Learn how to make an Origami Menger Sponge
Designed by Jo Nakashima (09/2019)
Difficulty level: simple
The Menger Sponge is a three dimensional fractal that you can build from my basic origami Cube unit, the same one used in the Moving Cubes, Rubik’s Cube, Infinity Cube and others from the cube series. Each cube is made from a single square sheet of paper and everything is connected without glue nor tape.
Paper
In the video tutorial I’m using 12cm x 12cm origami paper for each cube. For the level 2 Menger Sponge shown in the beggining I used 10cm x 10cm.
The number of units in a Menger Sponge grows exponentially and limitless. As you can see in the table below, it grows so quickly that I doubt someone would do a level 3 or bigger.
Helpful videos
To make the Menger Sponge you’ll need to fold a 5×5 grid on every sheet of paper that you’ll use. In the tutorial I show the “origami way” to do that, without a ruler or any kind of tool. However, there are easier methods and the videos below can help you in this task: