At Berkeley, I teach the Introduction to Origami Design class, a course that explores origami not just as a craft, but as a design discipline at the intersection of art, history, and engineering. The curriculum I laid out is design focused, enabling students to become versed in using paper as a medium. We analyze models from prominent origami artists and learn about the artistic and structural decisions that lead to a complete origami model. We also touch on more contemporary applications, as origami relates to space-exploration, biomedical devices, and fashion.
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Curriculum:
Week 1: Intro to the core origami folds
Week 2: Traditional origami bases and shaping
Week 3: Complex origami bases
Week 4: Crease patterns
Week 5: Point splits, grafting, pattern grafting
Week 6: Mini project work time
Week 7: Circle Packing
Week 8: Box Pleating
Week 9: Level Shifters & Pythagorean Stretches
Week 10: Wet-folding, Using AI to design origami?
Week 11: Office Hours
Week 12: Final Project
Links to select presentations:
Week 1: https://www.figma.com/design/fapWVx5sx8VKlXEhzWQi0z/P.1?node-id=0-1&t=1iiiZt60wfajXr21-1
Week 2: https://www.figma.com/design/9kS0mNaHXqAg0bUPK0Knhq/P.2?t=vxLu2pAW46bUDiSm-1
Week 3: https://www.figma.com/design/KlSikztLoBCYxGvlvG32HJ/P.3?node-id=0-1&t=YbXmwBUTUiSdlxPQ-1
Week 5: https://www.figma.com/design/7I1JvnAeXfItf7T454oMQV/P.5?node-id=0-1&t=o2kgerELxKZh4XgO-1
If you go to UC Berkeley and want to join the class, please see this updated link for next semester!
More information on the Decal program at Berkeley:
The Democratic Education at Cal Program (or just DeCal) is an aggregate of student-run courses at the University of California, Berkeley – here, students create and facilitate their own classes on a variety of subjects, many of which are not addressed in the traditional curriculum. Each semester there are over 150 courses on topics ranging from Taiwanese Language to Origami design and Philosophy. Around 3000-4000 UC Berkeley students take DeCals each semester. DeCals are an excellent way of meeting the University’s minimum unit requirement, developing a new or past interest, and meeting peers in a small, comfortable environment. The DeCal Program is undoubtedly one of the many unique aspects of Berkeley’s undergraduate program, and all students are encouraged to consider taking a course! DeCal classes, in a nutshell, are legitimate university classes run by students. The responsibility of such courses rests on the department chair, faculty member, and student facilitator, who all sign a contract of understanding before the DeCal is reviewed by COCI / the Academic Senate. A faculty member sponsors a student’s course as a 98 / 198 section. That faculty member, as far as the computer systems and transcripts are concerned, is the “instructor of record.” The student that runs the course can be viewed as the delegated instructor for the faculty sponsor. At the end of the semester, the student will provide grade “recommendations” for the faculty sponsor, who will then do the actual grade inputting. Grades are only offered as Pass / No Pass, and the academic credit for each class typically range from 0.5-2 units. Students facilitators are the go-to person if there is any question about the course (enrollment, auditing…etc). Specific contact information can be found in the course listings page. If the facilitator has chosen not to show their e-mail address on the course listing, then we cannot provide it to you (it would be against our privacy policy) but we would be happy to send them an email with your contact info. If there are any questions or concerns about FPF enrollment in DeCal course units, please contact your adviser.
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