It’s been five years since Nissan launched its compact Juke SUV/crossover, and the company is celebrating with a very special fifth anniversary edition: a full-size origami model.
Oftentimes, auto manufacturers will mark the round-number birthdays of their best-sellers with a special paint color or extra badging. Nissan, though, instead enlisted English origami artist Owen Gildersleeve to make a paper Juke to commemorate the milestone.
▼ The regular/metallic juke
Making things especially tricky is that the Juke doesn’t exactly have organic, flowing lines. Put less delicately, the car has a seemingly random collection of folds, creases, and lumps. Could Gildersleeve reproduce that body in paper form?
The first order of business was to create a paper frame to set the car’s base dimensions. Once that was finished, the artist began layering on the bodywork.
▼ And no, Gildersleeve isn’t a dark wizard who commands a company of paper-folding wraiths. The video was just shot in time-lapse.
The multi-spoke wheels look to have been some of the most difficult pieces to construct, but they look pretty snazzy attached to the origami Juke’s wheels.
▼ The polygonal wheel almost had us worried that Gildersleeve had gotten lost inside a copy of the Sega Saturn version of classic racing game Daytona USA.
This being a British-spec Juke, it has the appropriate license plates, and of course the Nissan insignia at both front and rear.
Unfortunately, this special car is a one-off, so you won’t find one waiting in the inventory lot of your local Nissan dealer. But if we ever find ourselves in the market for a Juke, and if Nissan is offering “origami” as a factory option at that time, we’ll be tempted to check that box when placing our order.
Related: Owen Gildersleeve website
Source: IT Media
Top image: YouTube/NissanUK
Insert images: Nissan, YouTube/NissanUK
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