CRI听力:Lexus Unveils "Origami Car" to Celebrate Skills of Its Craftsmen and Women

The so-called 'Origami Car' has a cardboard frame crafted from 1,700 recyclable laser-cut cardboard sheets.

Despite the unconventional building material, Toyota's Scott Brownlee said the styling mimicked the shape and curves of the real version.

"Styling on cars is all about surfacing and angles, and how things change as you move around them; And what was interesting was when they were making this is that you can pick up some of that. So even though its in a completely different material, in fact at some angles you can see through it because of the corrugation, you still get that sense of surfaces moving between each other."

The Origami Car celebrates the design and engineering skill of the Lexus production lines in Japan where the workers hone their dexterity by learning how to fold paper into an origami paper car, using only their non-dominant hand.

Mark Bolitho is a co-designer of the Origami Car.

"This car is inspired, the inspiration was the engineers can make a paper cat and they can take it further using the same materials, the same underlying inspiration which is a folded paper object and come up with what you see today."
　　
Built by London-based specialist companies, the Origami Car presented unique challenges for those involved.

It took five people three months and 2,500 hours to turn the computer aided design into the full-size corrugated cardboard replica.

While cardboard cars may not be the future of motoring, the designers involved enjoyed being involved in a project that had a link with the past.

Daniel Ryan from Laser Cut Works is another one involved in designing the Origami Car.

"What makes it a sculptural piece rather than an engineering piece because we have to make adaptations like that and it's not perfect in a CAD sense, it's got a human touch in it. And I think that's what Lexus liked about it as well; it's a link back to their origami."

The unique vehicle will be on display to the public at the Grand Designs exhibition in Birmingham from October 8.

For CRI's Victor Ning.