Folding Architecture; Spatial, Structural and Organisational Diagrams by Sophia Vyzoviti. Whilst modelmaking is a standard process in architectonic design, Vyzoviti introduces paper construction techniques and theoretical investigations by way of working design studio practice in the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Amsterdam.

Hans Cornelissen, the design studio course director explains;

The D10 design studio project is an example of an architectural design process with a circular nature. In contrast to a linear proces, it allows one to encircle a problem and understand and confront it in all it's relationships - in other words, it is a kind of exploration. It results among other things in an expansion from the logical to associative coherence. The effect is investigative design and attitude formation. In this context, the fold is more important for the development of the methods to arrive at a new architecture, than it is for the development of an individual architectural form.

The tiny book features short essays, images of folded forms, process images, generative sequences and drawings. All are aesthetically pleasing, creatively stimulating as well as theoretically warming. Each image is accompanied by a transformative list of instructional verbs - score - cut - unfold - knot - hinge - wrap - rotate - pierce - weave - extrude - pleat - compress - balance - crease - which are referenced more as additives/ingredients implicated in the folding process than as detailed didactic instructions.

I find the process of folding paper and constructing (re)presentations of research findings or data or ideas in visual form greatly assists in the development of connections between thoughts, new reflections on old ideas and loosens up my mind when it gets stuck in corners. It's quiet, contemplative and computer-less. And it is often in the making and re-making of something in a completely different form that it becomes easier to see it for what it is or could be as well as what it was.

I write this post as I think through passenger mobility on the bus. I am hoping to experiment with folding expressions of my scribbles of circulation flows. May work. May not. But even if it doesn't, I'll end up with a lot of mess and a few funky looking models to stick on the wall. Either way I can't lose.

See blog post January 06, 2005