On 15 July the V&A opens Plywood: Material of the Modern World. In the midst of its installation we spoke to curator Christopher Wilk about prefab ply housing, maker spaces and the inspiration for the exhibition.

“For the V&A an interest in materials and making is part of our lifeblood. We have galleries devoted to the materials of sculpture and the materials of furniture, for example, and we’ve seen a growing interest in materials with the rising interest in making. Plywood is a material that shaped the modern world.

“I’ve always adored modernist plywood furniture, but my work  on the V&A’s Modernism show in 2006 led me to ask how plywood came about, how it was developed, applied and adapted for different purposes and products – and this is the first time that it has been the focus of an exhibition and a research-based book.

“The show explores this complicated story from 1850 to the present and it is underpinned by a huge amount of research covering countries ranging from America and the UK to Germany, Finland, Russia and China. It’s thrown up a lot of surprises. Furniture was really the first industry to develop and use plywood, from Victorian pieces to designs by Aalto, Breuer, Eames and everything that Eames influenced; but plywood was developed further in aviation, architecture, even recreation.

“One of the exhibits is a full-scale section of a prefabricated plywood panel house from the 1930s. Some of the earliest prefab ply structures were manufactured in the 1890s as hunter’s cabins, club houses and photography studios; and its portability was utilised for colonial enterprises and scientific explorations as well as for low-cost housing.

“It was particularly promoted at the 1939 New York World’s Fair with The Plywood House and the towering ‘Trylon’ which was the key architectural landmark of the fair and ended up clad in plywood. However, its architectural use really developed with the need to house defence workers during the war which led to the production of plywood housing that could be assembled on site. It then became key to the post-war reconstruction in many countries.

“The final part of the show focuses on contemporary applications including open-source, self-build systems, commercial digital platforms and also maker spaces that work with it. Plywood is more popular now that it has ever been and for the first time in decades new kinds of plywood are being developed.

“The ply aesthetic has become central to contemporary design as something that looks natural and sustainable and can be used in very simple, DIY forms of construction. We often hear about plywood skyscrapers, which are actually made from new materials – cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber – which follow plywood principles and illustrate the continuing influence of the material.”

Runs until 12 November
Free Entry
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL

The accompanying book ‘Plywood: Material of the Modern World’ is available to pre-order through Thames & Hudson.

Find out more: Victoria & Albert Museum.