Action Modular Origami to intrigue and delight

Action Modular Origami to intrigue and delight, front cover

I love that these are all “action” models. Like well-designed paper airplanes, once complete, these Modular Action Origami projects let you have a bit of form-and-function fun. (Note: this is not a book about paper airplanes, but it is as much fun as one!) It has been a long time since I have enjoyed folding so many projects from just one book.
This book is the product of a fine designer of origami and an excellent teacher. Tung Ken put much thought into how best to present each project. The diagrams are among the best I have seen for geometric origami, and the collection of projects is a satisfying variety.
Highly recommended!
5 out of 5 stars – Michael LaFosse, cofounder of Origamido® Studio and author of over 50 origami books and kits, including “Geometric Origami: The Art of Modular Paper Sculpture”

Action Modular Origami to intrigue and delight is available from Tarquin Group. You can buy it from

You can see an animated table of contents.

Also available are interactive 2D and 3D simulations and animations in Geogebra:  you can zoom in and out and rotate your viewpoint. Click the refresh button to start the animation.

See below for updates and extra material.

Updates, clarifications and corrections

Here are a few additions to Further Reading, either due to a lack of space or subsequent discovery of new information.

  • Heinz Strobl’s Surprise! is in the BOS Convention 2008 Autumn Convention Pack. This is a simple, fun, elegant and efficient model.
  • Thoki Yenn created two versions of Flip Flop: two-piece and one-piece. The inspiration is said to be from Mathematical Curiosities by Gerald Jenkins and Anne Wild.
  • Dave Brill has diagrams for several of his origami toys and working origami such as Brillik Cubes, i-Squash-ahedron and Unstabile.
  • Burrows, Roger (2018) 3D Thinking in Design and Architecture: From Antiquity to the Future. Thames & Hudson. Chapter 11, Shape Changers (p. 236-263), describes structures of flexibly connected poylgons. It starts with some classic flexagons and then shows structures similar to the Petrie-Coxeter Honeycomb, Flip-Flop and Miura Map Fold.
  • A short paper about action modular origami is available here. This was presented at the 2018 Bridges conference of Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Education and Culture, The National Museum of Science and Technology (Tekniska museet), Stockholm, Sweden.
    It discusses the art, craft, engineering and mathematics of action modular origami.
  • A set of slides from a talk at the UK MathsJam Gathering 2018 is here. The archive is a cornucopia of mathematical fun.
  • Geogebra files are now available. Some of these interactive 2D and 3D simulations were used to illustrate the book.
  • Jürgen Köller has a comprehensive page on Kaleidocycles. Can you find an elegant way to make the Invertible Cube by Paul Schatz without cuts or glue?