A couple days ago during lunch, I stopped into the new Origami as Art show at the National Building Museum. The show features traditional origami paperfolding pieces, but focuses mainly on origami architecture which is the art of creating pop-up sculptures by making clever cuts in a single sheet of folded paper.

Photos: 1) The U.S. Capitol by Masahiro Chatani and Takaaki Kihara 2) Moonlight Bodhisattva (Buddist deity) by Kazukiyo Kurosu 3) Notre Dame Cathedral by Kurosu 4) Statue of Liberty by Kurosu 5 - 7) Sequence of me opening Tower of Piza by Takaaki Kihara 8) Bulletin board where I contributed my own creation, a red crane.

The show runs through March 27, 2005.

If you want to try out some free origami architecture patterns, visit Baud & Bui's excellent web site. But only if you promise not to cut yourself!

- mike lee - washington, dc