julien deransy texto

POP-UP BOOKS

Paper Architectures for people of all ages.

Julien Deransy

Key words : book, pop-up, paper, origamic architecture

Summary

History and evolution of pop-up techniques through the 19 th and 20th century as

a good way to teach space and architecture created by paper-engineers. Even

today, pop-up books and paper architectures still continue to fascinate people as

showed the new exhibition “Architectures de papier” in La Cité de l'Architecture in

Paris and the study of one of the best book sellers in the 21st century : PopVille.

Pop-Up techniques through the ages

A tool to understand the world

« Every Idea of a man is frst employed as a toy or in a toy.1 »

The audience for early movable books were adults, not children. As far as we can believe, the frst use of movable paper mechanics appeared in a manuscript for an astrological book in 1306 when the Catalan poet Ramon Llull used a revolving disc, also known as volvelle, to illustate his mystic theories 2. Througouht the centuries, volvelles have been used for such diverse pruposes as teaching anatomy, making astronomical predictions, creating secret codes and telling for tunes. It's during the year 1564 that the frst movable astrological book titled Cosmographia Petri Apiani3 had been published. After this event, in the following years the medical profession made use of this format, illustrating anatomical books with layers and faps showing the human body. Movable paper technics were also used in landscape architecture as the English Landscape designer Capability Brown made use of faps to illustrate « before and after » views of his designs.

1 Arthur Carrara, catalog of the 1960 exhibition, Milwaukee Art Center, USA

2 Allie townsed, Pop-Up Book, in “All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys”, Time magazine, February

16, New York City, 2011

3 Petrus Apianus. Cosmographicus liber Petri Apiani mathematici, studiose correctus, ac

erroribus vindicatus per Gemmam Phrysium. - Vaeneunt Antuerpiae : in aedibus Rolandi

Bollaert, 1529. - LV, [1] f. ; Fol

FAUP | 2012/2013Architectural toys - Processos complementares de reprodução disciplinar em Arquitectura

2- Cosmographia Petri Apiani

1- Ramon Llull's volvelle

18th Century, Childhood and entertainment

The childhood concept was created between the 17 th and 18th century and still has been developed since then. « It is as if, to every period of history, there corresponded a privileged age and a particular division of human life: "youth" is the privileged age of the seventeenth century, childhood of the nineteenth, adolescence of the twentieth. 4»Georges Boas was one of the frst philosophers that studied the historical creation of the childhood concept followed by a lot of writers, philosophers and sociologist as Philippe Ariès, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke and so many others. The acknowledgement of a different age from adulthood enable to develop many philosophical concepts and social representations as children (childhood), education and, consequently, school, teaching and learning. « Before 1770, there were no books produced ostensibly to give children spontaneous pleasure, and not primarily to teach them, not solely to make them good, nor to keep them proftably quiet. 5»Knowing this, it was not until the 18 th century that movable pop-up techniques were applied to books designed for teaching and entertainment for children. At the end of the 17th century, were published and produced all over Europe models of famous buildings made of paper to cut, fold and stick in order to teach the ar t of building to children. In 1925, Josef Albers and Laslo Moholy Nagy‘s Bauhaus integrated cutting and folding games to teach architecture in order to stimulate the creativity, patience and hand-working skills of the students. « Education is learning what you didn't know you didn't know. 6»But it's only during the 1930's in the United States that the publisher Harold Lentz created the B lue Ribbon Books production in New York which animated Walt Disney characters and traditional fairy tales with pop-up. It was following the great leap forward in the feld of movable paper illustration of 1929 with the publication of the Daily Express Children's Annual Number 1 built up with « pictures that spring up in model form 7». Harold Lentz was the frst publisher to use the term « pop-up » to describe the folded paper mechanism that was used.In the mid-1960's, the american Waldo Hunt was creating dimensional pop-up magazine inser ts and began to produce his own pop-up books. This decision led to the renaissance of pop-up books as we know them today8. Today, pop-up books are still very popular and hundreds of those books are published every years and hand-assembled and produced all over the world. Pop-up can be used

4 Philippe Ariès, Centuries of Childhoof, pt. 1, Ch. 1, Paris, 1962

5 F.J. Harvey Darton, Children's Books in England : Five Centuries o Social Life , Cambridge

University Press, 3rd Edition, England, 1982

6 Geroges Boas, The Cult of Childhood, Warburg institute, London, 1966

7 Ann Montanaro, A Concise History of Pop-Up and Movable Books, HarperCollins

Exhibition Space, 1997

8 Steven miller, Waldo Hunt, 1920-2009; “The King of Pop-Ups'Made Books Spring to

life”, The Wall Street Journal, November 24th 2009

FAUP | 2012/2013

Architectural toys - Processos complementares de reprodução disciplinar em Arquitectura 2 | 7

4- Daily Express Children's Annual n1

3- Puss in Boots, Blue Ribbon Book

both as a working tool for architects, a feld of experimentations for artists and graphists and as a simple, cheap nevertheless magic way to entertain children of all ages.

Paper Architectures and notable works, a way to teach space and design

1980, Origamic and paper architectures

Since then, In the early 1980‘s, the development of origamic architecture began with Masahiro Chatani. Japanese architect and professor, he personally felt that paper and pop-up architectures created «dreamy scenes» that invited the viewer into a «fantasy world»9. He came to believe that origamic architecture could be a good way to teach architectural design and appreciation of architecture, as well as to inspire interest in mathematics, art, and design in young children. Masahiro Chatani began to experiment with cutting and folding paper to make unique and interesting pop-up cards, he used techniques of origami (Japanese paper folding) and Kirigami (Japanese papercutting), as well as his experience in architectural design, to create intricate patterns which played with light and shadow. Many of his creations are made of stark white paper which emphasizes the shadowing effects of the cuts and folds.There are several different styles of origamic architecture. In one style, a folded paper can be cut in such a way that when the paper is opened to form a 90 degree angle. This technique was used in the early works of Masahiro Chatani when he created a lot of greeting cards thinking that they were a signifcant from of connection and communication between people (especially in Japan). He worried that in today's fast-paced modern world, the emotional connections created by the exchange of greeting cards would become scarce 10. An other style consists to create a three-dimensional image when the paper is opened to form a 180 degree angle, this is the technique used to create pop-up books. Less commonly, some designs require opening the paper and folding it completely in the opposite direction, making a 360-degree angle. Professor Masahiro Chatani can be considered today as the frst ar tist-architect who theorised the fact that pop-up and origamic papers represent a good way to teach aethetic, space, architecture and design. Using simple tools as paper, scisors and sometimes glue in the case of pop-up, the user just has to draw in plan a form, then cut and fold the paper. The resulsts are always surprising, creating beautiful shadows and shapes but, as easy as it sounds, these techniques are part of paper-engineering, a real science. That's why pop-up books and paper-architectures are so fascinating because behind the easy-going simplicity is hidden real complex techniques. From the 11st october to the 17th march, can be appreciated in the Cité de

9 Masahiro Chatani, Pop-Up Origamic Architecture, Ondorisha Publishers, Tokyo, 1985

10 Masahiro Chatani, Pop-Up Origamic Architecture, Ondorisha publishers, Tokyo, 1985

FAUP | 2012/2013


6- Ingrid Siliakus, Big City, 2011

5- Masahiro Chatami's greeting cards

L'Architecture in Paris, a great exhibition about origamic, pop-up and paper architectures titled Architectures de Papier11. Some works of Professor Masahiro Chatani are displayed but also some other notable works made by famous paper artists like Ingrid Siliakus, Peter Callesen, Béatrice Coron, Stéphanie Beck and Mathilde Nivet.

Some notable Pop-Up books

Especially in Arts, a lot of artists and architects used pop-up and paper architecture technique to create amazing work of arts. In terms of pop-up books, some of them received attention as literary works for the degree of artistry or sophistication which they entail. On example is the famous Andy Warhol's index published in 1967. Produced by Warhol, Chris Cerf and Alan Rinzler, it included photos of celebraties together with pop-up versions of Warholesque images such a cardboard of Tomato Paste can, as well as plastic tear-out recordind, an infatable silver balloon, and other novelties, according to Andy Warhol this book was designed as « a children's book for hipsters 12». Later in 2007, another famous example is STAR WARS : a Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy13 by Matthew Reinhart. This book received literary attention for its elaborate pop-ups, and the skill of its imagery, The New York Times even said that « calling this sophisticated piece of engineering a « pop-up book » il like calling the Great Wall of China a par tition 14». His frst Pop-up book titled The Pop-Up Book Of Phobia15 is his frst success. Combination of graphism, illustration, pop-up and spatial design, this book is also a tool of teaching and recreation at the same time.

The Architectural pop-up books

With these techniques that we already studied, it's very easy to think that some books were created to teach the fundamental knowledge of architecture. Space, materials, light, volume and styles, dozen of books have the aim to be a great tool to explain, teach and to make the reader sensitive to architectural designs. Among those books we can fnd, of course, the Professor Chatani's books and many others dedicated to children and also adults. The website architecture.about.com made a Top 6 of the best Architecture Pop-Up books not only for children but also for older readers with detailed ar twork and complex paper-engineering and sophisticated achievements. Among them, we

11 http://www.citechaillot.fr/fr/expositions/expositions_ateliers/24762-architectures_de_papier.html

12 Julie L. Mellby, Andy Warhol's Index Book, Princeton University Library's Blog, 2009

13 Matthew Reinhart, STAR WARS: A Pop-Up Guide To The Galaxy, Orchard Book, Pop

Edition, NYC, 2007

14 David Pogue, “A Galaxy In Your Face”, The New York Times Book Review, Children's

Books section, NYC, 11 November 2007

15 Matthew Reinhart, The Pop-Up Book Of Phobias, HarperEntertainment, 1999

Watch a video of the book here : http://youtu.be/CLTCbzasLuE

FAUP | 2012/2013


8- Architecture Pop-Up Book

7- Andy Warhol's Index Book, 1967

can fnd in frst position The Architecture Pop-Up Book, a pop-up survey course of world architecture, from egyptian pyramids and Greek classics to Frank Lloyd Wright and Franck Gehry, an elegant introduction to the ar t of building. The second place is attribuated to Franck Gehry In Pop-Up, 8 architectures of the worldwide famous architect are featured including his famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The third book is The Architecture Pack, subtitled « A Unique, Three-Dimensional Tour of Architecture over the Centuries : What Architects Do and How They Do It », this playful and educational book is dedicated to children. This ranking is of course informal and th only way to evaluate the quality of a pop-up book is in a personal try of it. That's why I chose as a study case the french book PopVille to analyse and decrypt the tools used to teach architectural design with a pop-up technique.

POPVILLE16 or the art to build a city

« At the beignning, there’s a church and the bell tower visible from far away. We can go there only buy the narrow and dented way and this is the creation of a

community. Today, there are majestic towers visible from very far away. 17»

PopVille was rewarded in 2011 by the Bankstreet Library as the best children's book of the year. We can say that the frst book of two authors Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud, freshly graduated from l'Ecole Superiere des Arts Décoratifs of Strasbourg, became a must have and a worldwide success. PopVille is a sweet, slender little pop-up book that illustrates the growth of a town from a single farmhouse and church to a thriving city in a series of stylized scenes that build, one upon the next, through a kind of window cut out of the center of the page, so that each new page overlays the ones after. On the frst double page of the PopVille book, a game with cubes that made the reader thinking about a small village by the use of symbols. This is the heart of the futur city : a church with a red two sloped roof, two houses, a small yellow car, trees on each side. And then, when you turn the page, a crane appears, the road is enlarged... Step by step, the city is built with bigger volumes, streets, cables. Each new page, new elements: a train station, a school, a mosquee... The landscape is changing and at the end, the small village turns into a megalopolis crossed by buses, cars and green spaces. The graphism used is very simple, made of basic geometrical forms (square, circle, rectangle, triangle...) which are combined with the primary colours (blue, red and yellow. This simplicity is a key success of this book because it allows the readers to interprete and tell all the stories his imagination can produce. Far from the frst architecture pop-up books presented before, the goal of

16 Anouck Boisrobert, Louis Rigaud, Joy Sorman, PopVille, Helium Edition, Album jeunesse,

Paris, 2009

17 Joy Sorman, ending text of the Popville book

FAUP | 2012/2013


PopVille is not to tell the truth but to give tools to understand in a more lyrical way the tools and steps to build a western city as we know them. Each page corresponds to a moment of the city development. Some urban and landscape elements remain constant references for the growth of the city as for example, the church and frst few old houses that compose the historical center, while others simply disappear and make place to new ones as streets, trees, buildings, frms... What lasts is the steady stream of occasions and possibilities which, in the book just like in reality, remain unpredictable till the moment of turning the page. The cutaway in the book's center which remains the same in every page, creates a sense of time's passage that shows a city being bigger and bigger each time. The climax (with a pair of foldouts on the sides of the pages) shows a contemporanean city as we know them today and an increasingly transformation of a village through evolution and developement called urbanism.

PopF.A.U.P. a fantasy story of an architecture school

After this study, the idea of creating a kind of pop-up book came to my mind. How to show and teach a moment of architecture without being boring and technical ? My stay in Porto as an Erasmus student was full of great exepriences and the reason of it was my period of study in the Faculty of Architecture. It is considered as one of the best achievements of the architect Alvaro Siza Vieira and easily recognizable this school became an architectural icon both for its students and for Alvaro Siza's passionates.Thanks to this research, my project aims to pay a tribute to the work of Masahiro Chatani, the creation of his greeting cards with white paper, the lyric and fantastic story of PopVille and also to the faculty i'm studying in made by one of my greatest references. As PopVille, this project doesn't want to ft to the reality but prefers to tell a more poetic story made by my personal vision and imagination of this building. A story of lines, plan, openings and volumes on white paper, a tribute to the modern period and Alvaro Siza's buildings and all my stay here in Portugal as an Architecture student.

Origem das imagens:

1. NEDER, Federico, Fuller Houses: R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Dwellings and Other Domestic Adventures, Baden, Lars Müller Publishers, 2008; http://www.architonic.com [2009]2. Petrus Apianus, Cosmographicus Liber Petri Apiani Mathematici, studiose correctus, ac erroribus vindicatus per Gemmam Phtysium. - Vaeneunt Antuerpiae : in aedibus Rolandi Bollaert, 15293. Puss in Boots, Illustrated by C. Carey Cloud and Harold B. Lentz, Illustrated pop-up ed. New York: Blue Ribbon Press, 1934

FAUP | 2012/2013


9- PopVille

4. The Daily Express children's annual [no. 1]. S. Louis Giraud, editor. London, Lane Publications, 19295. Masahiro Chatani, American Apparel Greeting Cards, americanapparel.net Up : Empire State Building Card ; Down : Neo Modern Card6. Ingrid Siliakus, Big City, 30 x 35 x 35, ingrid-silkius.exto.org, © 20117. Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol's Index Book, Random House / Black Star, New York, 1967, abebooks.com 8. Anton Radevski, Architecture Pop-UP Book, Universe Publishing, 2004 hellotipi.com9. Anouck Boisrobert, Louis Rigaud, Joy Sorman, PopVille, Helium Edition, Album jeunesse, Paris, 2009, fickr.com

FAUP | 2012/2013


julien deransy texto

Documents