UnfoldCollective What we do Approach Work People Journal Start a project

A design collective

Make room for possibility.

We turn shared ideas into spaces, stories and hands-on experiments.

Bring your question.
Painted paper-cut hills in pink, green, violet and yellow

Bright Speculation

Make a possible future tangible enough to explore together.

With paper, play and full-scale models, we help communities test a proposal before committing to it.

How the approach works
Two cut-out hands releasing bright paper shapes
Bright speculation
...begins with a question, not a brief

Start with the change people want to see.

...builds in public

Use materials everyone feels free to move.

...rehearses the future at full scale

Try the idea at the scale of everyday life.

...leaves the tools behind

Leave the team with tools to carry it forward.

"Make the model before the argument, and the argument gets kinder."
Ora Lindqvist, The Open Rehearsal

At the center of our work is Priya Solberg's question

Cut-out portrait of Priya Solberg on a green paper blob
"What would you build if you knew the neighbours were going to help?"Priya Solberg, research lead

Unfold began with a simple frustration: good plans that people could not picture themselves in.

So we cut them into pieces people could move. The conversations changed, and the plans changed with them.

See what we do
Who we are
We are powered by a network of forty-one designers, researchers and facilitators across six cities. Together we have helped libraries, transit agencies, schools and museums turn stuck plans into rehearsed ones, and we have kept the scissors sharp along the way.
Unfold is worker-owned, and every project team includes at least one person who will actually use the thing we make.

Founder

Imani Castellane

Imani Castellane brings exhibition design and facilitation together.

She makes space for different perspectives to meet around the same model.

Trained in scenography. Still happiest with paper, scissors and a room full of questions.

Read Imani's page
Founder (she/her) Cut-out portrait of Imani Castellane laughing, wrapped in a violet painted squiggle

Selected work

Four futures we have rehearsed

All projects
Paper-cut orchard and community garden
Exhibition

Orchard Commons

Millbrook Public Library, 2025
Paper-cut transit station with a violet tram
Futures rehearsal

Tomorrow's Timetable

Northline Regional Transit, 2024
Paper-cut school cafeteria reimagined as a dining garden
Co-design

The Long Lunch

Fernhill Secondary School, 2024
Paper-cut clouds raining orange strokes over green hills
Installation

Signal Garden

Coastline Museum of Weather, 2023

What partners say

Notes from the other side of the table

See the projects
Exhibition
“We had argued about the new library layout for two years. Unfold built it out of cardboard in a weekend and the argument ended by Sunday lunch.”
Marguerite Osei, Head Librarian, Millbrook Public Library
Futures rehearsal
“The drivers rehearsed the timetable before we published it. Three problems surfaced that a spreadsheet would never have shown us.”
Dev Ranganathan, Operations Director, Northline Regional Transit
Co-design
“Students designed the lunch hall with scissors and tape. It has been open a year and the queue has not come back.”
Hanne Løkke, Principal, Fernhill Secondary School

From the journal

Studio notes.

All posts
Method

Start with scissors.

12 June 2026
Field notes

Two days in the depot.

3 April 2026
Glossary

A studio glossary.

18 February 2026
Good questions
Who do you work with?

Libraries, schools, transit agencies, museums and neighbourhood groups: anyone with a public space and a decision to make about it. We do not work on private developments.

How long does a rehearsal take?

Most projects run six to ten weeks from the first question to the last cardboard wall. A two-day rehearsal, which is what many communities start with, can be booked a month ahead.

What does it cost?

A two-day rehearsal is a fixed fee of $6,800 including materials. Longer engagements are quoted per week; grant-funded and volunteer-led groups pay a reduced rate.

What do we get at the end?

A photographed record of every version the community built, a short written account of what changed and why, and the models themselves if you have somewhere to keep them.

Can you come to us?

Always. The studio travels with the paper, the tape and the scissors. All we need is a hall with a floor we can tape and a room where people can eat together.

Have a future you would like to rehearse?

Bring the question. We’ll bring the paper.

Start a project

What we do

Ideas, made tangible.

Make the plan physical. Let the people it affects help shape it.

Futures rehearsals

Full-scale experiments that let a community try a proposed change.

  • 2 days
  • 30 to 200 people
  • Built on site

Exhibitions and installations

Participatory spaces that evolve with the people who visit.

  • 4 to 12 weeks
  • Museums, libraries, foyers
  • Touring ready

Participatory research

Card sorts, map walks and models that make listening tangible.

  • 3 to 8 weeks
  • Plain-language report
  • Evaluation plan

Toolkits and publications

Practical kits and guides teams can use independently.

  • Print + PDF
  • Open licence
  • Training day

Ways to work together

Three formats, one method

Sprint

The Two-Day

From 8,500

One question, one room, one weekend.

Season

The Quarter

From 32,000

Research, rehearsal and a public showing over twelve weeks.

Residency

The Year

By conversation

A maker embedded in your team, sharing the method as you work.

Illustrative prices exclude materials, travel and venue.

Not sure which format fits?

Let’s find the smallest experiment that could change the plan.

Ask for a suggestion

From a clear brief to a useful handover.

  1. 01

    Prioritise

    Agree on a short queue with one clear owner. Decide what needs to be finished before adding more work.

  2. 02

    Make and review

    Share focused updates with enough context for useful feedback. Keep decisions and open questions beside the work.

  3. 03

    Close and continue

    Deliver the finished files and record what changed. Review the next priority instead of letting requests disappear into a long list.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with the question.

Tell us what needs to change and where the current experience falls short.

Discuss the project

Approach

How we work.

Four principles guide the work.

Bright speculation
...begins with a question, not a brief

Turn a deliverable-led brief into a question people recognise.

Keep that question visible from the first day to the last.

...builds in public

Paper invites people to move, redraw and disagree.

Work where the conversation already happens: foyers, school halls and public spaces.

...rehearses the future at full scale

A plan feels different when you can walk through it.

Test real routes, timings and routines at the scale the venue allows.

...leaves the tools behind

Close with a kit, cutting files and a training session.

Make the method easy to share and improve.

How a project unfolds

Four moves, in order

1

Listen

Listen to the people whose routines will change.

2

Cut

Build a rough version everyone can rearrange.

3

Rehearse

Run the proposal and record what changes.

4

Hand over

Hand over the findings, tools and next steps.

"Nobody defends a plan they helped cut out with their own hands. They improve it."
Imani Castellane, founder

See it applied

Where the principles did the work

All projects
Paper-cut transit station
Full scale

Tomorrow's Timetable

A mock interchange in a bus depot
Paper-cut dining garden
Tools left behind

The Long Lunch

A cafeteria kit students now run themselves

From the idea to everyday use.

  1. 01

    Structure

    Start with the visitor’s task and the content needed to complete it. Resolve navigation before polishing individual screens.

  2. 02

    Design

    Review key pages at desktop and mobile sizes. Check long headings, empty states and the transitions between pages.

  3. 03

    Handover

    Package reusable components, assets and content rules. Walk through the decisions so the site can keep growing.

A collaborative design practice

Continue with a clear question.

Tell us which part of the experience you would like to explore.

Talk through the details

Work

Selected work.

Four questions, explored through paper and participation.

Paper-cut orchard and community garden
Exhibition

Orchard Commons

A library car park becomes a full-scale paper orchard.

Read the case
Paper-cut transit station with a violet tram
Futures rehearsal

Tomorrow's Timetable

Riders rehearse a new bus network in a depot.

Read the case
Paper-cut school cafeteria as a dining garden
Co-design

The Long Lunch

Students design and test a better school lunch.

Read the case
Paper-cut clouds raining orange strokes
Installation

Signal Garden

Weather memories become a shared museum landscape.

Read the case

Your project could be the fifth.

We reserve space for smaller organisations each year.

Tell us about it

Explore with a purpose

A collaborative design practice.

Strategy, visual identity and shared making, built around the project’s purpose.

Look a little closer

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover
Ask a specific question
Work/Orchard Commons

Orchard Commons

A library car park, reimagined as a shared growing space.

Paper-cut orchard with pink and green trees and a lilac greenhouse

Client

Millbrook Public Library

Year

2025

Format

Exhibition + three workshops

Team

Imani, Theo, six local growers

The question

The library had a plan for a community orchard. Neighbours needed to see what the change would mean.

We asked what Saturday morning might feel like if the orchard already existed.

What happened

Residents built a full-size model: trees, beds, paths and a greenhouse, placed over the existing parking bays.

Visitors moved the pieces and reshaped the proposal together. The model gave competing priorities a shared language.

What we made

  • A full-scale paper orchard, assembled and dismantled in a weekend
  • Three co-design workshops with a printed cutting kit
  • A pledge wall that turned visits into planting-day volunteers
  • A twelve-page plain-language report for the council vote
1,200visitors in two days
340planting pledges
Phase 1approved four weeks later
"For three years I explained the orchard with a drawing. For two days I just pointed at it."Head of branch services, Millbrook Public Library
All workNext: Tomorrow's Timetable

Orchard Commons / Handover

What carries forward.

  • 01A workshop direction
  • 02A visual language for the place
  • 03Applications people can use
Work/Tomorrow's Timetable

Tomorrow's Timetable

A new bus network, tested through the journeys people actually make.

Paper-cut station with a violet tram and pink route ribbons

Client

Northline Regional Transit

Year

2024

Format

Two-day futures rehearsal

Team

Priya, Theo, four drivers

The question

Clear maps could not answer every rider’s questions about the proposed network.

Could someone make their usual journey without help from the planning team?

What happened

We built a paper interchange in a depot. Riders followed their real routes while drivers called the services.

The rehearsal surfaced difficult crossings and transfers, informing platform changes and a clearer map.

What we made

  • A full-size paper interchange with nine platforms
  • Sixty scripted journeys built from real ticketing data
  • A network map redrawn with riders during the event
  • A rehearsal kit Northline now runs at every depot
60riders walked their journey
3route changes adopted
62%preferred the new map after the day
"We had modelled the interchange for a year. The paper version found the bad crossing in twenty minutes."Network planning lead, Northline Regional Transit
Orchard CommonsNext: The Long Lunch

Tomorrow's Timetable / Handover

What carries forward.

  • 01A workshop direction
  • 02A visual language for the place
  • 03Applications people can use
Work/The Long Lunch

The Long Lunch

A school lunch designed with the students who use it.

Paper-cut cafeteria with long green tables and lilac lanterns

Client

Fernhill Secondary School

Year

2024

Format

Eight-week co-design

Team

Imani, Priya, twenty-four students

The question

Long queues and a noisy hall were pushing students out of the cafeteria.

What would make them want to stay for the whole lunch?

What happened

Students modelled tables, serving points and quieter spaces, then worked with the kitchen team on menus.

A Saturday trial let the school test the proposed layout and gather feedback before committing to the refurbishment.

What we made

  • A student-led co-design programme over eight sessions
  • A full-scale paper hall used for the Saturday trial
  • Three costed menus with the catering team
  • A lunch-hall kit the student council reruns each spring
180students at the Saturday trial
9 minqueue, down from eighteen
28%less food waste
"They designed a lunch hall that teenagers wanted to be in. Then they made us prove we could run it."Deputy head, Fernhill Secondary School
Tomorrow's TimetableNext: Signal Garden

The Long Lunch / Handover

What carries forward.

  • 01A workshop direction
  • 02A visual language for the place
  • 03Applications people can use
Work/Signal Garden

Signal Garden

A museum landscape made from visitors’ memories of weather.

Tall violet paper clouds raining orange strokes over green hills

Client

Coastline Museum of Weather

Year

2023, touring 2025

Format

Participatory installation

Team

Theo, Imani, two curators

The question

The museum wanted a climate experience built around personal memories and shared conversation.

What happened

Visitors cut shapes, add a remembered year and pin them into a growing landscape of clouds, hills and rain.

Weekly photographs document the changing installation and the stories that gather around it.

What we made

  • A modular paper landscape that packs into two crates
  • A cutting station with twelve weather shapes and a script
  • A Friday photo protocol that doubles as evaluation
  • A touring pack for host museums, with a training day
9,000weather memories pinned
2museums touring the room
110Friday photographs and counting
"It is the only room in the building that is different every time I walk past it."Senior curator, Coastline Museum of Weather
The Long LunchAll work

Signal Garden / Handover

What carries forward.

  • 01A workshop direction
  • 02A visual language for the place
  • 03Applications people can use

People

Meet the collective.

A small core team, joined by specialists for each project.

Cut-out portrait of Imani Castellane
Founder

Imani Castellane

Creative director (she/her)
Cut-out portrait of Theo Marchetti on a yellow paper blob
Making

Theo Marchetti

Head of making (he/him)
Cut-out portrait of Priya Solberg on a green paper blob
Research

Priya Solberg

Research lead (she/they)
Worker-owned since 2021. Every project team includes someone who will use what we make, and every kit we publish is open for other collectives to improve.

The wider network

Who joins a project

Designers, researchers, facilitators and makers bring the skills each question needs.

  • Paper engineers
  • Scenographers
  • Illustrators
  • Evaluation researchers
  • Sign-language interpreters
  • Bus drivers
  • Chefs
  • Community organisers
  • Carpenters
  • Teachers
  • Sound designers
  • Growers

Want to join the roster?

Tell us what you make and the spaces you like working in.

Write to us

Before the next step

A collaborative design practice.

Strategy, visual identity and shared making, built around the project’s purpose.

Ask about the details

Worth checking

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover
People/Imani Castellane
Founder (she/her) Cut-out portrait of Imani Castellane

Imani Castellane

Founder and creative director.

Imani spent eight years designing museum galleries before founding Unfold.

She leads exhibitions and participatory rehearsals, turning the conversation around a plan into part of the design process.

Trained in scenography, she also teaches and advises community organisations.

Currently

  • Leading the touring version of Signal Garden
  • Writing the open licence for the Unfold kits
  • Teaching a spring studio on full-scale prototyping

Ask her about

  • Exhibition design
  • Futures rehearsals
  • Facilitation
  • Paper landscapes
  • Museum learning

Get in touch

All peopleNext: Theo Marchetti

A conversation before the first session.

Your starting point

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover

The right working rhythm

  • Your current experience
  • The pace you are comfortable with
  • Anything that needs adapting

Before you confirm

  • Discuss the proposed format
  • Check timing and availability
  • Agree on the next step
Ask about working together
People/Theo Marchetti
Head of making (he/him) Cut-out portrait of Theo Marchetti on a yellow paper blob

Theo Marchetti

Head of making.

A carpenter and set builder who turns drawings into full-scale experiments.

Theo leads making sessions and develops lightweight models that people can safely move and adapt.

His background spans touring exhibitions, festival stages and a workshop full of scale models.

Currently

  • Packing Signal Garden into two crates for its second venue
  • Prototyping a flat-pack greenhouse for the next orchard
  • Teaching the Saturday cutting workshop

Ask him about

  • Full-scale prototypes
  • Cardboard engineering
  • Touring builds
  • Cutting files
  • Safe installs

Get in touch

Imani CastellaneNext: Priya Solberg

A conversation before the first session.

Your starting point

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover

The right working rhythm

  • Your current experience
  • The pace you are comfortable with
  • Anything that needs adapting

Before you confirm

  • Discuss the proposed format
  • Check timing and availability
  • Agree on the next step
Ask about working together
People/Priya Solberg
Research lead (she/they) Cut-out portrait of Priya Solberg on a green paper blob

Priya Solberg

Research lead.

Priya designs the listening: map walks, card sorts and conversations with the people a plan will affect.

They begin by asking what becomes possible when neighbours help shape the answer.

A social researcher with a background in public programmes, Priya turns participation into clear findings and practical next steps.

Currently

Ask them about

  • Participatory research
  • Evaluation without surveys
  • Recruiting the right room
  • Plain-language reports
  • Card sorts

Get in touch

Theo MarchettiAll people

A conversation before the first session.

Your starting point

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover

The right working rhythm

  • Your current experience
  • The pace you are comfortable with
  • Anything that needs adapting

Before you confirm

  • Discuss the proposed format
  • Check timing and availability
  • Agree on the next step
Ask about working together

Journal

Studio notes.

Methods, field notes and discoveries from the cutting table.

Method

Start with scissors.

12 June 2026, Imani Castellane

Why unfinished materials invite better conversations.
Field notes

Two days in the depot.

3 April 2026, Theo Marchetti

What a depot rehearsal revealed about a new bus network.
Glossary

A studio glossary.

18 February 2026, Priya Solberg

The ideas and habits behind our studio language.

Newsletter

A field note, a photograph and an occasional new toolkit.

Subscribe

Explore with a purpose

A collaborative design practice.

Strategy, visual identity and shared making, built around the project’s purpose.

Look a little closer

  • Shared direction
  • Distinctive applications
  • A practical handover
Ask a specific question
Journal/Method

Start with scissors.

ICImani Castellane12 June 20265 minute read

People feel free to move a paper wall. That small permission changes the conversation.

We first used cardboard because it was affordable. We kept it because people felt comfortable changing it.

The social physics of a paper wall

A polished rendering invites comments. A paper plan invites someone to move the entrance.

An unfinished object makes disagreement feel useful, rather than impolite.

Rough on purpose

Early models stay simple so the room discusses positions and possibilities before finishes.

  • First versions are cut from one colour of paper.
  • Labels are handwritten, never printed.
  • Nothing is glued down until the second day.

Color and texture come after a shared decision.

"Nobody wants to trample your hours. Give them something with fewer hours in it."From the studio wall

What this costs

This approach asks clients to spend a little time with uncertainty. The reward is a plan more people have helped shape.

Start with scissors. Let the conversation guide the finish.

All postsNext: Field notes from a two-day rehearsal
A closer look: Start With Scissors
A closer look: Start With Scissors

Agree on the question

Start each stage with the decision it needs to resolve. A research pass, a visual direction and a prototype should not all ask for the same kind of feedback. Make the purpose of the review clear before sharing the work.

Progress should be visible before the presentation.

Show enough context

Present the direction where it will be used. A type choice is easier to assess on a real heading and a small label than on an isolated specimen. Include the alternatives that explain the decision, without turning the review into an archive.

Carry the decision forward

Write down what was agreed and what is still open. Update the working source so the next stage begins from the same understanding. A clear process removes repeated explanation and gives the team more time for the details that matter.

Journal/Field notes

Two days in the depot.

TMTheo Marchetti3 April 20266 minute read

Two days in a depot, testing a proposed bus interchange with riders.

Thursday, 16:00

We marked out the platform edges at full scale so every transfer became a walk people could feel.

Friday, 07:30

Cardboard platforms, timetable boards and a mock ticket hall made the new layout tangible.

Friday, 11:00

Riders tested difficult journeys. One transfer exposed a crossing that looked harmless on the map.

  • Platforms two and six swap places before lunch.
  • The crossing disappears from the plan entirely.
  • Somebody adds a paper bench, and it stays.

Saturday, 09:00

They redrew the arrangement on the floor while the planning team observed.

"A planner standing beside the map answers questions the map should answer."Rehearsal rule number four

Sunday, 18:00

The findings informed the next network plan. The depot kept the boards for staff briefings.

Read the full case: Tomorrow's Timetable.

Start with scissors.Next: A small glossary
A closer look: Two Day Rehearsal
A closer look: Two Day Rehearsal

Agree on the question

Start each stage with the decision it needs to resolve. A research pass, a visual direction and a prototype should not all ask for the same kind of feedback. Make the purpose of the review clear before sharing the work.

Progress should be visible before the presentation.

Show enough context

Present the direction where it will be used. A type choice is easier to assess on a real heading and a small label than on an isolated specimen. Include the alternatives that explain the decision, without turning the review into an archive.

Carry the decision forward

Write down what was agreed and what is still open. Update the working source so the next stage begins from the same understanding. A clear process removes repeated explanation and gives the team more time for the details that matter.

Journal/Glossary

A studio glossary.

PSPriya Solberg18 February 20264 minute read

A few words we use, and what they mean.

Bright speculation

Making a possible future concrete enough to explore together.

The wall

The shared place for the project question, decisions and changes.

Rehearsal

A proposal tried at full scale, with real people, for a limited time.

Rough on purpose

The first version is cut from one colour of paper and labelled by hand so the room discusses positions, not finishes. See why every project starts with scissors.

The Friday photo

A photograph taken from the same place each week to record how the work evolves.

Awkward journeys

A difficult journey that helps reveal what a typical route can miss.

"Not a pilot, which implies commitment, and not a workshop, which implies chairs."On the word rehearsal

Handover

The toolkit and practice that let the host team continue independently.

Leave the chalk

Letting the host keep the useful marks, models and ideas a rehearsal leaves behind.

Field notes from a two-day rehearsalAll posts

Write the decision first

Start with the audience and the change the work should support. Include the action someone needs to take after seeing the page, product or campaign. A list of deliverables is useful, but it does not explain why those deliverables are needed.

A useful brief makes the next decision easier.

Bring the constraints

Share the existing assets, the content owner and the date that matters. Name what is already decided and what remains open. This gives the team room to explore without repeatedly reopening the same question.

Make feedback usable

Choose one person to gather feedback and ask for it against the agreed purpose. Explain the problem with a direction before proposing a visual fix. A good review leaves a shorter list of decisions, not a longer collection of preferences.

Contact

Bring your question.

Tell us what you’re exploring. We reply within three working days.

A futures rehearsal
An exhibition or installation
Participatory research
A toolkit or training
Not sure yet
Send the note

The studio

Studio 4, 18 Paper Lane · Harbourside, HB2 4QT

hello@unfold.example

+1 (555) 010-7342

Tuesday–Friday, 9:30–17:30.

Common asks

Rehearse a planBuild an exhibitionRun researchLearn the methodJoin the rosterRead the journal

Small organisations

Reduced-rate places are available for smaller organisations.

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