This Is What Happens When You Fill An Abandoned House With Flowers
An old house filled to the brim with flowers may sound like the fanciful stuff of whimsy, but it is to become a wonderful reality, thanks to one lady with a beautiful vision.
Detroit florist Lisa Waud was so taken with images of a wrapped Pont Neuf in Paris and the 2012 Dior show that she knew she had to do something similar.
“There was an image from that show that I couldn’t shake; it was an image of a gorgeous girl, in a gorgeous gown, with a look on her face that couldn’t be described. I wanted to be there, in those rooms, to know what it felt like, what it smelled like, what it sounded like. I knew I had to create my own house of flowers and invite as many people as possible to experience it with me,” she wrote.
And so Lisa’s idea of a Flower House was conceived — to take old, crumbling houses and fill them with flowers and greenery for an entire weekend in October 2015.
It’s an ambitious and unprecedented project. And if the preview installation on 1st May was any indication, it’ll be hugely successful.
There are three parts of the Flower House story, and Waud and her team are working hard to tell each one.
First of all, we have the flowers.
The plan is to use “American-grown fresh flowers and living plants” to fill the interiors of two dilapidated houses. Waud has partnered with fellow florists and designers from all over the country to make sure that happens.
The preview alone took 4,000 flowers and 48 hours to set up. For the main exhibit in October, they are looking at a whopping 60,000 to 100,000 blooms.
While this may seem like a waste, the Flower House team plans to make mulch out of the wilted flowers and have, in fact, started composting the blooms used in the preview event.
The second part of the Flower House story is, of course, the houses.
This abandoned house is a duplex that Waud purchased for $500 in a foreclosure auction. It is located along a very busy highway, Detroit’s I-95.
After the October installation, the sustainable deconstruction of both houses will follow suit to make way for a flower farm. With the help of Reclaim Detroit, the goal is to make use of as much as 75% of the houses’ materials to minimise waste.
The Flower House team hopes to “inspire others to see abandoned structures as platforms for art and business, and to use them in an environmentally responsible way.”
The farm is the last part of the Flower House story.
Waud’s goal is to cultivate the formerly neglected land and turn it into a sustainable flower farm.
This will allow Waud’s Pot & Box company to offer locally grown fresh flowers for events, as well as create a space of beauty for the community.
Currently, the Flower House team is hoping to raise $50,000.
The funds will go into securing the houses’ structural integrity prior to the October event, as well as to hire Ouizi, a well-known local mural artist to provide the artwork for the event.
So far, the images of the Flower House preview event captured by photographer Heather Saunders have been nothing short of gorgeous.
It’s clear that the main event in October is going to be spectacular.
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