Unfolding like a pop-up book in real time, this incredible little built landscape of buildings and bridges, trees and mountains, lampposts and benches rises from nothing then fades back into the oblivion from whence it came.

A summary from the creator of this cool short animation, Maciek Janicki: “The streets are paved with paper. This delicate animation follows the charming rise and fold of a fragile metropolis. Captured by an unseen helicopter, the narrative unfolds through winding roads, erupting forests and emerging mountains. Paper City grows in one fluid take, with skyscrapers rising from the page – only to crumble, wrinkle and gently crease back into the ground.

Janicki is a motion graphics artist and computer animator from London, England, whose work often focuses on the intersection of built environments, everyday objects of offbeat animation. Some of his other projects, experiments and tests can be viewed via the videos above.