Origami House in Fusion 360

When I first thought about folding a house, I imagined doing it like origami—but with real materials. That’s when the idea hit me: why not use Fusion 360’s sheet metal tools to design a foldable house? By leveraging flanges and flat patterns, I could create all the walls, roof, and details as a single sheet, then CNC cut it from cardboard. This approach let me turn a complex 3D design into a fully foldable, physical house blending digital design and hands on craft!

Fusion 360

Cardboard or some other craft board

Tape or glue

A CNC machine or laser cutter

A knife (optional)

I started by creating a small modern house in Fusion 360. Using the sheet metal feature, I defined walls, roof panels, and flanges, which let me think of the house as one foldable sheet. This setup made it easy to later generate a flat pattern that could be cut and folded into a physical model.

Once the house was modeled, I used Fusion 360’s flat pattern tool to unfold the sheet metal design into a single flat layout. This showed all the walls, roof panels, and fold lines in one sheet, ready to be cut. I then exported the flat pattern as a DXF file and extruded it to 5mm (the thickness of my cardboard).

With the flattened house in hand, I switched to 2D Contour in Fusion 360. I selected the extruded flat pattern and simulated the toolpath to make sure the CNC would cut along all fold lines and edges accurately. This step ensured the cardboard would cut cleanly and the folds would line up perfectly during assembly.

After generating the toolpath, I sent the file to my CNC machine. I secured a sheet of cardboard to the bed with duct tape and let the CNC follow the 2D contour paths. In just a few minutes, the machine cut out the entire house layout, including all walls, roof panels, and fold lines—perfectly ready for folding and assembly.

Note: I use a homemade custom CNC machine however I highly recommend multiple passes regardless of the machine to ensure a clean cut.

Once all the pieces were cut, I carefully folded along the scored lines, that I made using a knife, from the flat pattern that Fusion displayed. The sheet metal-inspired flanges guided each bend, making assembly intuitive. In just a few minutes, the flat cardboard transformed into a small modern house, I then used tape to secure it as the cardboard had some extra flexion in it.

While over all I am happy with the process, I was a little dissapointed in the presicion that the cardboard offered. In the future I will likely use foam board, a much more cuttable board, and use a large CNC machine that can make a wider range of cuts from stronger materials. However I would consider this a success as it taught me quite a lot on sheet metal fabrication and CNC machining. I would definitely recommend this project for anyone looking to learn more about sheet metal fabrication, and challenging architecture.