LAB. 02 TRY MINGLE TRIANGLE
“BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE LAB.” is an initiative that explores the yet-unseen potential of triangular pieces. Driven by pure curiosity, it engages in ongoing research and collaboration with creatives and specialists to shape future design.
This collaborative project with the University of Tokyo's Tachi Laboratory began from a shared interest in the question: “What kinds of possibilities exist in how triangles can be connected, and in the three-dimensional forms that can be created through those connections?” The rhythmic title “TRY MINGLE TRIANGLE” was chosen with the intention of trying to mingle together (TRY MINGLE) a variety of opinions and ideas, centered around the triangle (TRIANGLE).
Working together with members of the Tachi Laboratory, who explore new “forms” through the mechanisms of folding and assembling, we developed two types of “BAO BAO JOINT SYSTEM.” These new joints gave rise to forms born from a different perspective and process than those found in regular BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE products.
We named these two joint systems “PLUG” and “SHEET,” respectively, achieving complex three-dimensional forms that had previously been difficult to realize using conventional bag-making methods. Rather than hurrying to find answers, we discovered new possibilities for the three-dimensional forms that triangles alone can create, through a process of deepening discussion while repeatedly generating ideas and prototypes.
BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE products are crafted from triangular tessellations. The gaps between the triangles serve as creases, allowing the products to fold like origami when held by hand. When a square grid pattern with added diagonals folds to three-dimensional form, some creases fold while others remain unfolded, indicating that the activated creases determine the resulting form. Which creases produce which three-dimensional forms? What kinds of shapes can and cannot emerge? When a force is applied, how does the structure deform and respond? These questions combine combinatorics, kinematics, and mechanics in the context of periodic origami tessellations. Even within the field of computational origami, which has evolved over more than 20 years, many of these challenges remain unresolved.
At the University of Tokyo, the Origami Lab, or the Tachi Laboratory, studies “form,” “behavior,” and “formation,” with a focus on origami engineering. In the joint research between BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE and the Tachi Laboratory, which began in 2025, the team is exploring tessellations composed of triangles through practical experimentation. Although this exploration also has computational aspects, its core lies in making forms by hand and discovering through that process. The project “LAB. 02 TRY MINGLE TRIANGLE” proposes new forms born from this exploration, along with a system of triangular pieces and connectors that create them. Soft joints snap panels together, and the pieces form surfaces. By exploring mechanisms for disassembling combined pieces and reconstructing them into different forms, retaining folded states, and arranging pieces of different resolutions based on their connections, we aim to expand the possibilities of triangular tessellations.
Tomohiro Tachi
Tomohiro Tachi
Professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. He received his B.E. in Engineering (Architecture) from the University of Tokyo in 2005 and completed his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2010. He has been engaged in origami designing since 2002 and developed computational origami tools, including “Rigid Origami Simulator,” “Origamizer,” and “Freeform Origami.” He explores form, function, and fabrication in nature and art with expertise in origami engineering, structural morphology, and computational fabrication. He is also engaged in STEAM education at College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
