Make a Town Out of Paper!

Have you ever seen a town and wondered: "Wow! How do you build one of those"? If yes, then today's your lucky day! I'm going to teach you how to make a modular town out of nothing but paper! This guide will instruct you on how to use folding to create 3-D models. Without further ado, let's get started!

First off, you will need a few supplies to create this model, such as:

1. A pencil
2. Glue or tape
3. Scissors
4. Card stock or paper
5. A ruler

Once you have all of these materials, you can move to the first step: creating the rough sketch.

If you want to build a town, you need a vision of how tall the buildings will be or what it will look like. (You can do either of these, or both.) I created a rough sketch, or a blueprint, of how tall the buildings will be, just like the one above. (Tip: Be creative with how the buildings look, or what they represent.) If you've completed all these steps, you're ready to move onto the next step: creating the base.

To create a town, you are first going to need a base where all of the buildings and homes will go. To create a base, you need to draw out a square or rectangle on some paper, depending on how you want your ground to look. Make sure that it will comfortably fit your buildings and roads. Next, cut out the shape of the base that you created. After that, create an outline of where you want the roads and houses to be on your base. Lastly, fill in the street outlines with a road pattern, and if you're feeling creative, add an abstract design to the roads, like a colorful drawing to imitate chalk. If you've completed these steps for the base, then you're ready to move onto the next step: creating your first house.

Since you've created the base, you might be noticing that it looks bare, and you're right. To fix that, I'm going to teach you the steps to create the first house for your town. First of all, to do that you are going to need to create a shape for a cube. (If you already know how to create a cube, then skip these next few sentences.) To create the cube, you can copy down the image above for a cube shape, or you can use your own model. Once you have a cube model on your paper, you will need to cut it out. After you cut it out, fold and glue it into a cube shape like the one above. Lastly, you need to add decorations to your cube, like windows and doors to make it realistic! If you've completed all these steps, you're ready to move onto the next step: creating the first tower. (Repeat these steps for as many houses you want in your town.)

If you created your town with just houses, there won't be much variety in your town. To fix that, you can build some towers in your town! To do this, you will first need a layout for a rectangular prism. If you already know how to make a rectangular prism, skip ahead. To make a rectangular prism, you can copy the layout from the picture above. After you do this, cut it out and assemble it with glue. Lastly, add decorations, like the ones on the house, but with more windows on each floor. Once you finish, it should look something like the image above.If you've completed all these steps, you're ready to move onto the next step: creating the first arch. (Repeat these steps for multiple towers.)

Since the roads in your town look kind of plain, you can fix this by creating some arches for your roads to add dimension. First, since you probably don't have a layout for an arch, you can copy the image of the layout above. Next, cut out the shape and assemble it into an arch. (Don't forget to cut out the doorway on both sides of the arch so things can go through it.) Once you have completed these steps, you have officially created the first arch of your town. (Repeat these steps for multiple arches.)

Since we have completed the basics of building a town, we can be creative with our buildings. You can create things like a coffee shop, like the image above. You can create many things, like a small house that can function as a shack, or by putting a tower on its side you can make a school or warehouse like the image above. Don't forget to be creative with what the buildings are and what they represent!

When building our town, we have learned how to fold and assemble 3-d buildings with paper. You can also do this with many other materials, like cardboard. All in all, I hope you had just as much fun building a town as I did. I hope to see your towns that you build, and see you next time!