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The buckling-induced cubic patterned kirigami sheet can be folded flat (Image courtesy of Ahmad Rafsanjani/Harvard SEAS)

Origami-inspired materials use folds in materials to embed powerful functionality. However, all that folding can be pretty labor intensive. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are drawing material inspiration from another ancient Japanese paper craft—kirigami. Kirigami relies on cuts, rather than folds, to change the structure and function of materials.

In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, SEAS researchers demonstrate how a thin, perforated sheet can be transformed into a foldable 3D structure by simply stretching the cut material...