Dubai sets a world record for origami

A Guinness World Record official gives Mohammed bin Essa of Dubai Properties Group the world record certificate for the origami display. Victor Besa for The National

DUBAI // Not even an unexpected downpour could dampen Dubai’s Guinness World Record attempt for the largest origami craft work.

Blue and white flowers shaped to form a striking latticework design took over a portion of Jumeirah Beach Residence as the emirate secured the record.

Volunteers joined artists to create flowers that were tacked on to a white canvas strip covering an area of 1,090.98 square metres. The flowers took the shape of “mashrabiya” art, which is an Arabic term for carved wooden latticework, an integral element of traditional Arabic architecture.

Because of the wet weather yesterday, the large stretch of origami art could not be preserved through the weekend. However, Guinness World Record officials had checked and validated the piece before the rain fell.

Yesterday, volunteers helped residents and tourists to recreate a portion of the design to spell the community letters.

Tourist Brenda Walls from Ireland learnt to create the origami flowers yesterday, placing two pieces on a canvas to spell the letters JBR.

“It was great to see so many people involved in making this, it helps to get the community together.”

Olesia Talpa watched as her daughter, Sophia El Masri, pressed, folded and swirled white paper to create a flower.

“This gives kids an opportunity to be creative and it’s good for them to have so many artistic events like this to go to,” said Ms Talpa, who had earlier attended the international kite festival and the 3-D canvas art shows in the emirate with her daughter.

“I have to keep practising this flower to get it right,” said Sophia, 9.

A Guinness World Record representative presented the certificate to the event organisers, Dubai Properties and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority.

“The largest origami mosaic measures 1,090.98 square metres (11,743.21 sq ft) and was achieved in an event organised by Dubai Properties (UAE) at Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai, UAE on 14 April, 2016,” the certificate said.

The event is part of initiatives to get tourists and residents involved in outdoor art, said Mohammed bin Essa, executive director of retail and commercial at Dubai Properties.

“The rain did try to spoil our plans, but this is Dubai so we managed to finish the mosaic work and achieve the record,” he said. “We aim to create space for families to gather with their children and also create something different for tourists to enjoy so that Dubai continues to be a leading destination.

“People are still coming here to take photographs with the murals on the wall from our earlier 3-D art event.”

The previous largest origami mosaic was 986.46 square metres, last year in Japan. The record-breaking Dubai mosaic contained 45,000 handmade origami pieces. Preparatory work started on Monday with the record set on Thursday.