Origa(s)mic Architecture

February 13, 2013 2:50 PM

On the one hand we have kirigami, the slightly more dangerous variation of origami that involves razor-sharp instruments (think snowflakes). On the other hand we have architecture. Now put your hands together...

Architecture inspired by origami

Kirigami inspired by architecture (See also: the work of Ingrid Siliakus, a master of the form)

Looks simple and straightforward enough; grab a piece of paper and a blade, and give it a go!

posted by heyho (12 comments total)

My house appears to have been more inspired by the crumpled up reject tossed on the floor.
posted by jimmythefish at 2:53 PM on February 13

My house appears to have been more inspired by the crumpled up reject tossed on the floor.

Is that a "Frank Gehry designed my house, bitches" humblebrag?
posted by yoink at 3:04 PM on February 13 [11 favorites]

What about origami-inspired aircraft?
posted by indubitable at 3:33 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

These are leaving me in awe but also a little sad that I will never have the money to build a cool-ass house. (Especially that one in Melbourne.)
posted by Kitteh at 4:05 PM on February 13

Try DNA Kirigami
posted by lalochezia at 4:40 PM on February 13

My house appears to have been more inspired by the crumpled up reject tossed on the floor.

You mean an Origami Boulder?
posted by 23 at 5:14 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]

Once again, when Metafilter isn't reflexively making me reach for eye bleach, it renders me speechless with gorgeous posts like this one. So very, very beautiful.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 5:33 PM on February 13

It's fun! Try your hand at it.

http://baudandbui.free.fr/oa.html
posted by TDavis at 9:19 PM on February 13

Ingrid has not one but TWO laser cutters in her house. I'm always in awe of her work.

Other masters of the craft include the original grandaddy of "origamic architecture", Masahiro Chatani, and Ramin Razani, an Iranian-Italian architect (who I particularly admire.)

The paper art world isn't so big, you know? so I love these paper arts posts, because I feel like they are all about my friends and fellow paper artists. And it absolutely warms my heart to see the positive responses that always come up when people are exposed to this kind of work.
posted by EricGjerde at 1:33 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]

I love these kirigami posts too! I was an origami nerd as a kid and had always liked popup cards and books, but I had never seen anything as beautifully elegant as the Masahiro Chatani card I found in a museum gift shop in 10th grade. I reverse engineered my own technique by figuring out how to make the simplest block shape, and then how additional shapes need to be offset to come out right when everything gets folded. Before cutting and folding, a card is basically an orthogonal projection of its two planes as though viewed straight-on from a perfect 45 degree angle.

I still dabble with origamic architecture now and again and sometimes think I should try and get a series shown somewhere, but because it's always been more of a pastime for me than Art with a capital "A" I have a hard time taking myself seriously enough to pursue it.

If you can find a copy, Chatani's out of print book Pop-Up Paper Craft: Origamic Architecture is a good introduction, although it's more of a "follow these instructions to make this model" book than a "here are the techniques to come up with your own designs" book.
posted by usonian at 5:38 AM on February 14 [1 favorite]

For what it's worth, getting a publisher to let you make a "here are the techniques to make your own designs" book is practically impossible, especially for niche topics.

And the reality is, for every one of us that want a book on the theory and practice of something, there's 99 people who just want to make the thing that's pictured in the book and be done with it. I find this reality saddening, but it's the world we operate in. I like the way that content on the internet cranks this ratio from 99:1 to more like 95:5, but it's still amazingly skewed.

Humans, eh?
posted by EricGjerde at 9:07 AM on February 14

Getting a publisher to let you make a "here are the techniques to make your own designs" book is practically impossible, especially for niche topics.

I've never looked into it, but I've always sort of suspected that was the case... which is why I've never really pursued my other occasional impulse to write just such a how-to book for basic OA techniques. And even with all the self-publishing options out there, the effort required would almost certainly not be worth the return.
posted by usonian at 12:23 PM on February 14