‘Brickflats’ - Installation at The Smallest Gallery in Soho
LOCATION
LONDON, UK
CLIENT
THE SMALLEST GALLERY IN SOHO
Designer
PRODUCT
CHAPMAN BURNT ORANGE
APPLICATION
ART INSTALLATION
WASTE REPURPOSED
1 TONNE
CARBON SAVED
219.00 KG co2e
Contractor
‘Recycling over a tonne of waste’
The K-BRIQ® added an additional pulse to Soho over 2023-2024 and is a fabulous collaboration between @thesmallestgalleryinsoho, @brickflats and @kenoteq. Kenoteq’s Chapman Burnt Orange and Burnt Orange Light K-BRIQ®s brought a sustainable and environmental edge to this Brickflats exhibition whose social conscience was the focus.
Brickflats is a Barcelona/London based artist whose handcrafted miniatures replace missing bricks in walls around the world to highlight the world’s housing crisis. This London display was their first full exhibition. The design of the ‘flats’ always makes sure that the inhabitants are fairly uncomfortable with the size of their housing. Whilst the situations depicted always have a sombre undertone, the Brickflat’s colours, design and the fact they look like a toy, also intend to give the discovery in the urban wild a fun moment of discovery. And, housed within 500 of Kenoteq’s ultra-low carbon burnt orange K-BRIQ®s also highlighted the need to build more sustainably moving forwards. The K-BRIQ®s used recycled over a tonne of construction and demolition waste and saved nearly 220kg of carbon equivalent compared to using a traditional clay brick – so the equivalent of driving from London to Belgrade in a petrol car.
‘Repair the wall while providing a piece of public art’
’I don't know about you, but I think the worldwide housing situation is a joke.
Overinflated with no real options for those making a standard living — not able to save enough or have help from family — to buy, let alone rent in this current market. So I decided to join the enemy: greedy real estate developers.
Damaged walls seemed like territory that no-one has claimed yet. I use these holes in walls as building space for my own little flats. These little brickflats with their inhabitants are handcrafted stories that play on the global housing market. The Design of the flats always makes sure that the inhabitants are fairly uncomfortable with the size of their housing.
While the situations depicted always have a sombre undertone — the brickflat's colours, design and the fact it looks like a toy also intend to make finding a brickflat in the urban wild a fun moment of discovery. Every brickflat is bespoke and tries to fit into the surroundings thematically as well as aesthetically. No wall is ever damaged in the process of installing a brickflat — the aim is always to repair the wall while providing a piece of public art.
Brickflats started in March 2021, Stoke Newington, London and has since expanded to 8 different countries. A miniature real estate project that aims to claim a monopoly over all housing in its market niche. The niches in crumbling brick-walls.’
