Bryan Berg may be the only student ever to attend Harvard Graduate School of Design without much interest in one day constructing actual buildings. After all, before he even enrolled in the prestigious school, he had already gotten his name in the Guinness Book of World Records for building the world’s tallest house of cards. That’s playing cards, and he builds houses up to 25 feet high without the help of tape, glue or other tricks.

In fact, he says all those things only make it harder.

“Believe it or not, but gravity is the best friend for stacking cards,” says the 35-year-old American. “Gravity makes sure they’re all perfect, that they all stay in place.”

With the laws of gravity holding down the base – which, as all architects know, is the key to any construction – Berg says you can push and tap his giant house of cards and they won’t budge.
“I know that nothing short of a bowling ball rolling through it will knock it down,” he says.

With his skills, Berg has made a living touring the world building card-based replicas of everything from the White House to the Beijing Olympic Village. His latest mission is to build a replica of the Cotai Strip inside the Venetian Macao over the course of 44 days, using more than 190,000 cards, which would set a new record for largest house of cards.

Berg was first inspired, at the age of eight, by his card-player grandfather to begin stacking cards, and it’s something he’s loved doing since. This was what he calls a “stock answer”, because – not surprisingly – he’s been asked that question perhaps a million times.

“I think I’ve spent half my life building card houses and the other half explaining to people why and how I do it,” he says.

However, he concedes that as he builds more and more houses worldwide and gets more exposure along the way, people are becoming more familiar with his work. See for yourself when he finishes his construction at the Venetian on Sunday 10.

Ben Sin