SCRAPHOUSE: SAN FRANCISCO
On Monday, April 27, 2009, the film Scraphouse: San Francisco was shown in Anderson Theater as part of the art and art history’s film series. Scraphouse: San Francisco was a concept that began in May 2005, to create a house made entirely of scraps and things either donated or found in the dump. The idea was sparked from all the houses that are built every year, and older ones that are torn down. These houses cost millions to make, but the idea was to make a fully modern house that meets all of the California state building codes. The frame was made from scraps of steel, screwed together to make a 21 ft high ceiling, the walls were made of scrap wood, and the outside covered in scrap metal shingling and old road signs. There was a wall created completely from windows left over from a sky scraper. The outside was already impressive, being that the whole thing was erected in only a few days. The design inside was completely amazing. A tree was shaped into a stair case, phone books were used as insulation and a beautiful wall design, and fire hoses added emphasis to another wall, while computer keyboards acted as another wall piece. The floor was made of doors and two light fixtures made of old lamps and a chandelier made of break light covers.
The idea to create a recycled house was amazing, but they took it to another level. It created functional art out of old broken trash. It forces one to rethink how art could be made and what it could be. The fire hoses on the wall were the most visually interesting piece, because it was layers and layers of fire hose, acting as art on the wall. It is modern art in a completely new and different way. It forces the artist to improvise with what they are given, in a short amount of time, and with everything against them. In this way, it is almost like cooking, having to improvise and change the recipe in order to create something amazing.
Scraphouse was located on the Civic Center Plaza lawn across from San Francisco’s city hall. It was open to the public from World Environment Day, June 2, through June 5th, after which time, it was torn down and returned to the junk yard to be recycled into something new. It will be interesting to see if anyone tries to recreate a different scrap house on a more permanent site, or something else made entirely from recycled, reused junk.
