Housing Estate N
At Tokyo Design Festa I came across this wonderfully excentric artist and her work, a miniature abandoned housing estate done entirely in corrugated cardboard stock. I must apologize for the terrible photos, but the abandoned building drew quite a crowd in a very dark room and I didn’t feel I had the right to linger while adjusting my camera settings too much.
The artist tells the story of a continually evolving but seemingly abandoned housing estate project called 第N無人居住区, or roughly in English: Abandoned Housing Estate Number N. Apparently she has been working continually on this project since 2001 and the amount of details is pretty amazing. Some rooms are lit and furnished whilst others are dark and empty. Fans provide a functioning ventilation system throughout the estate and while it might seem abandoned there’s actually a few spirits haunting empty stairwells and corridors.
I have a massive soft spot for eccentric world builders like this artist and can totally see how one could become obsessed with building and extending a virtual city like this. In fact, at least three of my previous posts have been about this theme: A Paper Craft Castle On the Ocean, A Cityscape of Polysthyrene – Satomi Suzuki and The Coolest Pop Out Cards.
At her site you can find much better photos, a virtual house and much more information about this art project. Naturally, it’s all in Japanese. She also runs a blog and has published a CD with music inspired by this amazing paper building.
Wow…that looks extremely meticulous. Imagine all the hard work and sweat poured into this piece of art. And the details look so real I actually wish I’m tiny enough to fit into the building ^^
It actually looks very much like the buildings in the area I used to live in while in Hong Kong. Tsim Sha Tsui and old Kowloon looks almost exactly like this! i don’t know if you’ve been there.
amazing skills and eye for details (not to mention patience in building this masterpiece).
Yanangski, thanks for the comment! I think she has been building on this huge project since 2001. Japanese have a lot of patience…
[...] Design Festa 2009 by tokyobling on June 16, 2010 You might remember a post from last year about a cardboard city art project that I found at Design Festa in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. Here’s a couple of more photos [...]
Really nice! Thanks for sharing! I really enjoy your blog! I write a blog on cardboard art, maybe you like to check it! http://www.cardboarders.com!
Thanks! What a great concept for an art blog…! Love all the stuff you collect. Thanks for sharing it! http://www.cardboarders.com
[...] Housing Estate Number N. This artist was featured on tokyobling. I don’t even know her name: does anybody know japanese? http://d.hatena.ne.jp/area-n/ [...]
[...] I love miniatures. I think because I can totally imagine living in the houses, tree houses, or running around with Arrietty from The Borrowers and having a world of fun. [via and photographers here and here] [...]