Intricate Pop-Up Sculptures Are Tiny Feats of Engineering

Intricate Pop-Up Sculptures Are Tiny Feats of Engineering
DORTMUND, Germany—German graphic designer Peter Dahmen considers himself a “paper engineer.” For the past 25 years, he has been creating impossible-looking three-dimensional pop-up sculptures out of paper. Armed with nothing but paper, glue and scissors, he creates a variety of structures, such as globes, spirals, flowers and birds. However, most of Dahmen’s creations are sharp-edged and architectural. True curves are nearly impossible to achieve he says, a fact due to the inherent nature of folding paper. You can create the illusion of rounded edges, but ultimately, it’s just a bunch of strategically-placed lines. “The things that resemble architecture are always easier to solve than the things that look like nature, like real flowers,” he says.