VIDEO: Artist recreates London cityscape using cardboard boxes

Sarah Shaffi Wednesday, February 13, 2013
1:24 PM

Cardboard may not be the first building material that comes to mind, but it’s what has been used by one artist to recreate London’s cityscape.

Artist Chris Gilmour's recreation of the Paris cityscape using cardboard boxes. Picture: Phil Tragen

Chris Gilmour, whose work has been exhibited in countries including Italy and the United States, created a 40ft wide replica of London, complete with iconic buildings including Big Ben, the Shard and St Paul’s Cathedral.

The project, titled You Can Build Anything if You Put Your Mind To It, took Gilmour two days. He has also used cardboard boxes to recreate cityscapes of Paris and Berlin.

Gilmour said: “Creating the iconic landmarks from each city was a real challenge. London’s Gherkin was a particularly hard task due to the curve of the walls and the straight edges of the boxes.

“This is the largest project of its kind that I’ve undertaken. Thankfully the boxes were really easy to work with and build.

Artist Chris Gilmour's recreation of the Berlin cityscape using cardboard boxes. Picture: Phil Tragen

“The biggest challenge was placing the iconic sculptures in the correct place in each city to successfully convey the depth and size of the entire build. Finishing the project was a real achievement in itself and shows that you can build anything when you put your mind to it.”

He used Bankers Boxes, corrugated cardboard storage boxes, and glue, and was commissioned by office specialists Fellowes.

The company commissioned the sculptures to coincide with the re-branding of its storage and organisation range from R-kive to the Bankers Box® brand.