Sitting in his family’s living room in New York City, 14-year-old Miles Wu was astonished to find that a simple piece of paper, folded into a Miura-ori origami pattern, could hold 10,000 times its own weight. For a total of more than 250 hours, Wu had diligently designed, folded and tested copious variations of the technique—a series of tessellating parallelograms that can fold or unfold in one fell swoop—to find one that could be used to build deployable shelters for emergency situations like natural disasters.

“I was really shocked by how much [weight] these simple pieces of paper could hold,” says Wu, who’s currently a ninth-grade student at Hunter College High School in New York City.

Wu had always been fascinated with the ancient Japanese art of origami, but he really began indulging in it as a hobby about six years ago. In 2024, he started exploring paper folding beyond its appeal as a creative pursuit. “I started reading about how different types of geometric origami were being studied and applied in STEM for their various physical properties,” he says.

The teenager was researching the Miura-ori fold when Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and wildfires raged in Southern California. “I thought maybe these origami patterns, which are strong and collapsible, could be used as emergency shelters in these natural disasters—kind of like a tent,” he explains.

Wu noticed that existing structures were sturdy, easy to deploy or cost-efficient, but rarely all three. “This creates a problem during emergency situations, such as hurricanes or wildfires, as deployable shelters ideally need to be produced quickly, set up easily, and able to withstand the elements,” he says.