House of Cards

Since the majority of the tower is stacked in the center, the bulk of the weight is resting on the inner cards. This can be demonstrated by removing the outer two cards, and here you will see a rare occurrence, which has just two cards holding such a great deal.

We could probably have removed two cards from each of the four corners, but I was worried about the direction it would eventually fall. Even more astounding is that when the tower starts to fall, it does not all come crashing down.

This structure is the first that I designed myself and I have challenged myself with this one, as it should not be possible.

When stacking cards you really should go straight up. Higher levels need to be supported with something below it (preferably directly below). With the columns in the Colosseum, there was parts of the upper levels that did not have anything directly below it, but those upper levels were spread over a large area much of which did have columns directly below.

The difference with the tower I am building here is that after the first few levels the rest of the structure is all over the middle of nothing.

This was a longer build. And by that, I mean longer than a few hours. When I started building this one I was just playing around with how many cards I could fit on the table. After I had done a full level I modified the front and built a second level and added “bleachers”. Then I turned on the camera to document, what would become, the next few days of stacking.

In order to build more complex card structures, I wanted to show some of the possibilities by building a simple card wall. There isn’t much to see in the actual stacking of the wall, rather in the demolition we try to see how many cards can be removed before the inevitable. This gives you an idea of how we don’t always have to have cards underneath (like in the pyramid).

In attempting to build card structures that (somewhat) resemble real buildings, I have started by doing the exercises found in the only book on the topic. I will create my own structures later (put your requests in early), but for now it is important to learn the basics.

The easiest shape to create when card stacking is a pyramid-like structure, and with the proper icing on the cake you get the idea that this could be the pyramid in tikal.

You would be surprised at how strong and how sturdy a house of cards, or in this case a tower of cards, can be. A properly built structure, once completed, can withstand a small gust of wind, I will try to demonstrate this in future.

For now, I will just reinforce what you believe is true, that the house will fall when too much force is given.

And in dramatic fashion.

A house of cards is the structure created when an individual takes playing cards from a deck (or decks) and leans them upright against each other.

These structures can have multiple floors.