Paper Folding Exercise - My inspiration towards Fabric structures and Folded Plates. By Manikandan.

In this exercise I have folded paper in Regular Geometric Pattern and the canvas was made created ?? Further this canvas can be molded in various forms. The Folding which I have developed is  “Spot or Facet Folding”. Spot or facet folding requires that several folds intersect like a bunch in one single spot. This results in pyramidal folds with crystalline or facet-like planes.

Techniques and Principles:

       Folding the paper in Regular Geometric shapes gives a regular and parametric forms.  The Folding exercise can be iterated to refine the forms and to create interesting structures. The principle of folding as a tool to develop a general structural shape has been known for a long time. Folded structure systems which are analogous to several biological systems such as found at broadleaf-tree leaves, petals and foldable insect wings, are adopted to be employed in a new, technical way this principle to create self-supporting wall, mould and slab elements with a high load capacity out of flat and thin semi-manufactured metals. This stands in contrast to the building industry, where the principle of folding has played a secondary role so far. 

 

Folding systems represent one category of plane structural surfaces, alongside with plates and slabs. Their special structural behavior is due to their structural subdivision arrangement in pairs which correlate with each other and so they are connected through a shear connection. The structural characteristics of folding structures depend on the shape of the folding (longitudinal or pyramidal), on their geometrical basic shape, on its material (concrete, timber, metal, synthetics), on the connection of the different folding planes and on the design of the bearings. The characteristics of the folding structures are interactive and are related to each other.
  
The Transfer of Loads:

      The external forces are transferred due to the structural condition of the plate to the shorter edge of one folding element. There, the reaction as an axial force is divided between the adjacent elements which results in a strain of the structural condition of the slabs. This leads to the transmission of forces to the bearing.Regular folding structures can be described mathematically and geometrically and are therefore easy to tessellate and based on this easy to unfold.