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Bent Ply Book
Bent Ply contains many illustrations of the
classics of bent ply design, including furniture from
Alvar Aalto
and
Charles and Ray Eames,
who developed the first molded plywood, plywood bent in two directions.
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Bent Ply: The Art of Plywood Furniture, Written by Offi's Eric Pfeiffer,
with Dung Ngo.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Hardcover: 144 pages
dimensions: 0.99 x 9.96 x 7.26 inches
DESIGNER:
written by Eric Pfeiffer and Dung Ngo; Publisher: Princeton Architectural
Press,
Email to
place you order today $99.50 includes GST and delivery within New
Zealand
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The Los Angeles Times, The
authoritative illustrated history of modern plywood furniture.
Book 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. Kennedys
PT109 boat and the DeHavilland ìMosquitoî were both fabricated from plywood.
Anyone interested in furniture design, woodworking, or materials will be
fascinated by Bent Ply, just as we are.
All the below details and images are
some exerts from the book.
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Steam-bending forms,
Michael Thonet, 1856. |
Herbert Matter, photo collage from MOMA's "New Furniture designed by Charles
Eames" exhibition 1946. |
The entire log can be transformed into one long sheet of veneer in about one
and a half minute. |
The veneer is pushed into the mold. |
The "blanks" are put to cool and the glue to dry. |
Photo courtesy the Alvar Aalto Museum.
Aalto bending: Display of laminated wood at the
Finnish pavilion. |
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Paimio armchair, Alvar Aalto, 1931.
Courtesy Artek. |
Bellevue chair, André Bloc, 1951.
André Bloc, France. |
Cross-Check chair, Frank Gehry, 1990.
Courtesy Knoll International. |
As an extra detail the book covers are made of ply wood. |
Plywood-boat construction, 1940s. Courtesy the Nova Scotia Archives and
records management. |
Assembly line production of beechcraft plywood airplane fleet, Los Angeles,
1943. |
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