Inspired by origami, the team is interested in unfolding 3D printing to a 2D-to-3D printing method. Origami, the art of paper folding, transforms a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. This implies a significant opportunity in architecture that 2D sheets can be prefabricated and be folded to 3D forms on site. Indeed, there are existing projects that utilize metal sheets to fold to 3D forms. But the way they are fabricated is through subtractive manufacturing methods. We believe that additive manufacturing can not only reduce waste of material in producing the sheets for folding, but also produce various esthetic effects as well as performative structures.

In this project, the team focuses on testing 3D printed origami using regular PLA material at a relatively small scale. To test the viability we started with mimicking existing origami studies with 3D printing plastic material. The challenge here is to experiment on how different printing patterns, affected by toolpaths, extrusion rate, and feedrate, can contribute to the folding process. We the produced a series of 3D printed folding objects to show what this printing method can achieve.