Lecture & Workshop “Origami & Kirigami: From Art to Engineering”
2026/7/11
On July 11th, the Embassy held a lecture and workshop titled “Origami & Kirigami: From Art to Engineering” at the Information and Culture Centre.
Origami and kirigami are traditional arts that have been cherished in Japan for a long time, but they have evolved into a cutting-edge field of science in recent years. We have invited two researchers in this field; Professor Frédérick Gosselin and Professor David Mélançon from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Polytechnique Montréal for this event.
Prior to the event, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim Hideaki Ishii gave remarks and expressed hope that this workshop will inspire participants to look at the world from new and different angles, like traditional Japanese arts are finding new life in Canada as technologies that create value for society.
First, Dr. Mélançon explained the history of origami, its development, stability, and examples of its applications in engineering. A tent created based on origami concepts is expected to be used as a temporary shelter for emergencies and a resilient habitat for space exploration.
Then Dr. Gosselin explained the concept of a kirigami-inspired parachute. The feature of this parachute is that it can descend vertically towards a target during free fall, allowing supplies to be delivered accurately to the destination. As it can be manufactured at low cost, it is expected to be used for dropping humanitarian aid into disaster areas and conflict zones.
At the subsequent Q&A session, many questions were raised by the participants regarding the materials and sizes used in each design presented.
During the workshop after the lecture, with materials provided by the instructors, participants created examples of origami engineering applications, such as the 'Miura-ori fold,' 'Waterbomb fold,' and 'Bistable star,' as well as experimenting with kirigami parachutes, thereby gaining a firsthand understanding of the basics of origami and kirigami used in engineering.
Origami and kirigami are traditional arts that have been cherished in Japan for a long time, but they have evolved into a cutting-edge field of science in recent years. We have invited two researchers in this field; Professor Frédérick Gosselin and Professor David Mélançon from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Polytechnique Montréal for this event.
Prior to the event, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim Hideaki Ishii gave remarks and expressed hope that this workshop will inspire participants to look at the world from new and different angles, like traditional Japanese arts are finding new life in Canada as technologies that create value for society.
First, Dr. Mélançon explained the history of origami, its development, stability, and examples of its applications in engineering. A tent created based on origami concepts is expected to be used as a temporary shelter for emergencies and a resilient habitat for space exploration.
Then Dr. Gosselin explained the concept of a kirigami-inspired parachute. The feature of this parachute is that it can descend vertically towards a target during free fall, allowing supplies to be delivered accurately to the destination. As it can be manufactured at low cost, it is expected to be used for dropping humanitarian aid into disaster areas and conflict zones.
At the subsequent Q&A session, many questions were raised by the participants regarding the materials and sizes used in each design presented.
During the workshop after the lecture, with materials provided by the instructors, participants created examples of origami engineering applications, such as the 'Miura-ori fold,' 'Waterbomb fold,' and 'Bistable star,' as well as experimenting with kirigami parachutes, thereby gaining a firsthand understanding of the basics of origami and kirigami used in engineering.
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| Chargé d'Affaires ad interim Ishii delivering remarks |
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| Dr. Mélançon explaining Origami-inspired engineering |
A tent created based on origami concepts |
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| Dr. Gosselin explaining Kirigami-inspired parachute |
Kirigami-inspired parachute |
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| Workshop |
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| Materials | Professors of Polytechnique Montréal and Embassy officials |