For all the effort, skill and time it takes to produce a typical work of origami, the result can be ephemeral, limited by the delicate nature of paper. But apply the same techniques and visuals to architecture, and suddenly the intriguing geometric and mathematical qualities of this ancient Japanese art take on a sense of awe-inspiring scale and permanence. Here are 14 faceted structures, from flat pack emergency shelters to multi-story museums.
1. Bilbao Health Department
The folded facade of this Health Department building in Bilbao, Spain is not only a striking architectural feature, but a creative solution to a building code that requires setbacks for multi-story buildings along major streets. The origami-inspired glass is a second skin that increases energy efficiency.
2. Instant Flat-Pack Origami Shelter
A series of sheets unfold from a small, compact package into a three-dimensional shelter. The design, by Doowon Suh, is envisioned as a modular emergency shelter that could easily be transported and set up in the aftermath of a disaster.
3. Origami Office Building, Paris
Looking like a cross between the Japanese art of origami and Art Nouveau, Manuelle Gautrand’s Origami Office Building in Paris features a double-layered curtain wall of glazing and faceted marble. The folded marble panels add an extra dimension to the building’s exterior, creating textural patterns that look fresh and modern yet blend with the adjacent historic architecture.
4. Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre, Rockford, Illinois
Folding roof panels that open up to the sky give the Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre at Rock Valley College in Illinois an origami feel. The transforming roof closes in poor weather conditions to ensure that the show can always go on, but maintains the feel of the outdoor theatre that was formerly on the site.
5. Origami Disaster Cave
With a design based on a water molecule, the Digital Origami Emergency Shelter by LAVA offers temporary shelter after a disaster while “giving an opportunity for personal expression.” The wooden units can either be shipped flat-pack or cut using local plywood. Each can sleep two adults and one child, and is fitted with battery or solar-powered LED lights.
6. Chapel for the Deaconess of St. Loup
Anything but a conventional chapel, the new mother house of the Deaconess of St. Loup is made of folded timber panels in an accordion-like configuration open on both ends to let in natural light. Each of the timber folds reflects light in a different way, making the structure seem to glow from the inside.
7. Embedded Project, Shanghai, China
Beijing design studio HHD_FUN created this unusual pavilion in collaboration with artist Xu Wenkai for Shanghai. The temporary pavilion, entitled ‘Embedded Project,’ features a surface made up of triangles that divide in a fractal pattern.
8. Karuizawa Museum Complex, Nagano, Japan
Architecture firm Yasui Hideo Atelier wanted to interpret the natural beauty of Karuizawa, Japan with an elegant, modern, geometric form. The resulting structure mimics both the surrounding mountain scenery and the Japanese paper crafts of origami, Sensu fan and Byobu screen.
9. Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The five-level, partially subterranean Tel Aviv Museum of Art is a new modern landmark for Israel’s capital, with a faceted concrete facade and a shape that is suggestive of a ship.
10. Klein Bottle House, Melbourne
It’s easy to imagine this striking black and white home in Melbourne, Australia as a miniature scale model made of paper. The Klein Bottle House is named after the mathematical term for a surface with an undefinable top, bottom, left or right. The facets of this origami-inspired home twist and turn for a dynamic feel.
11. Nestle Chocolate Museum, Mexico City
The first chocolate museum in Mexico features a dazzling red and white geometric entrance space, reception area and theatre. The architect envisions it as “a playful folding shape that is evocative for kids, of an origami shaped bird, or maybe a spaceship.”
12. Park Pavilion, Cuenca, Spain
A formerly abandoned setting in Cuenca, Spain now features an ice skating rink, performance space, bars and restaurants housed within an unconventional, abstracted glass structure.
13. Helios House, Los Angeles
Helios House might just be the world’s most architecturally interesting gas station. Located in Los Angeles, it’s considered the ‘station of the future’ and was the first in the U.S. to be submitted for LEED certification. Designed by Office dA and Johnston Marklee Srchitects, its main feature is a faceted roof canopy made of recycled stainless steel panels.
14. Kyushu Geiban Kan by Kengo Kuma
Aiming to unite nature and people, Kengo Kuma’s gateway to a museum and cultural centre in Fukuoka, Japan features origami-like folded planes that emulate the landscape as well as the art of origami. The cuts and creases in the stone facade let light come flooding into the interior from a variety of angles.
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