Compiled by Janet Hamilton
The April 1999 issue of House Beautiful had a one page article titled "Origami Textiles" featuring Parisian designer Pietro Seminelli. The article mentions several types of fabric, including a blend of silk and paper, which are made into curtains, shades, tablecloths, napkins, runners, placemats, cushions, screens, room dividers, bed covers, etc. He folds single sheets of fabric into what looks like mainly box pleated designs. The creases are either stitched or ironed into place. Because of the folded design, more light filters through the textiles in some places than in others. "'Our homes reflect the intimate folds of our inner selves', says the 30-year-old Seminelli, whose elegant, razor sharp profile recalls that of young Jean Cocteau. 'The motifs are geometric because geometry is for me a conduit to well being. Folding isn't a mode; it's a mode of thinking. I see my designs not merely as textiles, but as sculptures that filter light."
Time Magazine, Sept. 6, 1999, in "The Art of Autumn" has a caption on a photo of a new building: “Tricky thing, a high-rise. The wall between efficient elegance and monolithic monster is easy to traverse. Even more hairy is designing a high-rise--in the heart of Manhattan, no less--that is to be the U.S. headquarters for LVMH, the fashion, champagne and other image-heavy-goods conglomerate. Ugly just won't do. But Christian de Portzamparc, the Pritzker-prizewinning French architect, has created a tower with elan. His 23-story building has a kinky, faceted, overlapping-glass facade, like a whimsical piece of origami, which nevertheless abides by all the city's fiddly zoning laws.”
One of the Japanese Quilt Magazines had a pattern for a couple of pillows quilted with a crane on them.
INC., June 15, 1999, carried an article called "Packing It In" about designing boxes. “To communicate design ideas to customers more quickly and provide a better medium for discussing changes, Dempsay traded in his notebook PC for a Clio, the Windows CE device from Vadem. The size of an inch-thick stack of typing paper, the Clio is slightly smaller than most laptops, but its 9.4-inch-diagonal stylus-sensitive display is big enough to be viewed by all participants in a small meeting. With the Clio, Dempsay can skip the origami lesson: he simply draws his customers a quick sketch of a new box on the screen and makes changes based on their feedback.”
The Toronto Globe and Mail ran an article by Adele Weder of Vancouver in their Fashion and Design section in the August 13, 1998 edition (pages C8,C7) entitled, "Chairs from Beyond the Fold". It's a brief report on the "Re Pose" competition which challenged designers to come up with new versions of folding chairs. Part way through the article (which has pictures of three of the entries) we find: "For instance, the chair designed by architect Scott Kemp and Clint Cuddington folds flat into a scored rectangle of door proportions, but unfolds into an object as complex and graceful as a musical instrument. Kemp found inspiration in origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into three-dimensional marvels."
The 1996 Britannica Book of the Year singled out Dakota Jackson's origami chair, the Coda, to exemplify the 1995 furniture industry, noting that it "demonstrated innovative technology and styling that looked forward to the 21st century."
In the book Spirits of the Cloth-Contemporary African American Quilts, by Carolyn Mazloomi, was this note beside an exquisite quilt created by Virginia Harris (pages 166-167): "A Japanese American friend invited me to fold origami with her. Folding the papers into various objects was intriguing. What shape would result, when the papers were unfolded? I cut sixteen-inch squares of freezer paper--folded, unfolded--and a fascinating new source for quilt blocks evolved. The distinct blocks disappeared as the quilt formed, and an overall pattern evolved. In an adaptation of an unfolded origami candy box, the Japanese print fabrics are grouped like pieces of candy in a box..."
From National Geographic Traveler, September 1999, in the article “Glass by Design” the author describes the exhibits at the Corning Museum of Glass: “Compelling in another way is the floor in the Windows Gallery, which is folded like a giant piece of concrete origami.”
Wallpaper (a UK design/living magazine) announced "High Table: a new series which sets the standard of modern table manners and gourmet gear" illustrations and diagrams for five napkin folds by "Lap technician Kelly Russell" who is Wallpaper's interiors editor. The directions and diagrams were reasonably clear; the photos striking. The issue was March 2000, pages 333-334. The folds were Swirl, French Lily, Candlestick, Palm Leaf, and The Boat.
A Japan Times article on 12/19/2001, “Views on a cityscape in continuous flux” by Linda Inoki, states, “But the best Japanese architects -- such as Shigeo Kanbara, who designed a white prison unfolding like the wings of an origami dove -- were not simply raiding the past, but opening up a modern fusion of East and West.” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fa20011219a2.htm
Shigeru Ban is an architect who has used paper in the
construction of large permanent and temporary structures. There was a brief piece on
television for a paper church he built after an earthquake in Kobe, Japan.
The Paper Church was named Takatori Kyokai Church, after the original Takatori
Church destroyed and brought down by the killer quake. The driving force was for materials that volunteers could handle and build
with, without extensive training and tools, was actually constructed in 5 weeks,
and remained up for 10 years. The floor plan (10 x 15 m) is enclosed within a
skin of corrugated, polycarbonate sheeting. Within the area, 58 paper tubes (325
mm in diameter, 14.8 mm thick, and 5 m high), were placed in an elliptical
pattern. The pictures below are of the Issei Miyake Gallery, the
Paper Church, a Paper house, and a Paper Log house temporary shelter. http://park.org/Japan/DNP/MTN/SB/church_e.html
http://globalnation.inquirer.net:80/propertyfocus/propertyfocus/view/20080326-126489/A-church-made-of-paper
The Japan Pavillon at World Expo 2000 in Germany
was a huge hall and entirely made out of recycled
paper. After the exhibition the paper was to be recycled again.
Seen in Architectural Digest, December 2003, page 189: "The cantilevered steps seem almost weightless, and the windows are scrimmed in parachute fabric intricately hand-folded by an origami artist." The photo shows white translucent fabric in an enlarged square and rectangular grid pattern.
An after-school club in Westcliff on Sea, England,
is made of cardboard. “The shape of the building reflects some of the properties
of cardboard, particularly ‘corrugugated’ cardboard
and origami. These properties can be seen in the ‘zig-zag’ shape of the
South wall, and in the roof. The shapes are not simply in keeping with the
cardboard theme of the structure, but also help to make the building stronger.”
There are even diagrams for an origami crane on an outside wall.
http://www.cardboardschool.co.uk/ and
http://www.cardboardschool.co.uk/content/siteim/week9_03.htm
Origami Dome™
Tent: An
Amazing Folding Tensegrity dome shelter of rigid panels dome shelter that folds
flat when not needed! See http://www.shelter-systems.com/patent.html
and also this link for drawings to make one out of cardboard: http://www.shelter-systems.com/modle.html
Retur Design http://www.returdesign.se/english/home.htm
makes cardboard furniture. Frank
Gehry became famous as a designer of cardboard furniture beginning in 1972.
Peter Raake and Peter Murdoch have also designed cardboard furniture.
Origami Chair designed by Ming Lo from 5 sheets of aluminum
steel http://www.designboom.com/cardboard2.html
Origami Chair by James Dieter from a single sheet of
polycarbonate and polyester mesh http://www.designboom.com/cardboard2.html
Zumi Stool by Shuichiro Koizumi, 2002 Designed in Japan, engineered in the
U.S., and made in Europe, the Zumi stool is truly a global product. As much origami as furniture, the
stool is formed by three identical pieces that cleverly interlock to create a
graceful occasional seat. Crafted from molded plywood with a birch veneer,
simple assembly is required. http://momastore.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1
and search for “origami”
In addition there are many other chairs (though not called
origami chairs) of folded cardboard and plastic on the following sites:
http://www.designboom.com/cardboard.html
http://www.designboom.com/cardboard1.html
http://www.designboom.com/cardboard2.html
http://www.designboom.com/cardboard3.html
Although the title of this flyer is Urban
Origami, origami seems to be a metaphor for the architect's Gary Shoemaker's
ability to fold up design and structural elements to the client's pleasing.
Different pages have an imitation colored paper-look with a dashed-line
fold-line on it, but there's not really anything to fold.
9/2004 - The new Kaiser Permanente facility in Otay Mesa, California has murals with origami along the walls behind the reception area. The origami is simple and is superimposed over a paper representation of an ocean seascape. Origami turtles and fishes appear, including the classic shrimp with the cut antenna.
Issue 3 2004 of the Building Control News (the newsletter
of the District Surveyors of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, UK),
advertised on the front page "Free - materials to make your own house - See
page 7". On page 7 was a printed square to be cut out, and diagrams for an
origami house. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/Planning/BuildingControl/bcnews0411.pdf
The National Building Museum in Washington DC hosted an
exhibition called "Origami as Architecture", from November 6, 2004 to
March 27, 2005. Technically, the exhibition was on cut and folded 3D models of
building usually known as "Origamic Architecture". The works displayed
were created by Takaaki Kihara and Kazukiyo Kurosu. http://www.nbm.org/Exhibits/current/origami.html
The slimmy chair, designed by Frederic Debackere, weighs
only 20 pounds and arrives folded flat. The chair is made of a composite
material of PVC and aluminum, which has an outdoor durability of 25 years. The
chair unfolds manually and requires only 4 screws to assemble, two on the lower
back panel and two on the seat panel. http://www.borndesign.net/product2.html
The PocketMod is Flash application that let's you make a organizer booklet
from a single sheet of paper using templates chosen from a menu. As the
main page states, "Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper." The site
also has a Flash video on how to fold it. http://www.pocketmod.com/
There is a street called Origami Lane in Sarasota, Florida. I believe the housing development it is in is called something like "Whispering Crane."
An article in the magazine Wallpaper, October 2005 describes a building in
the Harajuku area of Tokyo designed by Tadao Ando. "Ando found an unlikely
solution to such demands in the Japanese art of paperfolding. He devised the
origami-style structure using black steel plates that fold neatly around the
awkwardly shaped space." http://www.hhstyle.com/cgi-bin/omc?port=33311&req=IDIR&code=shop_casa
Sept, 17, 2006 "Reaching for the stars" by Andres Viglucci "Celebrity architects -- 'starchitects' -- are increasingly interested in working in Miami, knowing their buildings will likely be noticed by the world ... Cutting-edge darlings Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron of Switzerland, whose radically reconceived South Beach parking garage resembles nothing so much as origami on steroids." http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15529486.htm
An advert on craigslist for a rental with origami as a selling point: "FINE
PREWAR BUILDING LOCATED IN A TREE LINED BLOCK OF UPPER WEST SIDE. BUILDING IS A
FEW BLOCKS PROXIMITY TO CENTRAL PARK, THE LAKE, ORIGAMI USA LIBRARY, AMERICAN
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, TURTLE POND AND THEODORE ROOSEVELT PARK. IT’S ALSO
CONVENIENT TO TRAINS.
CHARMING, SUNNY ONE BEDROOM WITH DECORATIVE FIREPLACE, DRIPPING WITH ORIGINAL
DETAILS. HARDWOOD FLOORS, HIGH CEILINGS, UNIQUE LOFT SPACE GREAT FOR GUESTS OR
STORAGE. GREAT CLOSETS, LARGE BEDROOM, STREET-FACING WITH SOUTH EXPOSURE,
TOO!" http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fee/264048961.html
2/4/2007 - A troublewit type folded paper chair - http://www.glumbert.com:80/media/foldingchair
A description of the new Miami Courthouse from PRNewswire - "Inside, Arquitectonica has redefined courthouse function: Natural daylighting illuminates interior spaces, much more so than in typical facilities. Courtrooms are grouped in pairs, with direct access through foyers in between. Each courtroom features wenge-paneled walls, cherry and walnut furnishings and judges' benches of imported limestone -- all below sculpted "origami" ceilings. ... Finished in wood veneer paneling, acoustical fabric-wrapped panels and custom-designed glass wall panels, they are marked by animated "origami" ceiling planes." http://sev.prnewswire.com:80/art/20070223/NYF00223022007-1.html
A stool, chair, and rocker designed by Swiss architect known as Nicola Enrico
Stäubli from cardboard. You can download the full PDF (free) which you’ll
need to print out and then follow the instructions. http://www.foldschool.com/_about/about_start/about_start.html
Nora Rubber Flooring recently announced the winners of the 2006-2007 Wrap Competition in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, a collaboration with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture. The contest was for inventive use of Nora Rubber Flooring. One of the entries winning honors was Origami Chair by Candice Wong: An origami chair that allows children to fold and form the chair in various shapes.
Michael Jantzen has designed a modular, adaptable and ‘relocatable’ M-House, built from his M-vironment system. It is made up of rectangular panels attached to a framework of interlocking cubes. The panels fold in or out of the cubes in either a horizontal or a vertical orientation. One of Jantzen’s influences is origami. http://www.humanshelter.org/ http://www.newconsumer.com/interviews/with/2315/
Folding Australia 2005 Convention featured a life-sized house made of origami
bricks and containing origami furniture and decorations. http://www.papercrane.org:80/index/Projects/78
June 11, 2007 "Akira Celebrates the Art of Origami and the Simple Fold" in PRNewswire. "Vecta, the leader in developing conferencing and training spaces, today introduced a new flip-top table Akira(TM) at NeoCon 2007, the World's Trade Fair for Interior Design and Facilities Management. Akira aims to be the easiest table to fold, move and reconfigure on the market today." http://www.vecta.com/
Shelter Origami, designed by Akemi Tahara of Brazil, was nominated in the
Home category of the 2007 INDEX: Design to Improve Life competition. The entry
page has a video of the folding of the model and setup of the shelter. http://www.indexaward.dk/2007/default.asp?id=706&show=nomination&nominationid=160
April 16, 2007 "Iowa State artist: When it comes to inventing furniture,
I fold" by Dan Kuester, Iowa State University News Service. Fumi Ikeshima
folded a full size, usable chair using "Golden Venture" type units.
"Now, after more than 450 hours of folding more than 35,000 individual
pieces of paper by more than 90 people in two countries, Ikeshima can rest. The
chair is done." http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/apr/origami.shtml
Factum chairs and tables from http://www.artmeetsmatter.com/
are a "foldable, postable, recyclable range of furniture launched at 100%
Design05. Produced using recycled paper board and printed with a variety of
designs. The Factum concept is designed for anyone with a flexible need for
furniture. Each Factum design comes packaged in its own suitcase-shaped box and
unfolds into Cube or Chair in seconds. Short of space? Fold Factum away or hang
it on the wall using the optional polyprop display case – the ultimate
functional design statement."
Anthony Dickens and Tony Wilson created a line they call origami range. The
tables are made of 3 identical steel legs that connect together to make the
table base. http://www.anthonydickens.com/root.aspx?pointerID=a7cad1f76d1c48f79e50d796a66665a2
and http://www.dickensandwilson.com/
Anne Kyyro Quinn designs lamps, pillows, bags, blinds, wall panels, and more
with pleats, tucks, and folds similar to origami tesselations. http://www.annekyyroquinn.com/
The Papton Chair from Fuchs+Funke Industrial Design stores as flat pack
cardboard and folds in minutes to a strong, lightweight chair. The chair was
displayed at the MKG Hamburg "Masterpieces in Origami" exhibit summer
2007. http://www.fuchs-funke.de/products/papton/pa01.htm
http://www.mkg-hamburg.de/mkg.php/en/sonderausstellungen/aktuell/detail/~S000323/~P1/
Seoul’s Papertainer Museum, an environmentally friendly structure constructed from 166 recycled shipping containers and 353 large tubes from paper rolls, has been constructed inside Olympic Park. It was designed by renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Papertainer Museum has adopted its motif from Shigeru Ban’s Nomadic Museum. Paper, signifying communications and preservation of culture, and containers signifying trade, together symbolize the world’s culture and art. http://papertainer.design.co.kr/
A collection of photos and information on paper tube structures from 1989 to the present including Paper Arbor - Nagoya, Japan, 1989; Paper Emergency Shelters For UNHCR - Byumba Refugee Camp, Rwanda, 1999; Paper Arch - Museum of Modern Art, New York City; and Papillon Pavilion, Exposition Icon, 2006; and more. http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_WORKS/SBA_PAPER/SBA_Paper_index.htm
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Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West houses the famous
architect’s “origami chairs,” each made from a perfect rectangle of wood.
The origami chairs alone cost $4,000 each. Wright stated, "I have done the
best I could with this living room chair.[34] He felt that he overcome the
dilemma of the awkwardness of sitting .I've tried to design a chair so that when
one was seated, one looks like something. And that's the chair in the living
room there. You know, with the sloping slides, and really when you're reclining,
seated in that chair, you are graceful -- in spite of yourself."
Moroso has a line of tables and chairs called "Bent"
made from laser cut and folded aluminum that is very origami-like. http://www.moroso.it/home_moroso.php?n=products&model=161&l=en
Blu Dot is known for making furniture from perforated,
powder-coated steel sheets that consumers can bend into shape themselves, a
process that the designers describe as “a bit like metal origami.” The
"Real Good Chair" and "Barbarella" tables were the most
origami-like of the current products http://www.bludot.com/
From the SAFE: Design Takes on Risk exhibit at MoMA in
2005 featured several interesting structures. The “Ha-Ori Shelter”. Made by
Joerg Student from IDEO, is a folded polypropylene onion shaped tent. The Global
Village Shelter by Daniel Ferrara and Mia Ferrara is a corrugated paper-board
house, complete with locking door. The Paper Log House by Shigeru Ban Architects
has walls made of paper tube "logs".. http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2005/safe/safe.html
Vaughan Designs "...created a unique ceiling mount $1,710,
in an artichoke shape. The intricate light patterns give the illusion that the
fixture is made of origami paper, when, in fact, it is crafted of metal."
Architectural Digest, February 2008, page 84. www.vaughandesigns.com
http://www.vaughandesigns.com/site/item.cfm?item=3313&category=31&parent=7
January 2008 - Stefano Bettio has designed an "Origami
Chair" made from polycarbonate. http://www.stefanobettio.com/prodotti_origami.html
January 2008 - Florian Kräutli developed a Magnetic Curtain
that can be shaped to any form using magnets embedded in the curtain fabric and
a diamond shaped grid similar to the crease pattern in a tessellation. http://www.kraeutli.com/index.php/2008/01/31/magnetic-curtain
March 9, 2008 in the BBC News, "Artist unveils newspaper
house". Summer Erek created a 12 foot high house from in Gillet Square (Dalston,
Hackney, UK) with donated newespapers to highlight the need for recycling. http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7285373.stm
March 10, 2008 - BLOXES! Modular Cardboard Building System
"One part origami, one part architecture, pure genius." Bloxes are
cardboard forms that fold into interlocking structures strong enough to stand
on. Bloxes can be assembled in different ways to build a bench, a table, a wall,
or even a full room. http://www.bloxes.com/
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/03/10/bloxes-modular-cardboard-building-system/
The Isamu Noguchi Prismatic Table was designed in 1957. This was Noguchi's
last design, inspired by origami and produced initially to promote new uses for
aluminium. http://www.vitra.com/ http://www.vitra.com/products/home/living_room_low_side_tables/prismatic_table/default.asp?lang=us_us
The Origami Side Table is a sheet metal table by Philadelphia designers Jaime
Salm and Young Jin Chung. Composed of two laser-cut and slotted sheets of steel,
Origami ships flat and requires no tools or hardware to assemble. One sheet is
the negative of the other, eliminating waste during production and giving the
table its dynamic form. Once bent, the tables folds lock the parts into place. http://www.mioculture.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=6&idproduct=25
A ceiling fan from the Emerson company called "Origami" due to the
fold in the blades. The fan was designed by Bethany Klausing. http://www.emersonfans.com/catalog_detail.jsp?id=70&item=1
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb910614.htm
The "Fold Your Lamp" design concept by Thomas Hick consists of a
0.8mm thick sheet of stainless steel with scored segments. You fold the segments
as you see fit to create a one-of-a kind lamp. Light shines through the scoring
and through the openings you choose to leave.
