Terada Mokei
Paper pop-ups shrink everyday life into adorably tiny scenarios
A slice of life shrinks even smaller with the miniature design line, Terada Mokei. Architect-turned-modeler Naoki Terada’s Architectural Model Accessories Series is a monochrome microcosmic representation of everyday life. Terada adopted a 1/100 scale ratio for the series, promoting a metric-based “global standard” that adorably scales down the largeness of reality to one-hundredth the size.
Populating the paper environments, Terada’s version of the modern man and his archetypal family consist of featureless cookie-cutter silhouettes of male, female and child figures. Each series places a variation of the family in different scenarios, ranging from park activities to earthquake-disrupted dinners and office obsequiousness, all packaged in single-colored sheets of pre-cut parts, reminiscent of model die-cuts.
Terada Mokei also features a line of Architectural Model Greeting Cards. Pop-up figures with word-bubble expressions say it when you can’t with this sentimental stationary.
The 1/100 Architectural Model Accessories Series retails for ¥1,575, with the Architectural Greeting Cards selling for ¥580, both from the Terada Mokei website.
