( CNN ) -- In South London , a life-size wax house is melting . In the city 's busy Covent Garden shopping piazza , a building floated above the ground . A 20-minute walk away , a townhouse is flipped on its head . No , you 're not hallucinating . These are the most recent irreverent installations from Alex Chinneck , the British artist making a name for himself with site-specific works that appeal to the imagination and beg for a photo-op . For the past year , he 's been achieving this through architecture . `` Architecture is the fabric and surroundings of our daily and habitual environments , '' says Chinneck , 30 . `` It provides a very good canvas for creative exploration and abstraction . '' An architectural chapter . When I meet with Chinneck at his psychiatric ward-turned-apartment in Hackney ( seriously ) , Take My Lighting , But Do n't Steal my Thunder -- the polystyrene building floating above Covent Garden -- has just been taken down after its three-week run . `` It was on the national news in 24 countries that piece , and footfall was up 18 percent in respect to trade and the piazza . So that 's just great , '' he says . The floating building is part of what Chinneck calls the `` architectural chapter '' of his career , which has born four large-scale installations that use the materials , language and shapes associated with the craft . Though he 'd previously used construction materials to create small sculptures , he only recently started working on a larger scale , partly inspired by Rachel Whiteread 's House ( a concrete mold of a Victorian house that won the Turner Prize in 1993 ) and the installations of Richard Wilson . `` It just made sense to integrate those creative explorations into an architectural context and scale , back to where they belonged . '' Making the familiar strange . What makes Chinneck 's work distinctive -- other than its obvious mind-bending properties -- is how each one seems both at home and out of place in its surrounding neighborhood . A Pound of Flesh for 50p , built in Southwark as part of Merge Festival , would look like a typical Georgian house were it not made of wax and melting a little more each day . The floating building looks like a part of the 184-year-old market has just been plucked and suspended in mid air . `` I do n't like to disrupt a district too much , so the work is contextually sensitive . The material and visual decisions are informed by the district and the area and the architectural language of that region , '' he explains . `` The concepts are extremely considered despite their playfulness and simplicity . They 're tailored to their environment and their audience . '' His installation in Covent Garden , for example , needed to speak to the piazza 's high levels or foot traffic and tourists to please the commissioning landlords . `` The demographic through the piazza is incredibly eclectic , but it 's very fast-paced and recreational . People come and go , take a photo and move on , so the artwork had to deliver an impact for the Instagram generation . '' This last phrase seems to sum up his installations well . The pieces are difficult to execute , simple to enjoy and , he insists , free of any particular meaning or concept . The priority is public enjoyment . Conceptually light , sculpturally complex . The response to the floating house , as well as his other works , has been overwhelmingly positive . Along with comments on-site , Chinneck says he regularly receives emails , tweets and links to articles from people who have enjoyed his installations . The owner of a vintage shop near From the Knees of My Nose to the Belly of my Toes , his sliding house in the seaside town of Margate , even gifted him a free suit because of the number of shoppers his installation attracted . Though he tries to avoid the usual traps -- internet comment sections , namely -- Chinneck still receives his share of negative criticism too . He 's grown immune to accusations that his work is pointless , a waste of taxpayers ' money , or , alternately , a waste of private commissioners ' money , but he 's still occasionally frustrated by the assumption that his work is easy or banal because of its simplicity and lack of intellectual intent . `` I do n't understand at what point the experience needed this intellectual justification to be an important and valuable one , '' he says . `` I 'm often criticized for this lack of conceptual content . But what we lose in conceptual content we make up for in structural and sculptural complexity . '' ( To wit : The floating house took eight months to realize , and had over 100 people involved from design to construction , The melting house -- which was commissioned , designed and constructed concurrently -- required about 75 people to take care of wax fabrication , carpentry , steelwork , painting and brick-laying . ) `` With art , and I think really a lot of public art , you create it and then you have to abandon it a little bit , distance yourself from it , because it 's not really yours anymore , '' he says . `` There 's no safe place in the public eye . '' Creating a legacy . With the melting house now a pile of hardened goo being scraped off a pebbled lot ( the installation finished Sunday ) , and the floating building broken down and hauled away , Chinneck is focusing on the future . He 's currently investigating how to tie the Tate Modern 's distinctive chimney into a knot , and developing a windmill that has fallen from its base , causing the building to spin while the sails remain stuck in the ground , efforts he suspects could trump his past projects in size and ambition . `` I 'm kind of bored by the last and excited by the next , which is a healthy attitude , '' he says . `` I think it encourages progress . '' The greatest buildings you 'll never see : Priceless monuments lost in conflict . Art works that mess with your sense of scale . 'Avant gardens ' : When art , design and a whole load of plants collide . The most spectacular buildings of 2014 .
British artist Alex Smith creates large - scale installation art inspired by nature . His most recent works include a melting house made of wax , and a floating building in Covent Garden Harbour . His works are largely inspired by the neighborhood they inhabit , and take up to six months to execute .