michael jantzen reforms the built environment through surreal digital manipulations

‘reforming the built environment’ is a series of photo-montages by US-based architect michael jantzen that present a surreal reinterpretation of known structures. these include houses, churches, apartment buildings, and other conventional built forms such as furniture. ‘my intent for this work as an artist is to explore ways in which the known world can be altered in order to expand its potentials in the minds of the viewers, allowing them to create their own personal stories about these new realities’.

reforming st. mary’s

michael jantzen‘s photos of these structures were taken in the real world with a digital camera, then placed into a computer where they were isolated from their surroundings. later, they were digitally manipulated in various ways to create completely new and unexpected versions of the original houses, churches, apartments, etc. in most cases, unaltered images of people – and sometimes animals – were added to the photomontages. this was done to heighten the surreal nature of the images, suggesting that the structures might actually be physically built.

reforming the adobe house

reforming the apartments

reforming jantzen’s apartment building

reforming a mobile home

reforming st. john’s

reforming an RV

jantzen’s surreal home

reforming the catholic church

reforming the house on the corner

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.