
Orthogonal Maze, designed by Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, and Jason Ku
Okay, so it’s not much of a maze, but you know, it could be. There are detailed instructions on how to fold any orthogonal maze, and even a web-app that will generate crease patterns for you. I gave it a go, with a small (15cm) square of paper. I wasn’t going to manage much of a maze with this size, so I just made something symmetric instead.
My impression is: it’s hard! I’m not confident I would be able to fold a larger maze by this method. The issue is that some of the maze components are really difficult to fold, and some of the others pull apart too easily. I think if I wanted to fold something larger, I’d try to workshop the design a little more, or find a different method. But I also made this years ago, so maybe if I tried again I would be better at it.
I’ll admit that my favourite ‘How the heck is that possible’ design is the chessboard from John Montroll’s ‘Origami Inside Out’ which starts with a single square sheet of paper black on one side and white on the other, and ends up with a chessboard on a table.
It’s… very, very fiddly.