16. Wildcard Week:
Kinetic Origami

This week I explored kinetic origami as a digital fabrication process. Starting from research and paper prototypes, I moved through analog case studies, crease pattern design software, and digital manufacturing methods to develop a functional origami mechanism for my final project.

Here is the full documentation: theory, experimentation, 3D modeling, digital fabrication, and the final result.

Task:

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Design and produce something with a digital fabrication process not covered in another assignment. Document the requirements your assignment meets and include everything necessary to reproduce it.


Theory

How I Structured This Week

My first challenge was not knowing where to start, there is a lot of information available, but it can be hard to find exactly what you need. Something that has helped me a lot is following a methodology I build for each project based on its objectives. These were the main steps I followed:

METHODOLOGY

  • 01 General research: the art of origami and its engineering applications, types of use cases, and fold types I encountered.
  • 02 Search for analog cases: who has used kinetic origami before?
  • 03 First origami explorations: paper prototypes.
  • 04 How can I manufacture this digitally for my final project?
  • 05 Development of the final functional prototype.

Why haven't I covered the origami process in the other assignments?

What makes origami special as a manufacturing process is its energy efficiency and structural ingenuity. Calisch's thesis demonstrates how laser-cutting geometric fold patterns uses significantly less energy than traditional 3D printing, while still achieving complex 3D volume. I haven't covered this previously because prior assignments focused on traditional fabrication (adding or cutting away material). This is my first time exploring kinetic origami, where the material's geometry and folds replaces traditional hardware.

Research:

What Is Kinetic Origami?

Kinetic origami uses the folds of paper as functional joints to give a structure its mechanics. In engineering, the geometric principles of origami are being used to create structures that can change shape.

Connection to the Research — Samuel Eli Calisch Thesis

For my project, I explored the Fab Lab documentation and found the thesis by Samuel Eli Calisch titled Folded Functional Foams. His analysis of how we can manufacture complex structures from flat sheets through cutting and folding was very insightful. It helped me see origami not as a toy, but as an intelligent manufacturing method that can create high-performance industrial components with remarkable efficiency. One of the points that struck me most was the environmental and energy comparison: 3D printing consumes a massive amount of energy to build objects layer by layer, whereas laser-cut origami structures are drastically more efficient (less energy, less material, much faster).

Advantages & Disadvantages

ADVANTAGES

  • Material & Energy Efficiency Transformation of a flat sheet into a three-dimensional structure through cuts and folds = no subtractive waste, minimal energy.
  • Integrated Mechanisms Instead of assembling hinges, screws, or multiple parts, the material itself acts as the mechanism. This reduces part count and the risk of mechanical failure.
  • Material Architecture A simple material (cardboard, polypropylene, bioplastics) can have complex behaviors simply by changing the geometric design, not the material.
  • Scalability Once you have the algorithm or cut file, you can scale your design from something tiny up to architectural structures.

DISADVANTAGES

  • Material Fatigue When using a fold as a "hinge," the material is under a lot of stress at the crease lines. Over time the material can break or weaken, especially if it is paper or cardboard. Choosing materials with high fatigue resistance is essential.
  • Precision Is Critical If folds are not exactly where they need to be or if the laser engraving depth is not uniform, the structure's motion will jam or become asymmetric.
  • Complex Manufacturing Designing the crease pattern requires specialized software and significant iteration before the physical result is reliable.

Fold Patterns Relevant to This Project

I searched for fold types that could be functional for my project. Several of these also appeared in the Calisch thesis.

PATTERN TYPES

  • Miura-ori The most famous example. A network of parallelograms that allows a large sheet to collapse into a small one and unfold with a single pull motion.
  • Curved Fold Patterns Distribute material stresses more evenly, and the bending of the panels can be used to store static energy.
  • Kresling Pattern A network of triangles that forms a tube. Unlike Miura-ori, it cannot simply be stretched — it must be rotated. It is bistable: it can be either fully open or fully closed.
  • Tessellations (concept) Repeating the same geometric pattern many times across a surface to create large-scale compliant structures.

Experimentation

After the theoretical research, I moved into hands-on exploration: analog case studies, paper prototypes, 3D printed tests, and video references. Until I found the model that fit my project.

Analog Cases — Who Has Used Kinetic Origami Before?

Paper Exploration — Origami Daffodil

After watching several videos of origami folds and how they looked applied to products, I could not find one that had the specific movement I was looking for, most ended up flat, not with a closing motion that resembled a flower.

Because of this I started searching for origami flowers and followed a tutorial to make a daffodil, with the goal of exploring whether I could use non-tessellation origami pieces for the project:

Problem — Discarded

The model was somewhat difficult to make, and when I tested the movement I wanted to achieve with it, the structure did not allow it to flow smoothly. I discarded this piece.

3D Printed Exploration — Flasher Hexagon (Printables)

To keep exploring, I 3D printed the model from Printables. At first it was a bit tricky to assemble, but I followed their tutorial and managed to put it together.

Model: Flasher Hexagon with Living Hinges
Assembly tutorial: youtube.com → Assembly Guide

Problem — Not Durable Enough

During the process I noticed the print was not very resistant: when folding some sides, small holes appeared at the creases. In the end one side broke completely.

3D printed flasher hexagon with living hinges showing small tears at the fold lines and a broken side after repeated folding cycles
3D printed hexagon — living hinges failed under repeated folding cycles.

Inspiration — BYU Bloom Patterns & Harvard Emergency Shelters

While browsing further I came across this video from Brigham Young University (BYU), which inspired me a great deal. The shapes they showed were very interesting for the flower form I was looking for.

REFERENCES

Pinterest Moodboard & Origami Umbrella Discovery

I then searched Pinterest and built a moodboard of what I was trying to recreate. During this exploration I found origami umbrellas — the mechanism was very interesting and was exactly what I was looking for, so I followed the tutorial.

Reference: Pinterest → Origami Umbrella Tutorial

Origami umbrella.

Problem — Partial Success

What I did not like about this model was that the parts had to be glued together. Additionally, something went wrong in my build because it did not have the full range of movement I needed. I kept searching for models.

Other Useful References Explored

The Chosen Model — Octagrammer by Adam Williamson ★

From all of these videos, I chose the one that seemed best suited for the project:

Paper Folding with Adam Williamson: Octagrammer
YouTube → Octagrammer Tutorial

I followed the tutorial and, once I had the form, I started experimenting with different configurations and movements. During this exploration I found exactly the motion I was looking for and really liked how it looked.

Octagrammer origami and the target movement.

Why This Model?

I once heard that you should search for 30% of the time, and once you find something that surpasses everything you have seen before and meets your expectations, you keep it. This model did exactly that. I did not choose the tessellations mentioned in the theory research because they were flat or cylindrical and did not have the motion I needed — although observing this model I noticed it does resemble the Miura-ori pattern.

3D Model

Why Digital Fabrication?

I wanted to use the origami directly, just with a different sheet in my project. But when I talked to my instructor, he pointed out that the digital fabrication component was missing, and he was right. This pushed me to look for ways to improve it, especially considering that the 3D printed living hinges I had tested earlier broke easily. That is why I started looking for options for the digital fabrication. These are the ones I found:

Two Options Considered

Crease Pattern Tracing — SolidWorks & ORIPA

I unfolded the origami to see how its folds looked flat, and based on this I started tracing the model in SolidWorks. It was going well until I realized some lines were not exactly right, so I looked for another software option and found ORIPA.

What Is ORIPA?

ORIPA is a drawing software dedicated to designing the crease patterns of origami. It understands mountain and valley folds natively and can export to DXF and SVG for fabrication.

Installing ORIPA

To use ORIPA you first need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE or JDK). I downloaded it from the Adoptium website via Homebrew.

INSTALLATION STEPS

Step 1 — Install Java via Homebrew (terminal), I used Eclipse temurin:

brew install --cask temurin@25

Step 2 — Download ORIPA

Go to the ORIPA GitHub releases page and download oripa-1.79-all.jar (or the latest version).

Step 3 — Verify Java installed correctly:

java -version

Step 4 — Navigate to your Downloads folder:

cd Downloads

Step 5 — Launch ORIPA (replace with your version number):

java -jar oripa-1.79-all.jar

Press Enter and the application will open automatically. For more information: github.com/oripa/oripa

Crease Pattern Tracing in ORIPA

I based my tracing process on this tutorial: YouTube → ORIPA Crease Pattern Tutorial

What I understood: mountain folds are the lines that fold upward, and valley folds are the ones that fold downward.

Crease pattern tracing process inside ORIPA — mountain and valley fold assignment.
ORIPA software showing the completed Octagrammer crease pattern with mountain folds in red and valley folds in blue, ready for DXF export
Completed crease pattern in ORIPA — mountain folds and valley folds assigned.

Problem & Workaround

The system flagged an error when I tried to run the fold simulation. However, since all I needed was a DXF or SVG file for fabrication, I simply exported those directly — the export worked correctly, and I brought the files into the fabrication application.

SolidWorks

After exporting the DXF file, I started creating an STL file for printing. I did the modeling with SolidWorks. This is a video of the process for converting a DXF to a sketch in SolidWorks.

DXF to sketch in Solid

Once I finished doing this, I selected the entire sketch and applied a 0.5mm offset to both sides. Since the file was quite large and it would have taken me a while to trim the extra parts, I went straight to extruding. I scrolled down and clicked on "Selected Contour." With that command, I started extruding one by one.

ORIPA software showing the completed Octagrammer crease pattern with mountain folds in red and valley folds in blue, ready for DXF export

This is the final result from SolidWorks. I saved this file as an STL and began the physical manufacturing process:

ORIPA software showing the completed Octagrammer crease pattern with mountain folds in red and valley folds in blue, ready for DXF export

Digital Fabrication

For this final part I returned to the two options I had identified and decided how to proceed with manufacturing the origami panel digitally.

I chose to experiment with 3D printing on fabric; the process was simpler than I thought. I just opened the STL in PrusaSlicer and added a pause to be able to place the fabric. I did several tests before the final one; the tests were done with a cropped part of the model to be able to print it on the small printers, since the complete model does not fit.

PrusaSlicer Interface

I tested with 3 fabrics:

  • Tulle
  • Pellon
  • Organza
Placing the fabric

The first test went very well.

Only the Organza and Tulle worked. The print did not stick to the Pellon.

For the final model, I followed the same steps of making the file and placing the fabric during the pause. I chose to make it out of Organza because of its shine.

Final Result

Final Result

Outcome

The final kinetic origami panel was produced using the 3D printing in fabric method method, based on the ORIPA crease pattern of the Octagrammer model. Below are the final images and video of the completed mechanism.

Final kinetic origami panel in its fully closed state — the flower-like structure contracted by the servo mechanism
Final panel comparison.
Final kinetic origami panel in its fully open state — the flower-like structure expanded to its maximum position
Final panel with light.

Final Reflection

I learned a lot this week. I found the whole topic of origami very interesting, and it was very satisfying to discover the Oripa app. I'm proud of the work I did this week. However, I still need to modify a few things to adapt this origami for the final project.

Other Interesting Origami Resources

USEFUL LINKS