[WORKSHOP] Bio-Inspired Folding Techniques

Join us for Bio-inspired Folding Techniques, the second workshop of our “Reimagining Research” Spring Workshop Series!

From creating shared 3-D immersive virtual galleries, exploring creative structures through origami, examining archiving practices through bio-plastics, materializing the materiality of the image via emulsion lifting and discovering the new facilities and equipment at LePARC’s revamped Performance Lab, we have an exciting array of ways to renew and reimagine your research methodologies and practices.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

Hosted by Lucie Leroux (Laboratoire Textile, Montreal), in collaboration with Alice Jarry and Miranda Smitheram, this four-hour workshop introduces bio-inspired folding as a research-creation methodology at the intersection of design, engineering, and living systems. Moving beyond the representation of natural phenomena, participants will explore folding as a performative, speculative, and relational process that translates principles of growth, locomotion, deployability, adaptation, and responsiveness into material form. Through hands-on experimentation and an introduction to accessible techniques, participants will prototype paper and fabric structures, foregrounding folding as a medium for developing soft and adaptive applications.

ABOUT LUCIE LEROUX:

Trained in design and architecture in France, Lucie Leroux began her career in architectural lighting before moving to Montreal, where she discovered textile printing. It was while working on large-scale projects such as the Shanghai World Expo that she began to take an interest in light and patterns. After working on costumes for Cirque du Soleil, she collaborated on several projects ranging from fashion to documentary, presented throughout Quebec at venues such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City. In 2012, she launched Laboratoire Textile, a creative space where she explores textile design through various research and creative projects. She has also been a lecturer at the Atelier Textile since 2014 and at the Centre des Textiles Contemporains de Montréal since 2024.

This workshop is part of the NFRF project Origami-inspired Deployable Sensoriactuator Soft Robots, co-directed by Hamid Akbarzadeh, Alice Jarry, Miranda Smitheram, Marta Cerruti, and David Meger. The event is supported by Hexagram: Research-creation network in arts, culture, and technology.

April 9, 2026

1 – 5 PM

Milieux Resource Room EV 11.455

Spaces are limited. Make sure you book your spot.

💡Questions: alice.jarry@concordia.ca