Folding

Folding Architecture
Spatial, Structural and Organizational Diagrams

Architecture

Sophia Vyzoviti

Soph
 Contents
Acknowledgements 4

Prologue 6

Folding as a Morphogenetic Process in

Architectural Design 3
Transition 1: Matter and Functions 14
Vyzovlti. Sophia Transition 2: Algorithms 48
Folding Architecture: Spatial Structural and
Transition 3: Spatial, Structural and Organizational
OrgctniTaticnal Diagrams
Diagrams 74
BIS Publishers Transition 4; Architectural Prototypes 104
Herengracht 370*372
9.0 Box 323 Folding Architecture,
1000 AH Amsterdam
Concise Genealogy of the Practice 130
The Netherlands
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bis@fatspijblishera*n1

Copyright © 2003 The authors and BIS Publishers

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B/S PUBLISHERS
Acknowledgements provided precious graphic design consultancy, Pnina Avidar
sustained the further development of the research inviting me
Folding Architecture - Spatial, Structural and Organizational method in the analysis and design
to apply this explicit design

Diagrams comprises a case study of folding as a generative

T
studio In-Gewikkelde Ruimte at Tilburg Academy for
processin architectural design. The case has been built on Architecture and Urbanism in 2002. Marc Schoonderbeek* Olga
observation, documentation and analysis of the standard Vazquez-Ruano and Paul van der Voort contributed to additional
educational procedure of design studio DIO: Het Lab -
development during our collaboration in The Hand Stays in the
Proeftuin voor Ontwerpen en Nieuwe Theorleen that I have Picture workshop that took place In spring2003 under the
been instructing in the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University MSci-Studio Border Conditions at the same faculty.
of Technology, with the status of guest teacher since 2000, Magnus Bjorkman, Ophelfe Herranz, Paul Galindo and Natasha
Hans Cornelissen the DIO design studio course director has Fricout have contributed to this publication with exercises
supported this research in the course of three academic years accomplished in this workshop. For editorial assistance, my
and contributed essentially to the design investigation and the gratitude to Penelope Dean and Deborah Hauptmann.
publishing of this book. This publication has been granted the Ail images Included in the essay Folding Architecture - Concise
permission of Professor FL Beunderman. Dean of the Faculty of Genealogy of the Practice are courtesy of the architects
Architecture T.U. Delft. I would like to primarily thank all the mentioned. A special mention to VMX architects and
students that seriously engaged with the studio research and video-artist Sander Meulmeester for their enthusiastic

especially the ones contributing to this publication: Trine Bang, submission of original imagery.

Safia Benayard- Serif, Mattieu Bescaux, PauFEric Bonnans,

Robert Bos, Marcus Buitenweg. Johan Cederfot Fokke van Dijk,

Moniek Haverkort, Andreas Lokitek, Fredrick Lyth, Daniel Morel,

Tijs Putles, 8a$ Rozenbeek, Thys Schreij, Joost van Boekhold,

Christian Vedeter, Bas Vogelpoel, Cindy Wouters and Jerome
Zwart.
The visual essay in Folding as a Morphogenetic Process in

Architectural Design - 010 Design Studio Case Study primarily

consists of photographic documentation of working models in

all phases of the studio process. Hans Kruze Hans Schouten. t

and myself, as welt as several students are responsible for the

photography, Joost van Boekhold and Gabriel Pena assisted me

in the studio documentation of D10-2001. Joost Berkhout

4 5
Prologue a larger scale makes this problem visible. This way of folding is

more radical than origami because it includes no narrative ele*

The DIO design studio project is an example of an ment. The fold is a sort of affectionate space. More than just
architectural design process with a circular nature. In contrast reason, meaning and function are involved here. The fold alters
to a linear process, it allows one to encircle a problem and the traditional viewpoint. The incisions are no longer concerned
understand and confront it in all its relationships - in other with aesthetics or meaning but with a different type of order.

words, it Is a kind of exploration. It results among other things Observing them can confuse the knowledge-hungry student.
in an expansion from logical to associative coherence. The Folding is more important for the development of techniques to

effect Is investigative design and attitude formation. In this derive new architecture than for the development of an individ-
context, the fold is more important for the development of ual

methods to arrive at a new architecture, than is for the it architectonic form. It is therefore, as GilEes Deleuze claims, an

development of an individual architectural form. '

abs ol ute internal is a tie n / Th e a m b igu i ty ,
wb Ich ch a ra cte ses ri

Folding is relatively unknown to students, folding is a challenge the

with great individual possibilities. Opening a fold in a surface folding project, is unmistakable In the end result. These possi-
creates spaces, which in our minds are filled with volumes. bilities can be differently interpreted, accentuated and com-
Thus, the technique of folding makes it possible to re appraise bined by each
every step. Each step is laden with potential. Folding and the individual; that fs to say, a great difference between equally
associated development of hand-eye co-ordination liberates the valid designs is noticeable, because everyone is different.

design thought-process from preconceptions and removes any Folding produces a language of architecture, it Is the strength

existing architectonic images. The limitation that the technique of the architectonic

of folding brings with it sharpens the mind and stimulates language that speaks out and determines the quality, The first

creativity. Folding also implicitly allows accidental and unknown must thus be viewed as sounds
folds that only much later

end-results for a relatively long period of the design process. become words.
The enormous number of possibilities makes a choice It is a new language, at least for the student, which must be
necessary. Lines must be drawn in sometimes chaotic, yet learned.

remarkable, folding models. The scope, suitability and

significance of these will be a subject for discussion. There are Hans Cornelissen, DIO design studio course director

two observations to be made here: Folding is not concerned

with creating a new style but rather with searching for links.

Forms bring up the problem of human scale, as they can

unconsciously display monumental characteristics. Working on

6 7
Folding as a Transition 1: Matter and Functions
ivory Carton L
introduced as quintessential foldable material
Morphogenetic Process in
is

given the paper's weight and structural capacity. The task is to

Architectural Design extensively explore transformations of a single paper surface

into a volume, with one constraint only, maintaining the
continuity of the material. The paper's transformative origins
are simple actions, intuitive responses, delivered here as a list

of verbs: fold, press, crease, pleat, score, cut, pull up, rotate,

twist, revolve, wrap, pierce, hinge, knot, weave, compress,

unfold. In the early folding performances, we can appreciate
the paperfold 2 as a diagram in Deleuzian terms, an abstract
machine knowing nothing of forms and substances: operating
purely by matter and functions Reading the paperfold as a
diagram, that does not represent but rather constitutes a new
type of reality introduces architectural research into a field of
actualization.

Transition 2: Algorithms
Folding as a generative process in architectural design is The pa per fold is a dynamic artefact, unstable and evolving,
essentially experimental: agnostic, non-linear and bottom up. it bares the traces of the activity that brings it into being:

Our interest lies on the morphogenetic process, the sequence scores, creases or incisions drawn in the surface of the paper.
of transformations that affect the design object. Considering The paperfold unfolded, becomes a map of its origination
this an open and dynamic development where the design process. Repetitive paper folding performances evolve initial

evolves with alternate periods of disequilibrium, we can intuitive responses into primary techniques: triangulation,
appreciate the function of folding as a design generator by stress forming, stratification of folds, folds within folds, or
phase transitions, that is, critical thresholds where qualitative patterns like strips, spline curves, spirals, or meanders.
transformations occur. Cut off from the continuum of the studio Manipulation of paper surface in order to produce volume
process, four phase transitions are presented further constitutes a curriculum of activity, a program. Paper fold
illustrating the case with a visual essay: matter and functions, generative transformations are structured in sequences.
algorithms, spatial-structural-organizational diagrams and We consider the succession of transformations resulting to the
architectural prototypes. paperfold artefact as a genetic algorithm of form. The task in

e 9
this phase is to decipher the paperfold algorithm as a movement and stasis as abstract program. Accessibility is the
morphogenetic mechanism. Generative sequences, augmented essential operation. Connectivity is consequential performance.
techniques, unfolding, transformation mappings, instructive Loops and Crossings are emergent space concepts.
plans and inventories of transformation are submitted here as Given the consistency of ivory carton, the crease, the pleat and
definitions of the paperfold algorithm. Understanding and the hinge acquire structural properties in the paperfold
developing the paper fold algorithm transgresses the singularity artefact. In the folding process of surface warping creases
of the object spawning a series of similar but varying receive and distribute tension and compression. Structural
artefacts. This re-introduces the problem of documentation, patterns mostly encountered in the development of paper
requiring notation * as a set of instructions that include time as folding techniques are triangulated surfaces of increased
a variable. Thus the paperfold can be considered an event, variability. The fishbone* is a major structural pattern deriving
defined by Leibniz^ as an extension, where the object expands from the domain of origami paper folding, a regular structure
into an infinite series of variability containing neither a final susceptible to maximum variability.

term nor a limit. Paperfold derivative organizational diagrams are entanglement,

interlacement and stratification. Serial variation of strips has
Transition 3: Spatial, Structural and Organizational Diagrams been observed as a folding technique that can evolve into an
Space emerges in the paperfold during a dynamic volume organizational system. Due to the warping of the surface, the
generation process. The void bounded between the folds of the dominance of the obfique piane is expressed through a series
paper manifests a curvilinear form that cannot be exactly between horizontal and vertical. Blurred boundaries between
defined. Like its delimiting surfaces it manifests increased spaces indicate constant transformations in conditions of
continuity despite its fragmentation. Mapping the paperfold as enclosure.
a spatial diagram requires an abstraction of spatial relations.
Geometric characteristics are initially irrelevant. Topological Transition 4: Architectural Prototypes
properties are crucial to describe the space emerging In the in a design generative process by folding, the architectural
paperfold artefact; proximity, separation, spatial succession, object is not an a priori target to be achieved. Given the
enclosure and contiguity. educational context, the spatial, structural and organizational
The task in this phase is to perceive and configure the space diagrams emerging in the process are developed into
between the folds as actual space. Not yet as the virtual form architectural prototypes. The task here is to attribute
of a possible building or as an abstract geometric space but as architectural properties to the diagram introducing parameters
space accommodating an abstract program. A smooth space, of material, program and context. Thus we can define here as
that needs to be occupied in order to be calculated. architectural prototype the spatial, structural or organizational
We introduce the itinerary of a human body, a succession of diagram that has acquired 'architectural substance 7.

10 ii
A concise account of the prototypes developed in the studio Footnotes
course illustrated here includes the warped surface series, the 1 Every carton is direct translation from the Dutch i voir kar ton; thin, robust but
easy to cut white paper avertable from 90 to 300 g.
wrapped interior, the niche, intertwining tubes, life-pods for
2 Paperfold is defined here as the result of the process of folding paper, the
urban nomads, the living-working machine, the hollow dike and product of a folding performance.
the urban camping. Unlike disjunctive notions of cross, trans, 3 The argument for diagrammatic architecture comes in accordance to Deleuze

or dis-programminga, attributing architectural substance to the & Guatarri's notion of the diagrammatic being an intrinsic property of the
abstract machine: 'We define the abstract machine as the aspect or moment
paperfoid diagram is a research project that seeks reciprocity
at which nothing but functions and matters remain. A diagram has neither
between spatial properties, organization of program and substance nor form, neither content nor expression.' From A thousand
structure. Nevertheless this reciprocity goes beyond plateaus * capitalism and schizophrenia, translation Brian Massumi,

deterministic interdependence into a multiplicity of possible University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1987
4 Stan Alien, mapping the unmappabie-on notation' in Practice: architecture,
associations. Through the evaluation of these prototypes we theory and culture,
technique and representation, Critical Voices in art,
could verify the discursive claim of folding in architecture as a G+B Arts International, 2000.
strategy that manages complexity by integration of disparate 5 Gilles Deleu zc. The fold, Leibniz and the Baroque, trans, Tom Conley,

elements into a heterogeneous yet continuous system's, The At hi one Press, London, 1993
6 See also page 18 and 138 of this publication. For further reference consult
Origami Science and An Proceedings of the Second International Meeting
of Origami Science and Scientific Origami, Otsu, Japan, 1994
Sophia Vyzoviti, June 2003 7 Stanford Kwinter, The complex and the singular
1

in Architectures of
Time-Towards a Theory of the Event tn Modernist Culture, The MET Press,
Cambridge Massachusetts, 2001
8 Bernard Tschumi. Architecture and disjunction, The MIT Press, Cambridge
Massachusetts, 1996
9 Greg Lynn. 'Architectural curvi linearity the folded, the pliant and the supple'
En 'Folding in Architecture', Architectural Design, voL63, Academy Editions,
London, 1993

12 13
14
score * cut - unfold knot score - cut - fold - hinge
cut - rotate - pierce - hinge cut - rotate - wrap - hinge
fold - cut wrap -
hinge cut - fofd - wrap - hinge

22 23
score - cut - fold - hinge score + cut + fold + hinge

24 25
score - cut - fold score cut - fold

28 29
score - cut - fold score - cut - pull up

30 31
crease - cut - fold - extrude crease - cut - fold - extrude - fold - hinge

34 35
fold - crease - fold - pleat fold - crease - fold - pleat

38 39
score - crease - fold unfold score - crease - fold - wrap

42
43
score - cut - fold - crease - cut - balance

44
score - cut - fold - balance - crease
generative sequence conic section: wraping

50 51
generative sequence fishbone: direct folding

52 53
generative sequence meander; direct fofding + cutting

54 55
Bas Rozenbeek unfold: score - cut * fold - pierce

56 57
Marcus Buitenweg meander: extrusion sequense

61
60
Andreas Lokitek pleat patterns unfolded

UNfold
p
L

T=~T
,
T
.4

UN fold

UNfold

T3^T
L_— —

UNfoEd

r^3, ^

63
Gphelie Herranz & Paul Galindo transformation mapping

point d movement traces

movement traces (all the points)

65
Bas Vogelpoel piercing: augmented teenique - serial variability

67
Bas Vogel po el piercing: inventory - instructive pfan

1 -
 Cindy Wouters knotted strip: instructive plan

negative fold

-
— incision

Hab where Ifre piercing crosses

piercing 1

Sold where the piercing crosses

fronl

70
 Magnus Bojrkman t

oblique section:inventory of transformations

72
73
Transition 3
Spatial, Structural and Organizational Diagrams
Continuity
Connectivity
Loop
Crossing
Oblique ground
Blurred boundaries
Entanglement
Interlacement
Stratification
Serial variation
Fredrik Lyth continuity - crossings

78 79
Daniel Noreil entanglement - compression

S3
Fokke van Dijk interlacement - continuity

84 85
Matthieu Bechaux serial trasformation: spiral

90 91
Jerome Zwart stratification - oblique ground

96 97
 100 101
I
Bas Vogelpoel continuity - niche
Transition 4
Achitectural Prototypes
Warped surface series
Wrappedhouse
Niche
Jntertwinning tubes
Lifepods for urban nomads
Living - working machine
Hollow dike
Urban camping

104 105
Natacha Fricout warped surface series

106 107
Safi a Benayard-Serff wrapped house; structural prototype

109
Bas Vogelpoel niche: generic pi an

A cavn cnn also be * uumfli

Tunnel (Dog-)hole*
Den, (air*
Hcie. Earth < Lodge * Burrow <
Den. haunt, resort

PiTt or Nicha?

110
 »

Bas VogelpoeJ niche solifoquees

\iavj D& we y retire

ME A ?

feta**

i-H

Y ^
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v

7
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112 113
Johan Cederlof

Bjf.,
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Hfe

|i
p^lp i 3]
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1
jgl^lij ijB
IB
Johan Cederlof oblique ground: Mfepod aggregates

116
117
Fredrik Lyth Intertwinning tubes

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WALK THROUGH PARK WALK THROUGH PARK MEETING THROUGH ON THE WAY HOME
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YOUR HOUSE
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118 139
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Daniel Norell living and working machine: entanglement

122 123
 Daniel Norell
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124
125
Cindy Wouters hollow dike: urban skin

126 127
Christian VeddeJer hollow dike; urban skin

CAMP WATER
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123
Folding Architecture, Greg Lynn, in his contribution to the above issue, titled -

the folded, the pliant and the

Concise Genealogy of the 'Architectural curvilinearity -

supple', Introduces folding as a third architectural response to

Practice complex and disparate cultural and formal contexts, operating
neither by conflict and contradiction as Deconstruction nor by
unity and reconstruction as Neo-Classicm, New-Modernism and
Regionalism. Etymologically relating complexity with pliancy 3 ,

Sophia Vyzoviti the architecture of the fold is considered a cunning tactic for

intensive integration of difference within a heterogeneous yet

continuous system, working beyond addition by smooth
layering, a concept demonstrated with analogues from geology
as mineral sedimentation, and culinary mixing techniques.
Folding emerged as an architectural discourse aspiring to Forms of viscosity and pliability are considered its new
become the new architecture of the end of the 20th century. instruments: forms that are sticky and flexible, 'where things
In the perspective of a concise genealogy we can consider the tend to adhere to! For Lynn curvilinearilty is the formal
Architectural Design Profile, guest-edited by Greg Lynn, Folding language of 'pliant architecture! Husserl’s unexact geometries
in Architecture ± its early manifesto. The issue released in are essential for the comprehension of pliant forms: rigorous
1993 comprises an anthology of essays and projects by a geometries that in contrast to exact geometries, cannot be
group of architects seeking an alternative to the contradictory reproduced identically, are irreducible to average points or
formal logic of Deconstructivism, and includes among others dimensions but can be determined with precision.
Cobb, Eisenman, Gehry, Kipnis, Lynn As a paradigm for geometry of multiple probable relations Lynn
and Shirdel. Featuring an excerpt from introduces the supple topological surface of Rene Thom's
Deleuze’s, at that time recent English catastrophe graph.
translation. The fold, Leibniz end the
Baroque Folding in Architecture, In The fold. Leibniz and the Baroque Defeuze submits a set
3
of
draws philosophical substance from Baroque traits that stretching outside its historical limits are
the work of Deleuze, a radical contributing to the appreciation of contemporary art.
understanding of Leibniz, employing Considering them crucial for the understanding of the evolution
the Baroque as a theoretical tool to of the discourse on the fold into a practice of folding
analyze contemporary artistic and architecture these traits are summarized:
intellectual movements.
130 131
 1. The fold; the infinite work in process, not how to conclude Perhaps the most influential unexecuted project of the 90 s
but how to continue, to bring to infinity, and probably the earliest to transcribe Deleuzian traits in an
2. The inside and the outside; the infinite fold separates or architectural design are 2 Bibtiotheques at Jussieu, Paris by
moves between matter and soul, the facade and the closed OMA in 1993. In this competition entry for the public library on
room, the inside and the outside, the university campus folding is employed both a$ organizational
3. The high and the low: being divided into folds, the fold greatly diagram and a spatial device that produces density, Koolhaas
expands on both sides thus connecting the high and the low. uses the metaphor of the 'the social magic carpet' addressing
4. The unfold: not as the contrary to the fold but as the the continuous floor surface of the building. The floors slabs
continuation of this act. are sloped to coincide with the superceding and underlying
5. Textures: as resistance of the material, the way a material ones, producing a continuous path, a warped interior
is folded constitutes its texture. boulevard that exposes and relates all programmatic elements'
6. The paradigm: the fold of the fabric must not conceal its thus transforming the library experience into that of an urban
formal expression. landscape. Folding as a spatial device abolishes the 2,5-meter
human occupation heightconstraint while instigating a flaneurie
Deleuze regards inflection as the ideal generic element of the through the library interior. In S,M,LXL* the paperfold is not
variable curve of the fold. Quoting his student Bernard Cache, only illustrated as a concept model but also introduced into the
he defines the point of inflection as an Intrinsic singularity' practice as a new architectural strategy and imagery.
involving three transformations: vectorial, projective and infinite The design exemplifies architecture neglecting the idea of the
variation. In this frame Cache argues for a new definition of the fapade, rather concentrating on the floor as a catalyst of
1

technological object, the 'objectiEe as an event-assuming place spatial connectivity and social interaction.
in a continuum by variation where industrial automation or
serial machineries replace stamped forms. This new status of
the object no longer refers to a spatiaf mould but to a temporal
modulation that implies as much the beginnings of a
continuous variation of matter as a continuous development of
form, In Earth moves: the furnishing of territories5 , published
in 1995 Bernard Cache proposes to re-deflne architecture as a
folded practice of interior and exterior relations and as the art
of the frame. Cache sets the conditions for the new in To reassert its credibility, pet;we fold it to generate
1
we imagine its Surface as density, then form a
architecture by the 'inflection image focusing on furniture as pliable, a social magic cor- "stacking" of platforms;
hinge between geography and architecture.

132 133
Investigating the origins of Jussieu's continuous sloped floors habitable surface and circulation to become one continuous
we should acknowledge as precedents Virilio’s concepts of the space. The allocation of human activities on sequences of

oblique ground and habitable circulation. Paul Virilio and oblique surfaces, cannot be exactly defined but require a
Claude Parent published in 1966 Architecture Principe a series t
geometry of multiple probable relations, including zones of

of architectural and urban manifestos. Here Virilio develops the predictability of activities as in Thom's catastrophe curves that

theory of the 'oblique are constrained by percentage of inclination and material

1

function , an angular plane texture.

that constitutes the ‘third

spatial possibility for The oblique plane as habitable circulation will prove to be one
architecture' subverting the of the most fertile concepts in the evolution of innovative
norms of horizontal and Architecture in the nineties, admittedly a prolific decade in

vertical oriented space. respect to folding. The Jussieu library project fertilizes the

The oblique plane is folding discourse into architectural practice, spawning a series
considered the instigator of of single surface projects in a generation of architects
a tactile relationship worldwide. Particularly in the Netherlands the oblique floor
between building and body acquires tectonic substance in a number of projects becoming
primarily activated by disequilibrium. The oblique is idealized as a simulation of a landscape, Since an exhaustive enumeration
the field where the corrupted by the static architecture of of such designs would exceed the limits of a concise survey
horizontal-vertical intense spatial perception is re-gained, by a only a few references will proceed. The continuous slopped
kind of eroticization of the ground. Architecture will no longer surface evolves within OlWVs practice into the folded floor.

be dominated by the visual, the facade, but will relate to the Kunsthali Rotterdam 1993,
human body as a receptive totality’. The oblique plane alters comprises a knot of paths,
the relationship of space and weight: gravity affects perception circulation spaces involving
since ‘the individual will always be in a state of resistance- different kinds of movement:
whether accelerating as going down or slowing down as exhibition visitors, passers

climbing up, whereas when one walks on a horizontal plane by and vehicles. The folded
weight is nil' 7 , Virilio claims the origins of the theory of the concrete floor manifests
oblique in his childhood explorations. Interiors of upturned or tectonic mastery in the
tilted bunkers on the coast of Normandy provided his first Educatorium, Utrecht 1997,
experiences of ‘unstable spaces'. The oblique plane, as third a central facility shared by
axis in the Euclidean system, offers the opportunity for the faculties of the

134 135
University of Utrecht. Described by Bart Lootsma 'the consisting of a continuous strip unfolding in length to 110
Educatorium brings about an entirely new kind of spatial meters. Bicycles can be stalled on both sides of the track. The
experience in which is hard to tell where the exterior ends and architects state that the design is based on a very functional
the interior begins. Passing through doors without noticing the storage: ‘Using the existing height difference along the station
transition, one does not observe any staircases or even square of 1,25 meters a system of slopes (3 degrees') has
thresholds- visitors glide into the building. Once inside, been created on which the bicycles can be stored. Red asphalt
movement is imperceptible from one level to another, even will be laid over the slopes like a carpet. Short cuts for going
though staircases are here and there, where vertical distance up do exist in a number of bicycle stairs, but undoubtedly
to be bridged is sufficient to warrant one/ 8 cyclists will prefer to go down using the ramp. The expression
of the building will be made by an efficient detailing and
If we consider fiow as a prerequisite of a continuous surface, material choice, but chiefly by the sculptural form of the
the garage as weil as the Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art slopes.' 9 Despite this, the building in its performance appears
would qualify as architectural prototypes of inhabitable to be transgressing the infrastructural efficiency of the bicycle-

circulation. Vehicular movement as an overriding architectural storage to become a new kind of public space and a
program is the ideal brief for a folded organization. Avoiding contemporary icon for the city of Amsterdam. Besides the
repeated reference to the car, another paradigm of the oblique mass of commuters,
continuous plane as a superseding architectural element would the bicycle-flat hosts a
be bicycle parking. The bicycle-fiat or fietsflat in Dutch designed number of other visitors:
by Amsterdam based VMX Architects in 1998 and completed tourists, filmmakers and
construction in 2001, is conceived as a continuous-enfolded bmx-freestyters, whose
presence supports
Virilio's claim for
inhabitable circulation as
an instigator of social
interaction.

bicycle path. In the process of infrastructure upgrading, the Having elaborated on the continuous oblique surface, a major
Amsterdam municipality decided to free the entrance plaza of feature of folding architecture, a new notion wili be exemplified
its Central Railway Station from the mass of bicycles, by further through the folded texture: the fabric revealing its form.

installing temporary storage for 2500 bicycles. VMX architects A reference to the work of Diller + Scoffidio serves as an ideal
proposed a three level self-supporting, de mountable structure introduction here.

136 137
 [n Bad Press folding materializes as a In their 1995 winning international competition entry,
process resulting in the re-configuration Yokohama Port Terminal , architects Alejandro Zaera-Polo and
of the masculine shirt as a critique to Farshid Moussavi delivered a single surface prototype where
standardization and a subversion of the folding traits permeated all scales of the design. The urban
constitution of contemporary self-image. proposal introduced the continuous ground as a mechanism for
In the winning competition entry for the penetration of urban space on the terminal's roof and an
Eyebeam, Museum of Art and instigator of a public space at the interface of terminal
Technology in New York 10 completed in functions and city events. It has been described by the
2002 the folded strip is deployed both architects as \,*a public space that wraps around the terminal,
as spatial and organizational diagram. neglecting its symbolic presence as a
The new Eyebeam building will house a museum of art and gate, de-cod ifying the rituals of travel
technology, artist-in-residence studios, education center, and a functional structure which
*/ ysssfSi
multi-media classrooms, state-of-the-art Theater and digital becomes the mould of an a-typological
:

archive* The facility will provide unprecedented production and public space, a landscape with no §. vT
exhibition opportunities for artists exploring new media in instructions of occupation’
video, film and moving image art, DVD production, installation, The cruise terminal program, consisting
2D/3D digital imaging, net art and sound and performance art
forms. The double folded strip displays the buildings formal
of a bundle of diffuse and directed
movement including the flows of
A
determination; it provides the interface citizens, passengers, visitors, vehicles

for the digital media space and and luggage, is organized by the
encloses its supporting infrastructures. layering and interlacing of paths.
The pteaied section of the Eyebeam The building's formal determination
building computes. It is a plexus of manifests a topological surface
technological infrastructures and their concept in sequences of inclined
interfaces, into an intelligent curvilinear spaces that accomplish
architectural smoothly layered skin. smooth transitions between
programmatic elements. The structural
The final reference in this survey embraces an emergent and construction principles intensify the overriding spatial
architectural paradigm of a folded organization, considering the concept by assigning the origami folded steel pfate as the
projects scale and influence; the Port Terminal at Yokohama structural principle thus demolishing the traditional separation
Osanbashi Pier, completed in 2002 by Foreign Office Architects, between building envelope and structure.

138 139
During the seven years implementation period of the project In conclusion, Folding Architecture - Concise Genealogy of the
the stress has shifted towards research based construction Practice has registered the effect of the discourse of the fold

pragmatics. As Alejandro Zaera-Polo states the structural in the practice of architecture focusing on a small number of
development of the project has become the main source of landmark projects that have essentially contributed to its

ideas for its implementation and a trail of discovery that evolution in the 10 years following 1993. The purpose of this
reaches far beyond the images that have become the better survey was to ground the studio research Folding as a
known side of the project' 12 . Research on engineering Morphogenetic Process in Architectural Design In a theoretic
processes in different levels was conducted in collaboration and professional framework.
with Japan based SGD engineers. A series of alternative This genealogy has, however, omitted a line of work intersecting

structural prototypes where developed before resolving to the Deleuzian discursive traits with computer generated design,
combination of girders and a folded plate structure. An origami narrowing the perspective to end of 20th century techniques.
archetype, the fishbone pattern is the origin of the folded plate Given the opportunity of an extensive survey an update on the
recent work of Bernard Cache and Greg Lynn would be
fundamental.
The traits introduced by Deleuze stimulated the thinking of a
generation of architects. Consequently the fold has acquired
architectural substance, manifested tectonic properties and
can be delivered now as design knowledge. The attributes of
the new architectural object emergent in the redefinition of the
practice are contended below in a set of propositions:
1. Extension: the object as an infinite series, serial variability
visible on the roof of the terminal's halls. Origami structure can 2. Multiplicity: the object as a plexus of elements, potential
be appreciated as regional reference supporting 'the introduction interactivity

of context as a process of material organization rather than 3. Curviliniarity: inflection, obliqueness, warping of surfaces
image'. Even though the fishbone comprises a regular generic and non Euclidean geometries
structure, every unit in the specific folded plate is differentiated. 4. Stratification: layering and interfacing between contradicting
Following the terminal's geometric guidelines that are architectural factors

tbemsetves inflected; the geometry of the pattern is tangential 5. Continuity: topological properties of surfaces and
to the circles regulating the complex curvilinear girders, organizational principles

constantly varying in a lesser degree. Thus the structural 6. Fluidity: interlacement of boundaries, fuzzy demarcations
pattern extends through an infinite series of variability. and zones of probability

140 141
By which 1 can submit the fold, Deleuze and the re definition of Footnotes
1 Folding in Architecture ', Architectural Design. voL63, Academy Editions,
the practice, as an alternative title which may further the
London, 1993
- Concise
research presented in this essay Folding Architecture
2 Gilles Deleuze, The fold, Leibniz and the Baroque, trans. Tom Conley.
Genealogy of the Practice Given the fact that a new generation
.
The Athlone Press, London, 1993. Originally published in French as

of architects is being educated on the foundation of this Le Pli: Leibniz at le baroque. 1988
3 Fbid. 'Folding In Architecture' Greg Lynn, "Architectural curvitinearity -

discourse we can only expect an even more rigorous and ,

the folded. the pliant and the supple'

innovative performance in the future.
'The unforeseen connections possible between differentiated sites and alien
programs require conciliatory, complied, pliant, flexible and often cunning
tactics. Presently numerous architects are involved with the heterogeneities,
discontinuities and differences inherent within any cultural and physical
context by aligning formal flexibility, with economic, programmatic and
structural pliancy, A multipie of pi! based words- folded, pliant, supple,
flexible, plaited, pleated, placating, complicitous, compliant, complaisant,
complicated, complex and multi pllcitous to name a few- can be evoked to
describe this emerging urban sensibility of intensive connections.' (p.llj
4 Ibid. Gilles Deleuze, The fold, Leibniz and the Baroque
5 Bernard Cache, Earth moves: the furnishing of territories, trans.
Anne Boyman. ed. Michael Speaks. Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

1995
6 Rem Koolhaas & Bruce Mau, S.JYI^XL, 010 publishers, Rotterdam, 1995
7 Enrique Limon, an interview with Paul Virilio. 'Paul Virilio and the Oblique',
in Sites and Stations - Provisional Utopias, S. Allen and K.Park eds.,
Lusitania Press, New York, 1995
S Bart Loolsma, SUPERDUTCH. Thames and Hudson. London, 2000
9 m 2002
1

'
Free h facts '
. Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotte rda .

10 www. ey ebea m o rg/m useu m / arch.html

.

11 Foreign Office Architects - 'Yokohama international Port Terminal',

M Fites no. 29, London, 1995
12 Alejandro Zaera-Polo, 'Roller coaster construction'.
verb_ architecture boogazine, Actar, Barcelona, 2001

142 143
Colophon
Author
Sophia Vyzoviti

Concept
Joost Berkhout and Sophia Vyzoviti
Graphic design
Marielle Tolenaar / stucfiosap
Printer

Star Standard industries Ltd. Singapore

About the author

Sophia VyzovilL born In Thessaloniki in 1971, is an architect practicing in Greece
and the Netherlands, She is Design instructor and Lecturer at the Faculty of

Architecture- Delft University of Technology, Tilburg Academy for Architecture and

Urbanism and the School of Architecture- University of Thessaly, Her work has
been exhibited in the National Pavilion of Greece, Venice Biennale 2000 and
more recently smoothcity was part of the ’Mobility Laboratory' of international

Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2003, Sophia Vyzovit] received the Diploma of

Architect Engineer at the Faculty of Architecture Aristotelian University of
Thessaloniki in 1994 and a Master In Architecture at the Qerlage Institute In

1997. Since 1999 she has been research associate at Design Knowledge
Systems, Faculty of Architecture - Dei ft University of Technology,