At first glance, Enlai Hooi's sculptures look a lot like origami. And while his paper creations are elegant pieces of art, he believes they have the potential to be much more. "The sculptures are experimental starting points, they suggest other pieces of design," he says. "When you look at the pieces you see things in them". What the 21 year old sees are endless possibilities for his shapes to be used in furniture and interiors - as well as canopies for huge public spaces and support pylons for office towers.

Hooi first came to prominence last August when he won The Sydney Morning Herald Young Designer of the Year Award for a folded [Shell 3] screen or room divider….Next came his "Experiments in Folding" exhibition of 19 paper creations, which opened in Sydney in February this year and earned Hooi a full-page review in the international design bible Wallpaper.

Not bad for your first year out of university. But then Hooi sounds nothing like you're average graduate when he explains his experimental design approach, based on intricate folded-paper sculptures.

… "When you look at the crumpled pieces of paper, patterns emerge, and those patterns have particular mechanical and structural properties", he says.

Proving he has his eye firmly on the big picture, he plans to study architecture after he has established a reputation in industrial design. " I would prefer to make a name for myself in industrial design first, so I have a substantial body of work that has been well received. As a result, I will be more likely to get to work on interesting projects," he says.