Origami Tigers

Customs House was the home for two 8mtr long by 2.5 mtr high Chinese Lanterns in the shape of a Tiger designed by LAVA and realized by Barrisol Sydney. These wire framed tigers were covered in our Barrisol "Orange Coulouma" and internally lit with the help from Sydney based lighting consultant "XENIAN" lighting – weighing only 200kg each. The crouching digital tigers combine ancient lantern making methods with cutting edge digital design and fabrication technology, bringing east and west together through tradition and innovation.

Since celebrating Chinese New Year in Sydney 2010, the tigers have been adopted by the World Wild Fund (WWF) for the international Year of the Tiger campaign to raise awareness about the endangered status of tigers. Less than 3200 tigers remain in the wild. With the WWF the LAVA designed Barrisol Tigers have led a world tour, moving onto Kuala Lumpur and Berlin. Most recently the Tigers have been on tour in the USA tour as part of G'Day USA.

Crouching giant digital tigers head for Singapore

Two giant digital tigers are in Singapore as part of the Smart Light Festival on 15 October until end November 2010.

Earlier this year they ushered in the Chinese New Year at Customs House Sydney, created a roar at KL design week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May and launched the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) for their international Year of the Tiger campaign at Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s central station.

The giant digital origami tigers fuse ancient lantern making methods with cutting edge design and fabrication technology, bringing tradition and innovation, east and west together.

The crouching tigers were designed by multinational architectural practice LAVA with Jennifer Kwok , Customs House Sydney, and are the size of a truck at 2.5 metres high and 7 metres long, yet weigh only 200kgs.

Made of fully recyclable materials, aluminium and barrisol, the big cats are brought to life with low energy LED lighting.