GREEN ARCHIVE

Much like its alpine counterpart, the K2 (designed by Robert Lang) is a legend in modular origami. It's elegance is met by a folding, or rather weaving complexity rarely seen in origami...

...But this apparent complexity can be broken down in smaller bits. Take it's structure : the K2 is actually made of five tetrahedra interlocked. Then, each of those tetrahedra is made of four triangles (its faces) interlocking. You can see the rotation with the right angle.

Most of the work involved in this origami isn't actually to fold the paper pieces and the triangle units, but rather to lock each of these units into each other—the weaving.

All of this truly holds together because of the precise width of each triangle side, which is just enough to give support to all the other units.
Which means, up until all the units are there and it's done, its shape is gonna melt down all the time...

Thus, it usually requires multiple tries to put the pieces together. But keep trying. Daring is the key.

The process of folding isn't exactly fun but slowly getting to understand how to do it is the best feeling!

- 5-fold symmetry axis

- 3-fold symmetry axis

Small tip you can use if you want to do it at home : make sure the surface on which you're doing the weaving doesn't let the pieces slip away from your grasp... Could have saved me a lot of trouble if I knew earlier! ;)