Incredible cardboard sculptures created by algorithms

Jacob Aron, technology reporter




(Image: Michael Hansmeyer)
The latest 3D printers can build flutes, thumbs and even themselves, but some shapes are still beyond the reach of current technology. For amazingly detailed sculptures like the ones above, you need to turn to more advanced materials - like cardboard.

These are just two of many sculptures created by Michael Hansmeyer, an architect and programmer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. To make these, Hansmeyer started with a computer model of a simple Greek column and ran it through a subdivision algorithm which repeatedly splits the surface, creating more detail with each iteration.

The result is a 3D model with between 8 and 16 million faces, but 3D printers can only handle half a million, so Hansmeyer needed an alternative solution to transform his creations from virtual to physical reality. He sliced the column into 2700 pieces and used a laser cutter to create each slice from 1mm-thick cardboard, then reconstructed the column by layering the slices together with a solid wooden core. The whole process only cost $1500 and took about 15 hours, with three laser cutters working in parallel.