★ Origamic Architecture Instructions & Free Kirigami Templates ★

Architectural origami is the art of paper cutting to create 3D buildings - from just one sheet of paper! The designs range from the simple to the exceptionally intricate, and the subject matter can be anything from a whole city to a famous landmark or even your own house.

This page will focus on 90° pop-up buildings, where the 3D design emerges and is fully visible when the paper is folded to an angle of 90 degrees. That means that this technique is well suited to making impressive pop-up cards as well - although you won't be mass producing these for all your colleagues at Christmas (unless you start in January!)

Below you will find inspirational examples of origami artist's work, advice for creating your own artwork, plus free online downloads. After saving the free templates to your computer, print them out and cut and fold along the lines. Usually, (but check first), the solid black lines are cut all of the way through, the red lines are mountain folds (the folded edges point upwards/towards you) and the blue lines are valley folds (where the folded edges point away from you).

If the lines are straight, use a steel ruler alongside your craft knife to get neat, perfectly straight cuts. For the folds, score lightly along the lines first to get a neat edge.

Enjoy :-)

Photo and paper cutting by Crackpot Papercraft.