PREFACE TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON TRANSFORMABLES: DEPLOYABLE STRUCTURES AND RAPIDLY ASSEMBLED SYSTEMS

摘要

There is something truly mesmerizing about transformable structures that fascinates whoever sees or manipulates them, studies and designs them or simply plays with them. From experience, more often than not, these mechanical marvels incite curiosity and sparkle creativity. This statement will not be disputed by anyone ever having manipulated a deployable toy designed by Chuck Hoberman, or having witnessed a lecture by the late Felix Escrig, pulling a miniature wooden scissor structure from his pocket and deploying it to great effect. Or these days, seeing Tomohiro Tachi unfold intrinsic origami paper models on stage, humbly capturing the imagination of the audience. Whether they are instantly deployable - changing from a compact shape to a larger expanded configuration - or whether they are rapidly assembled from components in a kit-of-parts, these structures all share a transformational capacity that sets them apart from conventional structures. Generally, transformable structures are lightweight, have a high component uniformity and are easily and reversibly deployed or compacted or they can be assembled or disassembled into various configurations.