Best price: $15.70 |
The Taj Mahal may have taken 22 years to build, but you can do it in less than a day! Using crisp folds and a craft knife, you can easily recreate the world’s greatest architectural structures from ordinary sheets of paper. Whether you’re building the White House after dinner or crafting an origami version of the Eiffel Tower in an afternoon–and then folding it up to send to a friend in Paris–The Paper Architect guides you through every step of the process.
The directions for building these replicas are clear and easy to follow. In fact, the book contains an entire section of removable templates with color-coded fold lines that make construction simple enough for a first-time folder. All that’s needed is a craft knife, a metal-edged ruler, a cutting mat, and a clear work surface. For those looking for more of a challenge, the patterns can be enlarged or traced onto special paper for endless variations.
Each project also includes a wealth of information, from the history of the buildings and technical drawings to the raw materials used during construction. With quick facts that supplement the text, step-by-step illustrations, and clear instructions, all of these display-worthy projects can be mastered with no previous paper craft or architectural experience!
assembly instructions. However, each model includes detailed
construction directions, along with detailed notes and statistics about
the real structures. There are, of course, photos of the buildings and,
excellent-quality full-page photos of the completed OA models.
Good origamic architects clearly had a hand in the book design. Being hard-covered spiral-bound, it lays nice and flat. Pattern pages collected in the back of the book are perforated for easy removal.
All three authors have announcements on their sites with additional
details, including lists of all the patterns in the book.
Congratulations to all three artists on this fantastic new book!
Rating: 5 / 5
The only drawback to the book is that the projects encased therein require a trip to an office supply store, for not everyone has 65# cardstock lying around. The upside is that one can purchase the items necessary for $30 and use them for all the `buildings’. Our three oldest children at first thought paper would be `boring’ to play with but soon they were folding, scoring and cutting under the watchful eye of mom and dad… quietly. There are so many kid activities which generate noise and energy, but this proved to be a calm way to spend an hour, not to mention it’s an introduction to the basic elements of architecture.
We were able to copy the templates onto the cardstock with little trouble. The directions were slightly vague but the accompanying pictures make up for this, along with well-backlit snapshots of the finished product. Our `Parthenon’ came out nicely for an initial foray into origami architecture.
Reviewed by Meredith Greene
Rating: 3 / 5
Rating: 5 / 5
Rating: 5 / 5
Rating: 5 / 5