Origami

The art of origami comes from China and Japan. In Japanese, ‘ori’ is folding and 'kami' is paper – so ‘origami’ just means ‘folding paper’. The idea is to make a three-dimensional shape from a sheet of paper. Origami artists don’t like to cut their paper or use glue. They can make some amazing objects. Ideas from origami are sometimes used in architecture.

Origami is also a branch of geometry. If you unfold an origami model the creases show patterns of triangles and squares. It is a good way to get a feel for how shapes relate to one another.