This structural feat combines symbols and a clear knowledge of patterns and spatial relationships. What appears to be chaos is actually a very intricate pattern. It’s impressive and mind-boggling to even think about the layout behind this.

I suppose the 3-D printing makes this possible, but I wonder if this could even be attempted by hand?

From the FastCoDesign Blog

“An Impossible Object That Would Make M.C. Escher Drool”

“Shadow Cloud” was fabricated using 3-D printing, and it hides a bit of clever magic: Those little panels in the grid seem random, but they actually align at certain angles, thus creating distinct 2-D patterns. Three separate patterns, in fact.

Which means that when you shine a line through the thing, it creates three separate shadows. Prepare to be amazed:

For obvious reasons, that particular piece is called “Thru Religion,” and it was created by Drzach & Suchy–it makes perfect sense that the duo has a grad-level background in architecture (that’s Drzach) and crytopgraphy (Suchy).