Thomas Heatherwick designs mechanically expanding cover for Wallpaper*

Thomas Heatherwick has designed the cover for Wallpaper* magazine’s 20th issue, which comes with a kit to make the cover into a mechanical slat system that expands the image.

The Friction issue cover features a photograph overlaid with slices of the number “20” in large type. Using a kit provided, readers are invited to cut up the cover and transform it into a low-tech mechanical artwork, that pivots and slides up to assemble the slices and reveal the number.

The design is another iteration of the studio’s ongoing Expanding Furniture range, which includes prototypes for a table, carpet and bowl that expand in size using a similar system of pivoting slats. It has also featured in research for architectural projects.

“As you fold, stretch and stretch your cover, consider that you’re holding one of the smallest and most intricate projects to come out of the Heatherwick Studio,” says the magazine.