Electronic Press Kit · 2026

TIAN RUI · GRAVITY CONSTRUCTS

A professional card stacker building house-of-cards structures and playing-card sculptures — no glue, no tape, no hidden supports — live, in public, in front of thousands.

7WORLD RECORDS

CARDS · BLOCKSBALANCE STRUCTURES · ANY MATERIAL

About

Tian Rui, based in Qingdao, China, is the world's leading card stacking artist in Asia — a full-time card stacker whose freestanding playing-card structures and block sculptures have been built live on stage, in malls and on television. His constructions — up to 5 metres and spanning 3 metres — stand on nothing but friction and gravity, built over days in full public view, collapsing and rising again.

He began stacking cards in 2015. Eleven years later the practice has produced seven Guinness World Records — four of which he still holds — a feature in The Guardian, commissions for national television, luxury malls and automotive brands, and a live act that turns structural engineering into public theatre.

Precarious balance — the core skill

Not a structure that sits safely, but one pushed to its limit: the centre of gravity already outside the footprint, overhanging, resting on a single point, and still standing. KAPLA is used for large-span work — columns, arches, vaults, colonnades; Jenga for stacking and load challenges (a former record of 3,149 blocks on one; the 918 giant-block record still held). Every piece leaves the venue as it arrived: no glue, no fixings, no marks.

What can be commissioned

Brands & agencies — product stability films, one-take ideas, launch installations — including a giant spiral champagne tower for AWE, China's appliance expo, the largest of its kind in the country. Automotive, appliances, precision instruments: a structure that does not move is the fastest way to say the product does not either.

Malls, retail & museums — atrium builds from a few days to several months, landmark replicas, seasonal installation, opening events. The piece gains height while people shop; they come back to see how far it has got.

Schools & science centres — Jenga and KAPLA workshops, STEAM programmes, after-school clubs, teacher training. Friction, load paths and centre of gravity, taught by building.

Corporate teams — a whole company building one tower, annual-event installations, co-designed materials (stone, recycled plastic, custom card backs).

Film, TV & set dressing — large physical backgrounds built to camera, scenic construction, documentaries and commercials. Also the national TV drama Our Ten Years: technical adviser, and the card sequences for its 5G-scientist episode were designed, built and shot by him.

Festivals, biennials & museums — durational performance, residencies, temporary installation, design weeks. The opening shows a skeleton, not a finished object; the ending is handed to the audience.

Workshop formats

Taster — 40 min — a whole class starts at once; everyone finishes their own first tower. Ages 5+.

Workshop — 90–120 min — teams compete on height and span; the physics is explained while it stands.

Term programme — 12–16 sessions — single towers, then bridges, domes and arches; ends in one collaborative piece.

Museum / science centre — exhibit, programme, interpretation text and visitor route, matched to the exhibition calendar.

Teacher training — one session plus lesson plans and a materials list, so the venue can run it alone afterwards.

Guinness World Records — all verified

2025-04-29	Tallest house of cards — 2.91 m, 34 levels (Qingdao) — currently held
2025-03-30	Tallest house of cards in 8 hours — 62 levels — currently held
2025-04	Tallest house of cards in 1 hour — 32 levels — currently held
2025-04-14	Most Jenga Giant blocks stacked on one block — 918 — currently held
2025-04	Most Jenga blocks stacked on one vertical block — 3,149 — since broken (now 4,881)
2022-11	Tallest house of cards in 12 hours — 3.37 m / 50 levels — since broken (now 61 levels)
2022	Tallest house of cards in 1 hour — 2.17 m — self-superseded (32 levels, 2025)

Seven records set; four currently held. Full fact-checked list with GWR entry links: tianruicards.com/facts

Press

The Guardian (UK) — 2023 "Experience: I built a house of cards 50 storeys high" — full-length feature, photographed by The Guardian. UPI (US) — 2022 & 2025 Two wire-service features on his record builds, syndicated worldwide. Guinness World Records — 2025 Official GWR feature from London HQ on the 3,149-block Jenga record.

Selected commissions & live work

Paris landmarks rebuilt in blocks, in a live shopping mall — Hisense Plaza — eight Paris landmarks rebuilt in eight days, built in the open, with shoppers walking past

Live build in progress — builder on a ladder — Live build — still going up, one level at a time

Pagoda built from playing cards — Pagoda in playing cards — no glue, no fixings

Tall card tower, 4.35 m world record — Card tower — world record 4.35 m, built in 8 hours

Great Wall of cards — large-scale build — Great Wall of playing cards — large-scale public build

Building process close-up — The build itself is the show — audiences watch for hours

Card arena — Colosseum build — public atrium commission

Tian Rui with a large-scale card structure — Artist with his large-scale card structure — no glue, no supports

Giant wooden-block tower built live in an exhibition hall — Towering wooden-block structure — built live inside an exhibition hall, lit level by level

Replica architecture in cards: Forbidden City Hall of Supreme Harmony · Temple of Heaven · Big Ben (10,000 cards / 18 h) · Parthenon (12,000 cards) · Hagia Sophia · Eiffel Tower · 12,000-card Frozen castle (40 h).
Brand & TV work: CCTV-1 "Impossible Challenge" × Haier · Avatr Technology · Midea × Zhihu Lab · Hisense Plaza (eight Paris landmarks rebuilt in eight days; Olympic art exhibition) · integrated-resort and retail clients in Macau and mainland China (2024–2026).

Videos

Live build footage and stage structures: tianruicards.com/video · Chinese version with brand case studies: tianruicards.com

Technical rider — simple by design

Space: flat area approx. 3 × 3 m (tallest builds need 5 m headroom — confirm ceiling height)

Provided by artist: all materials, tools of the trade, public liability mindset, safety protocol from 7 record verifications

Venue provides: one table, one ladder, standard cleaning access

Power / sound: none required — fully silent act, no amplification needed

Formats: multi-day durational build · 2–4 h street/stage act · hands-on family workshops · brand activations

Travel: passport-ready; structures travel as flat stock (approx. 300 kg for largest)

Booking & programming

Festivals · science centres & museums · shopping malls · resort & casino entertainment · brand events · television

Tian Rui · Gravity Constructs

+86 132 1245 2222 (phone / WeChat) · [email protected] · Qingdao, China — available worldwide

Email Tian Rui