Ksenia Knyazkina | Origami Dragon Circis

The Origami is a science of foldind paper, but during last century people have discover its unbeliviable chracteristics. Expanding and paking for the size more than 5 times bigger original area, transformavility, which makes possible to create almost every shape, and many others. Origami structures are in most cases rigid self- supporting systems , therefore it is very tempting for architecs to use them
There are a lot of facts which makes origami structures more beneficial than traditional ones. For example the ability to prefabricate all units and than just join them, which significantly booster the building process and also reduce expances, because all units are same or nearly same. The abiity expand can be used to create sophisticated systems of light, acustic, or ventilation .
Origami structures usually have very simple geometry so it is easy to work with them in parametric software.
In this research I focused on the abilities of the origami to transform for different shapes, create variety of angles and combine versitile units - characteristics which are very usefull in architecture.
The project of the modern circus is designed using the principles of origami. The main concept of the building is dividing it to the 2 parts:
external shell: spiky Dragon Skin Pattern is applyed to the concave unregular shell . Its shape reflects the internal dispositions, The main stage requires more than 30 meters in heigh, while the total lengh is almost 70 metters. Therefore, a self supporting structure of the origami is very usefull in this type of building. Spiky shapes reflects the traditional shape of the chapitou circus. Moreover, while the circus is designed to be located in Moscow, so the loads from snow is a very big threat for such large dome. But the pyramids and concave shape of the shell mollify the loads, making the whole building more rigid.
internal construction:
has been used the miura ori pattern which is a variation of the glid reflection pattern. However it is rigid system, walls can be easily moved or curved, the whole internal area can be transformed according to the usage. The stage is big enough for 1200 visitors, and troop of acters, acrobats and other staff. The area is divided for visitor zone which contain restaurant, exhibition area, shop, wc, and wardroab. For the actors there are rehersal rooms, starages, administration area, other required spaces. Because almost all Europian countries had forbiden the usage of animals in performances there no room for them in the Dragon Circus, so bid amount of space is saved for other purposes.