VOICE OVER: The world of temporary structures has a design problem.
They can be compact, they can be easy to put up and take down, or they can be strong.
But they can't usually be all three.
Inflatable structures achieve two out of the three – they can be quickly erected and flattened down again – but they're not very stable.
DAVID MELANCON: The problem with inflatable structures is that if you open the valve or if you puncture the structure, you have nothing preventing you from collapsing back down.
So, these systems were called monostable systems. VOICE OVER:And failure of monostable systems can have disastrous consequences.
So, a team at Harvard decided to design a system for structures that are compact, transformable and stable once they're up.
To do this, they turned to the ancient art form of origami.
KATIA BERTOLDI: Origami has been around for a very, very long time in Asia.
But the concept had been mostly explored by artists, but recently scientists and engineers started looking at origami as a source of inspiration for new structures, structures that can fold, structures that can deploy.
