New book lets you cut and fold Le Corbusier’s most famous buildings

Architects have long taken inspiration from Le Corbusier’s breed of modern architecture, and now, anyone can put their own bent on the Swiss-French designer’s work thanks to a new book that lets you build some of Le Corbusier’s most famous buildings from paper.

The forthcoming Le Corbusier Paper Models: 10 Kirigami Buildings To Cut and Fold from Laurence King Publishing is part ode to architecture, part instruction manual for the kirigami method of paper construction. A variation of origami, kirigami allows for cutting, resulting in more complex shapes and forms.

John Godwin

The book was written by Marc Hagan-Guirey, who previously put his skills to use for a cut-and-fold book on Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. The Le Corbusier book takes the same approach—Hagan-Guirey guides readers through the process of constructing ten of the designer’s buildings, including the Villa Savoye in Poissy, France, Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, France, and the arched roof Maison de la Culture in Firminy, France.

The book, slated for release in February, comes with a mini history on each building and perforated templates that help even the least crafty among us to perfectly (or at least adequately) build Corbusier’s geometric designs.

John Godwin