Physicist Robert Lang rebuilds origami koi designs after Altadena wildfire loss, as community joins effort

Robert Lang, a physicist known internationally for complex, mathematically designed origami, said the 2025 wildfires in Altadena, California destroyed years of his folded-paper work. In an account published Tuesday, CBS News reported that Lang lost what he described as a lifetime’s set of designs, including a koi-themed piece, and then began recreating the models from memory after the loss.

Lang’s original designs have been part of the modern origami movement for decades, combining engineering-like planning with the visual payoff of traditional paper art. After the fires, he said he faced a question that matters to any maker whose work is both artistic and technical: how to rebuild accuracy and intent when the stored references are gone.

The piece he set out to restore is “origami koi,” a water-and-fish motif associated with Lang’s approach to origami engineering, where diagrams and crease patterns translate physical folding into repeatable forms. Lang described undertaking a process of reconstruction, working to restore the structure of the design so it could be folded again as he originally intended.

The CBS News report said the recreation effort became collaborative in practice, with members of the origami community joining in as Lang worked. Community participation included sharing observations and helping with the practical side of verification, such as whether a recreated model folds as expected and how different paper choices affect the result.

For the broader origami world, Lang’s loss and rebuild also put a spotlight on how fragile many creative archives are. Unlike work that is easily digitized or stored in multiple places, complex paper engineering depends on physical reference materials, careful testing, and the ability to cross-check details during folding.

Lang’s decision to restart, and to connect with other folders during the process, also reflected the culture of the folding community itself, where techniques and diagrams are often discussed publicly. In that setting, a destroyed library is not only personal but collective, because many practitioners build on shared methods and documented patterns.

As Lang continues the recreation of the koi design, the report framed the effort as both an individual recovery project and a test of repeatability, since the work must be folded by others to confirm it matches the intended result. The episode underscores how community knowledge can help restore institutional continuity in arts that rely on technical craft and meticulous documentation.