Forbidden Geometry

Forbidden Geometry by Christoph Spath in collaboration with physicist Paul J. Steinhardt. Quark Park, Princeton, New Jersey, 2006.

This sculpted form is based on three-dimensional models of four different shapes (zonohedra) that can be combined as building blocks to form quasicrystals.

This sculpture of a quasicrystal is made up of six building blocks, three fashioned from limestone and three from glass. The projections on the blocks represent the rules that define how the blocks can be combined to form larger structures.

Photos by I. Peterson