The intricate, beautiful designs of origami are amazing — especially if paper airplanes are the extent of your folding skills.
Start-ups and researchers are now utilizing techniques from the centuries-old art form to innovate everything from furniture and vehicle parts, to medical devices and spacecraft, per BBC.
Even if you can fold a paper crane (congrats, BTW), you’re bound to be impressed.
Welcome to the fold
Dating back to at least the 17th century, origami still inspires designers and engineers to rethink an array of products, cleverly transforming flat materials into three-dimensional shapes.
Swedish start-up Stilfold reduces weight, waste, and emissions by transforming sheet metal into durable origami-inspired designs for electric motorcycles, vehicle parts, and bridges.
Ninth-grader Miles Wu designed an emergency shelter using the Miura-ori pattern — developed by astrophysicist Koryo Miura for solar panels on a satellite — that’s sturdy and easy to deploy. What was I doing in ninth grade?
Sick of uncooperative umbrellas flapping in the wind? The origami-inspired Ori umbrella ($249) employs a frameless design with a single continuous surface.
MIT students used kirigami — like origami but with cutting — to turn a flat rectangle into a chair with the pull of a string. The team intends to expand the technology for targeted drug delivery within the body.
Finnish researchers built a machine to fold cardboard into lightweight, flexible, and biodegradable packaging.
The foldable Oru Origami kayak ($500) really does look as cool as it is bonkers.
And pandemic-inspired origami face masks? Yep.
Below the fold and beyond
While many origami designs revolve around everyday objects, scientists and mathematicians have used intricate folds in everything from biomedical engineering to aerospace.
From DNA gene therapy to space exploration, origami’s uses are unfolding everywhere.
Meanwhile, I’m here figuring out the meaning behind the origami in Blade Runner and practicing paper cranes.