When hearing the word “folding,” Japanese origami, or the art of folding paper, is probably the first thought that comes to mind. Imagine a future where an entire architectural structure is flat-packed, carried to a construction site, and folded by hand into a rigid three-dimensional shelter. This is the kind of future Dr. Joseph Choma is turning into a reality. His work explores art, design, and architecture at the intersection of folding, mathematics, structure, and material innovations. Inspired by origami, Choma designs and builds larger-than-life foldable structures out of fiberglass. These ultra-thin lightweight pop-up structures deploy in minutes as they are folded by hand, similar to folding a sheet of paper. Many of these sculptural structures are designed with intricate two-dimensional patterns composed with curved creases, where each crease pops into place through controlled buckling — like precisely crushing a soda can with delicate curves. Isamu Noguchi, the American-Japanese artist and designer, blurred the lines between fine art and functional design. Noguchi’s sculptural coffee tables and playgrounds have inspired a body of work which moves beyond disciplinary boundaries. Choma’s work does the same, as folding is used to create functional works of art, which have the power to change the way we design and build a more sustainable architecture of the future.
After the lecture, a meet-and-greet with Dr. Choma will follow in the galleries. View Dr. Choma’s work in our new outdoor exhibition Foldable Structures: Origami x Architecture.
Details
Date
- Saturday, December 12, 2026
Time
- 1 p.m.
Price
- FREE (with paid museum admission)
Location
- Morikami Theater
Our theater tends to be cold. You may want to bring with you a sweater or jacket.
Meet the Speaker
Joseph Choma is Director of the School of Architecture, the Foldable Structures and Materials Lab, and Professor of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University. Previously, he taught at The Cooper Union, MIT, and Clemson University. He was the 2019-20 NCCR Digital Fabrication Researcher in Residence at the ETH Zurich and received awards from the American Institute of Architects, the American Composites Manufacturers Association, and the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture — including the 2023 ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence. In 2024, he received the Tambellini Future Campus Award Category Winner for Innovation in AI and Technology Integration. His material explorations have been noted by CompositesWorld Magazine as “spearheading research into the use of foldable composites.” He is the inventor of Foldable Composite Structures — U.S. Patent Number 10,994,468. Additionally, he is the author of four books. His books have received reviews in Architectural Record, Art Libraries Society of North America, RIBA Journal, and the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, among others. Over the last 15 years, he has given over 50 invited lectures and keynotes. Popular technical magazines, such as Wired Magazine, have quoted him on topics related to deployable structures for disaster relief. Recently, he was interviewed as part of a video for NASA. Joseph completed graduate studies in design and computation at MIT and completed his PhD in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge International Scholar.
