Modular Origami

Modular origami involves folding many pieces of paper into individual units and then connecting them to form a larger structure without the use of glue, tape, or any other adhesives. My interest in paper folding started at a very young age, and after starting with folding animals I eventually found more enjoyment in the geometry of modular creations.

The top image is model that consists of five intersecting tetrahedra whose vertices define a dodecahedron – a 12-sided polyhedron where each face is a regular pentagon. This started with just 10 pieces of standard square origami paper which were then torn into thirds and folded using Francis Ow's 60 degree unit. The challenge lies in the assembly and knowing how each tetrahedron intersects the next.

The bottom image shows two other polyhedra along with a quarter for scale comparison. On the left is another dodecahedron, this one only needing 20 units instead of 30, while on the right is an icosahedron made up of 30 units. Both were based on modules developed by Bennett Arnstein.