Curved Folding

This study began by a student at Bauhaus and is based off of a circle instead of a square. It's a series of concentric circles with alternating folds. At Bauhaus, the students used knives to score. I had the advantage of using the laser cutter to achieve the necessary scoring. That's the "Michigan Difference." Folding it was obviously a pain, though. Once I understood the basic underlying concept behind curved folding, I could easily and quickly produce more files to test out, yielding more studies.

Hyperbolic Paraboloid

This is my attempt at recreating a form originally conceived by a student of Josef Albers at Bauhaus. Its design consists of a series of concentric squares that alternate direction of folding.

Semicircle Pleating System

Below is a semicircle shaped pleating system. After talking to Matt Schlian, he informed me that a pleating system could form to any shape. In this study, I designed a series of folds that could wrap a semi-circle. It was important to measure the angles correctly, so I first began by illustrating the form I wanted to mimic. I mapped out the angles in illustrator and found that there were only 2 different angles necessary to achieve my intended form. After I had those interior angles, I had to develop a formula that could translate to a folding pattern. I began by mapping out every different angle and looking for a pattern within the diagram.

Linear Pleating Systems

I created these 2 pleating systems by first drafting them out in Illustrator and then sending them to the laser. The most difficult part of the process was, by far, folding them without tearing the paper. Both designs were crafted from 1 sheet of paper with a series of cutting lines to assist the folding process. In this series, folding guides were designated by dashed cut lines opposed to scoring. This folding characteristic is common in most corrugated cardboard boxes.

Exploring repetitive "waterbomb bases"

Exploring collapsible paper structures