A new design strategy for multistable structures

Multistable architected structures have been proposed as candidates for shock-absorbing, wave-guiding, and shape-transforming materials. However, current strategies rely on one-off unit cell designs stacked in periodic tesselations. Here, we present a novel design strategy for the creation of multistable kirigami metamaterials in 2 and 3 dimensions. We introduce a simple triangular building block along with a set of compatibility rules that can be used to create tesselations of arbitrary order, from periodic to quasicrystalline. This work presents a general design platform for highly multistable architectures that facilitate extreme mechanical deformations.