On August 6, Bryan Berg built a 54-level house within eight hours in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His materials? Playing cards. And only playing cards. To beat the standing Guinness World Record, he had to forgo glue, string, or tape.
With bright blue sunglasses atop his blonde hair, Berg used a ladder to reach the highest parts of the structure. At the end of eight hours, it was time for the pièce de résistance (meaning the best part). He kept his hands steady as he placed an HONOR Magic V3 foldable phone on top of the card house. HONOR sponsored the project. Placing the phone at the peak showcased the phone’s light weight.
Before Berg broke it, the record for the tallest stack of cards built in 12 hours was 50 levels. But Berg is his own competitor. He set the previous record for the tallest card building ever made back in 2007. That house of cards measured 25 feet, nine inches tall.
There’s consistent pressure for Berg to reach new heights. And with this eight-hour challenge, time was not on his side. “Because of speed being of the essence,” he says, “you have to hope that good enough is good enough.”
It’s not his first race against the clock. Back in 2016, Berg broke the record for the tallest house of playing cards built in 12 hours. That time, he built on top of a fully loaded and running washing machine.
Smashing world records isn’t all that motivates Berg. He remembers playing card games with his grandfather at eight years old. Between matches, his grandfather would stack cards a few stories high and laugh as they tumbled over.
Those memories shaped Berg’s love for making card houses. While still in high school, Berg set his first world record. That was in 1992. In his home in Spirit Lake, Iowa, the 19-year-old Berg built a 14-and-a-half-foot-tall house of cards.
Berg studied architecture at Iowa State University. He then got a master’s degree in design from Harvard University. After his university days, he built card structures as a full-time career. Since he builds in grids instead of triangles, his structures can support 660 pounds per square foot of pressure.
Companies contact him, asking him to make buildings out of cards in a way that highlights their products. He has worked on projects for Lexus, LG (an appliance company), and Tiffany & Co.
“The limit is your ceiling,” he told a Wired reporter last year. “And, you know, just having enough cards.”
Why? When the Lord gives one a gift, it’s good to try to use it with excellence—even if one doesn’t make headlines or break world records.
