The Lonely House Club
Happy Valentines Day!
As we all know my first love is cutie houses, but what about those houses with no one to love them?
After recently being invited to attend Norwich Improvement District’s (NorwichBID) Journey to Net Zero Expo, I left fully inspired by one comment made by guest speaker Ed Gillespie.
Gillespie is a ‘writer, communications specialist, serial entrepreneur and futurist,’ who opened the day’s talks with a powerful punch discussing ‘the complex, interconnected, interdependent nature of the many challenges the world faces, from climate change to disruptive innovation.’ This in itself was startling and totally overwhelming, as it was intended. Amongst the mountain of knowledge Gillespie stormed through in 10 minutes he discussed the affects of new housing developments on climate change. Gillespie used the phrase ‘the greenest building is the one already built,’ and this is what has stuck with me.
Afterwards, I looked up the phrase and found it was attributed to Carl Elefante, who served as the President of the American Institute of Architects and has spent a career championing ‘the need to preserve, conserve, restore and adapt.’
‘Existing buildings are a resource for tackling climate change. Buildings represent “embodied carbon.” Keeping and using existing buildings avoids the release of massive quantities of greenhouse gases, emissions caused by needlessly demolishing and replacing existing buildings.’
Carl Elefante
Having had the idea of a ‘Lonely House Club’ kicking about in the depths of my mind for an age, thinking about isolated houses out on a hill in deepest Scotland, Iceland and the like, I then started to ponder on all the empty, abandoned and lonely houses that are calling out to be filled with love rather than knocked down for new developments. I felt an alliance to Elefante’s commitment to ‘the relevance of existing buildings to sustainability, resiliency, climate change, and livable communities.’
A fundamental of Soodle Street is to make use of what’s been forgotten by using discarded material to make something new, beautiful and valued. The same part of our imagination we use when we look at an abandoned house boarded up, windows falling out, and label it a ‘fixer-upper’ dream property.
Also, I’ve always had a thing for the look of a run-down-house. Crumbling brickwork textures? Broken wooden boards? Yes please.
I thought I already make collages of houses from recycled paper, so why not make houses that need recycling…from recycled paper? There is a ‘circular economy’ metaphor in there somewhere...
So that’s why on I’ve founded The Lonely House Club.
A collection of broken-hearted homes and their Lonely Hearts Ads.
They’re sweet and a little bit silly, but mostly they are about the need to remember the forgotten. To make the most of what we’ve got and to not always move onto the next best thing.
I hope you enjoy my abandoned house illustrations inspired by my love of restoration, dilapidated textures and that on going American prairie fixer-upper pipe-dream.
You can follow along @lonely_house_club on Instagram.
If you would like to read more on Carl Elefante and his ideas on sustainable architectural practices - this article is a great place to start.