Thanks, Alamid Xpress Cafe!

Impassioned Fruit no. 6: origamic architecture - Manila Metropolitan Theater + exercises.

This was done after the launch of Alamid Xpress Cafe on February 8, at Recreational Outdoor eXchange in Bonifacio High Street. The family-owners of the business are outdoorsmen-and-women and hope that the cafe will become a hub for fellow adventurers. They produce various single-origin, fair trade coffees but specially offer kapeng alamid, also known as kape balos, kopi luwak, or civet coffee. Yeah, the cat poop coffee. It tastes great, by the way, and civets aren't cats, either.

I was really happy to attend the launch, mostly because one of their farms is near Mt. Matutum, which stands over my hometown.

Pertinent quote:

"Coffee is really a passion that we have, especially for the communities. When everybody's going global, international, what we're doing now is local, local, local." -- Vie Reyes, owner / cool matriarch

As for the origamic architecture, I stumbled upon it just the other day, and it immediately felt like the next step for me from simple box popups and modular origami. It'll also be a way for me to explore my interest in architecture, beyond staring open-mouthed at pretty buildings when I pass them.

I chose this particular pretty building, the Manila Metropolitan Theater, because it was the first one I thought to model, and I couldn't think of any building in the city that I liked more.

(Image source: Gary's The Triple eX)

In comparison, my model doesn't really measure up. It probably never will, and I'm okay with that.

As far as good OA is concerned, though, it's pretty shoddy. I got the measurements wrong--that's why the side borders are floppy; I kept folding them in the wrong places. I also wasn't sure how to get the two "tiaras" on top to pop out without completely detaching them from the back panel.

It was probably ridiculous of me to attempt such a grand building without actually doing some practice forms first. So, I did them afterward, just so I could see where I was going wrong. First, I tried some stairs:

Then, I tried a stacked and inset box thingy:

Then, I tried putting them together in what I guess is my first original OA form:

The lines on the wall are more mistakes; good thing I realized that before cutting through.

After that, I felt confident that I could try the Met again. This was what I managed before I left for work:

The tiaras are really going to be a problem. If I continue on this model by adding the top tiara, then the only things holding the theater to the back panel will be four little, half-centimeter-wide strips of paper (there is one at of each side spire in this picture. In photos of the Met, the spires sort of stick out of the wall, so that wouldn't be accurate, either). I'm thinking of switching to a portrait orientation to see if that might make it more stable and, well, nice to look at. That's another challenge. :)