





From March 3-9, 2008, a house made from 60,000 newspapers was on display in Gillett Square, East London.

The house was built by Sumer Erek, a London-based Turkish-Cyprist artist.



The Newspaper House is a public art installation about "making public use of a public space using public waste. The installation forces us to look at our own waste, as individuals and collectively, through both the familiarity of the material and the sheer mass of it."

People contributed their old newspapers for this exhibit. Organizations such as Metronet Rail and Project Freesheet also donated thousands of papers.

A shell of a house was used to start out, and Sumer Erek built the house from the inside, using the shell as a mold.

The shell was also used to protect from the elements. Other materials used were timber and cable ties. The timber added extra support to the structure of the Newspaper House. Cable ties were used to secure the rolls of newspaper.

Volunteers donating their old newspapers were allowed to insert their own news into the papers before they became rolled. I wonder what would have happened if you stuck an important document or something by accident into your newspaper and then happened to donate it to this project and didn't realize it until it was all built? "Sorry Officer, I put my registration inside a newspaper that was used to build a - oh, nevermind, just give me the ticket." This would definitely happen to me if given the chance.



The first question that entered my mind was whether this house was going fall apart if it happened to rain. Quoted from their site: "...all the newspaper structure has been coated but it does not matter as the sticks are so tight that the rain will not affect the installation."

The project is produced by Creative City, and the installation is the work of Sumer Erek.

Thanks to: newspaperhouse.blogspot