Menger Sponge (Origami)

The Menger Sponge is a three-dimensional fractal object originally described by the Austrian mathematician Karl Menger in 1926. It is created by repeatedly taking a cube, dividing it into 27 smaller cubes, and removing the center cube and the centers of its faces.

To build an origami Menger Sponge, folders typically use modular origami techniques, folding thousands of small business cards into interlocking cubes. A Level 1 sponge requires 20 cards, while a Level 2 sponge consists of exactly 400 folded business cards.

It combines strict mathematical geometry with the physical challenge of structural engineering, requiring immense patience and precision to interlock the thousands of paper modules. The resulting paper sculpture has an infinite surface area but theoretically encloses zero volume.

Yes, the "MegaMenger" project was a global initiative launched in 2014 to build a Level 4 Menger Sponge entirely out of business cards. Thousands of participants across the world folded and combined modules to create the massive, highly detailed mathematical sculpture.