What is Box Pleating?

Box pleating is a method of designing origami through packing flaps, or more accurately, polygons, into a square paper through the format of a grid. Unlike other methods, such as circle packing, box pleating is much simpler and easier to learn, which is why many designers opt for box pleating instead of circle packing. However, box pleating is not as efficient as circle packing, as the flaps are packed into a grid, instead of a paper.

How does it work?

Box pleating begins from a blank grid, and flaps, or circles, are packed into it. After finalizing the flaps and drawing in crease lines, it forms a pattern called a crease pattern. Crease patterns are usually made up of red lines and blue lines, corresponding to mountain folds and valley folds. A mountain fold points upward, while a valley fold points downward. To make sure you understand this concept, let's see a few examples.

The image shown above is a mountain fold. Note that once the model is turned upside-down, it becomes a valley fold. A mountain fold is represented in red.

The image shown above is a valley fold. Note that once the model is turned upside-down, it becomes a mountain fold. A valley fold is represented in blue.

A crease pattern is the layout of folds on a sheet of paper after the model is unfolded. If you re-fold the crease pattern, it should always become the same model once again. Of course, in some cases, there are different configurations in which the crease pattern can be folded, however with box pleating, it is usually always the same.

The idea of box pleating is to draw out the entire crease pattern before using special methods, and upon collapsing (folding) the crease pattern, designing a new model.