Bent Ply: The Art of Plywood Furniture

Plywood is arguably the most modern design artifact: it is a material born of natural wood and formed by vigorous industrial processes that can assume the most organic of shapes through bending, laminating, and molding. Plywood truly fulfills that most modern of dreams: bridging the gap between technology and nature.

Bent Ply is the first book devoted to plywood in modern design. The book consists of two parts: the first, an illustrated history of plywood (tracing its origins to ancient Egypt, circa 2900 BC); the second, an annotated journal of the making of a piece of bent plywood furniture, from the forest to the showroom.

Bent Ply contains numerous illustrations of the classics of bent ply design, including furniture from Alvar Aalto, Michael Thonet, and Charles and Ray Eames, and examples of its appropriation by the military: John F. Kennedy's PT109 boat and the DeHavilland "Mosquito" were both fabricated from plywood.

Anyone interested in furniture design, woodworking, or materials will be fascinated by Bent Ply.


Dung Ngo is author of American Contemporary Furniture. Eric Pfeiffer is head designer for Offi, a home and home office furniture company specializing in bent plywood.