This Incredible, Folding Design Could Change How Doors Work

You use doors every day of your life without thinking: push or pull, they all pretty much work the same way. But designers are trying to reimagine how a door might work. Klemens Torggler, an Austrian designer, has been working on what he calls the Evolution Door for years now.

Watch how it works:

Evolution Door

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Torggler explains, on his website, that the design is based on rotating squares. "The special construction makes it possible to move the door sideways without the use of tracks," the website says.

This technical trick means that doors could be used in all sorts of new ways. This one can revolve around an axis:

Or a door with lots of panels that can open up much like a double door, like this:

Beckett Mufson at The Creators Project also gets ahead of a concern you might have about Troggler’s design:

For those whose first instinct when seeing the door is to scream, “finger trap!” and condemn the door for the sake of their digits, Torggler has provided an example of it’s soft, protective edges. 

Finger pinching or not, it’s about time the door industry got a little more exciting.

Editor’s note, March 23, 2023: A previous version of this story misspelled Klemens Torggler’s name and stated that he is Australian rather than Austrian. The story has been edited to correct those facts.

Rose Eveleth | | READ MORE

Rose Eveleth was a writer for Smart News and a producer/designer/ science writer/ animator based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, Story Collider, TED-Ed and OnEarth.