is helping to artistically highlight the mounting problem of waste.