Cardboard Construction

George Hart



This is another in a series of giant geometric cardboard constructions I have been making with various student groups.  We are at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, where we spent the afternoon creating this six-foot diameter cardboard sculpture. 



It is made from sixty identical pieces of cardboard which we cut with a scroll saw and glued together.  This photo shows a step in the assembly process.  A three-part module in the foreground is about to be added to the structure.  The black clamps hold the parts in position while the glue dries.




This photo shows the structure almost complete.  There is just one more module, off to the right, that still needs to be added in. The design and the construction process is almost identical to the one in this video, but we made this one in the opposite handedness.




After the glue dries and the clamps are removed, the final result is quite impressive and extremely sturdy.  The many connections between the pieces make for a very solid structure, even though it is made of ordinary cardboard and the design is very light and open.




It took roughly fifteen people about three hours to cut and assemble the parts.  When complete, it looks very cool and hangs nicely with no distortion.  If you would like to make your own copy of this design, the template is here, scaled to fit on a 16-by-32 inch rectangle of cardboard.

Thank you to everyone who helped and especially Ethan Berkove for inviting me to visit.