Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217356 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Review
The authoritative illustrated history of modern plywood furniture. -- The Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2005

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

Customer Reviews

Plywood Makes for a Really Hardback Book
There are paperback books and hardback books, but I don't think that I've ever before seen a book that was as hardback as these. The front and back cover are made of plywood. Fitting I suppose. Certainly interesting you your bookshelf.

Inside, the book is divided into three main sections.

The first is a history and description of the uses to which bent plywood has been put to in the past. Surprisingly the first patents on plywood go back to 1895, just about the time that the steam engine was becoming powerful enough to spin a log against a slicing knife. Continuing the history through World War II talks about (and shows pictures of) plywood airplanes.

The middle section is on the production of the plywood furniture, it starts with the bare logs and how they are cut into veneer and finally put into bent-ply furniture. It talks about a bent ply desk designed by Mr. Pfeiffer. This desk has veneer made in Latvia, the assembly of the desk is in Italy, and it is produced for the American market.

The last section of the book shows a wide selection of furniture articles, illustrating what can be done with bent ply.

bent plywood process described
bent ply by dung ngo and eric pfieffer takes an in depth look at the forming of plywood from it's early stages at the turn of the century up through the mass-production techniques of today. the authors have compiled detailed information on everything from how plywood veneers are made to the construction of molds for forming. the end of the book contains a wide variety of examples of bent ply furniture. the book even comes bound in plywood! a must for anyone with curiosity about forming plywood.

THE BEST ON PLYWOOD
This tome does justice to plywood and all its possibilities, and its contributions to date to modern and modernist life. Great rare history of industrialized wood (bentwood too). A must read for modern furniture fans.