Brick Home Melts in London

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015


Some things are destined to melt: Ice, butter, snow and hearts…but what about houses?

For one structure in London, that’s what happened. See, the two-story building was made of 8,000 wax bricks that slowly dripped and eventually left the roof on the ground in a pile of wax.

iIluminate Productions on Vimeo

Watch the home melt in this time-lapse video produced by the MERGE Festival.

No one actually lived in the structure on Southwark Street.

It was an art installation by Alex Chinneck, entitled “A Pound of Flesh for 50p.” The British artist is known for his illusions with the built form, remember this sliding facade?

Dripping Details

The recent project paid homage to an old candle-making factory which was based in Bankside a couple of centuries ago, according to project details.

Tarps manufacturing, Inc.
NLB Corporation

The structure was built using bricks cast in paraffin wax in beds of terracotta sand, matching the color, coarse surface and irregularity of a real wall.

APV Engineered Coatings
Key Resin Company

Chinneck and his team melted the home using handheld torches used in roofing applications to control the rate of dissolve.

Quikspray, Inc.
Just Like New Overspray Management

The project was designed for the Merge Festival 2014.

Tagged categories: Aesthetics; Artists; Brick; Building facades; Color + Design; Design


Comments

Join the Conversation:

Sign in to add your comments.