Micro Living space in a car

[voidparis]

Hello, I am new to this forum and new to origami. Do not be too harsh on me. I have for a long time been interested in micro living spaces and before I have started to work on the project I will describe later on in this post was mostly interested in interior design. While working in interior design I have often come throw innovative designs using origami in furniture and space decoration. Recently I have purchased a very small camping car (mb100d karmann) https://www.flickr.com/photos/83468718@N06/14518071061 made in a year 1990 which I hope to be able to transform to a comfortable transformable living space for 4 people.

At this stage I am doing research to understand everything I would need to achieve this.

While doing research I have come through a very interesting concept of a foldable caravan:

http://www.demotivateur.fr/article-buzz ... dans--2544

The concept is super interesting, but has few serious shortcomings main being soft cover which can be dangerous if one plans to leave it open at night, other one being a lack of ceiling space on ages.

So I thought of origami concept and went through google to search for origami shelters.



https://www.google.fr/search?q=origami+ ... mi+shelter

But unfortunately none of the designs seem to be appropriate.

So I am currently looking for a person who could help me develope a folding system of kind best on origami.

I would appreciate any advice on how to find a person with skills necessary to make such an origami foldable structure or at least some advice which would orient my research.

Best regards.

[BM-origami-design]

Just a few thoughts:
The work of Robert Lang and his folding solar panels might interest you.
Furthermore you should Google the "trouble wit". This is a piece of origami that can transform in multiple tunnel like shapes. The Miura Map fold might also interest you for folding things flat. A last piece of advice is quite technical but... the 3D program Rhino has a plugin called Grasshopper. Google it and you can see multiple architectural roofstructures created with it. Hope this helps. Be sure to keep us updated (or at least me ) it sounds interesting!

[Brimstone]

Fernando Sierra has worked with foldable structures. You can check his work at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elelvis/, maybe he can help you, one of the first pictures is an invitation for a course and it has his contact information.

[voidparis]

Thank you for your responses. I will check all this links now. And I am very happy this post has been approved. I am very serious about this project. And also would like to hear general opinions on whether in general looking at origami structures is right direction for the project. Also I am pretty happy solar panels question came up as solar panels was one of the reasons I started to look at this kind of foldable systems. Thank you again.

[Gerardo]

The concept is super interesting, but has few serious shortcomings main being soft cover which can be dangerous if one plans to leave it open at night, other one being a lack of ceiling space on ages.

Interesting idea . Can you please explain to me both shortcomings?

[voidparis]

Hello,

About ages it is pretty straight forward. The height of the structure is much smaller closer to external age, so less space for walking.

About structure being rigid. It is basically the same problem convertible passenger cars can have, anyone with a knife can come by and open it. It offers 0 protection. For this structure to be practical it needs to offer at least minimal security.

I live in France and in real life all kind of weird stuff happens.

Moreover it would be interesting to make this structure of several hard panels with some flexible joints and if possible to put on some of the panels thin flexible solar cells (thickness of just 2mm).

Basically what I need now is to find the most appropriate structure similar to: Hello,

About ages it is pretty straight forward. The height of the structure is much smaller closer to external age, so less space for walking.

About structure being rigid. It is basically the same problem convertible passenger cars can have, anyone with a knife can come by and open it. It offers 0 protection. For this structure to be practical it needs to offer at least minimal security.

I live in France and in real life all kind of weird stuff happens.

Moreover it would be interesting to make this structure of several hard panels with some flexible joints and if possible to put on some of the panels thin flexible solar cells (thickness of just 2mm).

Basically what I need now is to find the most appropriate structure similar to: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/photo/rigi ... ntext=user

[Kabuntan]

About structure being rigid. It is basically the same problem convertible passenger cars can have, anyone with a knife can come by and open it. It offers 0 protection. For this structure to be practical it needs to offer at least minimal security.
(...)
Moreover it would be interesting to make this structure of several hard panels with some flexible joints and if possible to put on some of the panels thin flexible solar cells (thickness of just 2mm).

With folding structures, you'll have the same problem as with medieval suits of armor: flexible joints will be unprotected (they have to, to be able to move as they are supposed to), hence they are the weak part of the structure.

So, apart if you allow for some kind of protection to be added on the joints after your structure is unfolded (which, IMO, completely defeat the purpose of the system), this will always be a "flaw" in safety...

[Gerardo]

voidparis, have you looked up information about "rigid origami"? Here's something to start with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_origami

Also this: http://www.psfk.com/2015/05/on-demand-o ... g-mit.html

This is something else, but maybe it'll also be useful: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ather.html

PS: I had not seen the word "age" being used like that before.

[dinogami]

PS: I had not seen the word "age" being used like that before.

Pretty sure that's supposed to be "edge."

[steingar]

Actually, convertible tops should be the model on which the OP bases his design. The fold away compactly but have quite a bit of structure. The real problem is no matter what happens someone can slit through the hinge material that joins the panels. Then again, I could probably get through just about any part of that thing in a few seconds with a crowbar, or just a claw hammer. If one is really worried about security one should live in a stout house with a good alarm system. Or a big dog. Or carry firearms. Or perhaps a combination of the three.

[voidparis]

Thank you for your answers. For now I decided to abondon the idea in favour of raisable soft top made of tent material and 2 sliders on sides. Thanks to everyone for contribution. And if anyone still has some good ideas even for soft structures I am still very interested, best regards.