Origami folding patterns in the work of F. Ll. Wright.

Abstract

This article traces a series of road marks that denote common roots in the works of F. Ll. Wright, related in his inspiration of the use of triangular base geometries and some concepts near to projective strategies inspired by a playful knowledge of paperwork, acquired by using F. Fröebel “gifts”, and structural and space mechanisms of Origami folding patterns.
In the images accompanying this article, we see significant architectonic elements and furniture, designed by Wright based on the principles of plates, facets, and folds, that could help him to generate dynamic spaces, rich in nuances and rhythms. Luminaires made in copper are perhaps the most direct examples of the application of the principles of the art of Origami and Kirigami (art that combines the fold of paper with the cut), into a single material, which is subjected to the action of bending to confer a more rigid and visually attractive form, which is able to present individually or in a group, forming more complex and with high value abstract and geometric spatial configurations. F. Ll. Wright was able to masterfully use these folding geometries, developing them not only in small scale in these luminaires but also in medium-scale in the furniture and interiors, and large scale in many of his buildings.
With the folded covers of the ascending passage until the Guest House of the Edgar J. Kaufmann House, Wright not only proposes a new way of thinking and using the concrete as a folded plate, but also traces a structural solution that surpasses the limits, and opens significant new architectonic variables. This reinforced concrete laminar structure, with its folded surface geometry and bowed in the plant, achieves surprising and almost magical stability and rigidity, as if a simple and slight gesture of folded paper is involved. Supported by minimum metal columns, represents all the conceptual and structural achievements of the fold. With this simple gesture of folding, Wright gives a fluid continuity to the two proposed programs. As a youth entertainment, runs a folded ribbon that masterfully connects the Guest House with the main house.
The work of F. Ll. Wright emerges here to inspire new spatial geometries and complex folded morphologies that enable multiple and heterogeneous applications on architecture, and offers to us a global vision and, at the same time, a focal point, a thread of narrative intensity and creative potential.