Broken Frame and Window

Designer: Lucie Pauwels

This puzzle measures: 137 mm x 137 mm x 16 mm

Material: Purpleheart/Maple

Lucie Pauwels wrote about it:
“Most 2D packing puzzles consist of a frame with several pieces inside. As I like to turn things inside out, I made a puzzle with 1 piece inside and the frame broken into pieces. Jakub Dvorak had a look at this puzzle and suggested to add a window in the large inside piece. So I added a few pieces to fit in this window, these window pieces can also fit into the frame, which makes the puzzle a bit more challenging. The puzzle has only 1 solution.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:
“This is yet another tray packing puzzle from the amazing Lucie Pauwels. Except it is not “just” another tray puzzle! Lucie seems to have the unique ability to design these puzzles with something about them that makes them more than trial and error. Jakub obviously is very good at recognising the value of these amongst all the designs that he must see. This one is a brilliant, beautiful and challenging logical design. It consists of a complex tray made from Maple (137 x 137mm) with a very specifically shaped gap where the frame should be and then a square hole in the centre (the window). To be fitted in, there are 14 unique pieces made from a deep vibrant Purpleheart.

When I first looked at it, I sort of quailed, thinking that this would be many hours of trial and error and I have the memory of a demented goldfish so have a huge problem remembering previous patterns that I had tried. However, when I set to playing with it, I quickly realised that this is very much a logic challenge. There are some pieces with very restricted placement choices and a couple of gaps in the frame that have very limited options for which of the pieces can go in them. This made the puzzle much more compelling. It still was not easy and took me several hours of play before I reached the point where the frame was filled. Much to my chagrin, I had made one assumption about one of the gaps in the frame and kept trying the wrong approach until exasperation made me think a different way. I am sure this was a deliberate design feature by Lucie meant specifically to trap me! The central window is just a 5×5 square and should be relatively easy to fill once you have worked out which pieces are left over from the frame. The only problem is that there are 5 different ways to fill the frame and only one of them leaves the correct pieces to fill the window. There is still some trial and error but it is great fun!”