The Art of Plywood

Plywood is indispensable in the creation of modern furniture. With its multiple layers glued crosswise it transforms a natural material into a technical one which changes, extends and individualises the physical properties of the raw material. The possibilities for bending and moulding mean that there are hardly any limits to the design options. The first successful experiments in the artificial shaping of wood were made by Michael Thonet, who had his bentwood furniture patented as early as 1841. In 1933 the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto raised plywood to its next level of development. His Armchair 41 was the first ‘indestructible’ plywood chair with a seat suspended in its own frame, and is still being produced by Artek. .
Charles and Ray Eames pushed the possibilities of this new material to its limits and, in the Fifties, created abstract sculptures, children’s furniture and not least the famous lounge chair. In the Sixties and Seventies the material fell from favour because of the advent of plastic, but it was revived in the late Eighties by Jasper Morrison. Since then Vitra has been producing his plywood chair. The fact that so much furniture made of shaped wood has become a design classic is due to the natural qualities of this highly technical production material.