UK – From 15 July to 12 November, an exhibition is being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum entitled Plywood: Material of the Modern World, and is all about the use of plywood over the centuries.

Spanish premium plywood manufacturer Garnica has supplied 230 panels for this exhibition through its distributor in the UK, James Latham. You can see the use of this important material in the manufacture of vehicles, airplanes, furniture, among others, through the items created by designers and artists such as Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer or Charles and Ray Eames.

On exhibition are the “Armchair”, by Alvar Aalto; planes like the Spitfire or the “Havilland Mosquito”; the Eames brothers “DCM Chair”; housing models made with plywood; Singer sewing machines with their plywood cover, and surfboards. Also, a great variety of 19th century photos, such as a prototype of a rail transport system based on the use of plywood, a material whose lightness, versatility and strength has led it to being used in many contexts.

The exhibition is curated by Christopher Wilk and Elizabeth Bisley, who are in charge of the furniture, textiles and fashion division at the V & A Museum. In this exhibition, new items have been assembled that have never been publicly displayed before. Over the almost four months in which it will be open to the public, it is expected that a large number of visitors and specialists in wood and furniture will attend, as well as decorators, designers and architects. The materials used in the exhibition have been supplied to the organization by James Latham, a family company that is more than two-and-a-half centuries old, and the distributor of Garnica products in the United Kingdom.