A House Made Entirely of Wax is Slowly Melting in London This Month

Over the course of one year, artist Alex Chinneck built a “brick” house made entirely of wax, in partnership with a team of engineers, wax manufacturers and chemists. It was for an installation at the Merge Festival in London this month called “A Pound of Flesh for 50p.” The science behind it is to ensure that the building melts at a steady rate, turning into a regular old slouchy building.

The 8,000 bricks were cast in paraffin wax in beds of terracotta sand, in order to match “the colour, course surface, and irregularly of a real wall,” says the accompanying sign. At the end of the month all that should be left is the roof on a bed of melted wax. Just as fun, the site selection also has relevance: it is the former location of a candle-making factory from a couple hundred years ago in Bankside, London.

Chinneck has experimented a lot with breaking down our staid interpretation of housing, having previously installed a house whose facade was sliding off in Cliftonville, reversed house facades and more.

For more facade fun, check out this tromp l’oeils in Paris showing a melting building, one of cardboard and more.