Step inside an Egyptian pyramid and the last thing you'd expect to find is evidence of a primitive form of plywood. But the ancient Egyptians obviously knew a thing or two about construction. Ditto the Chinese, who centuries ago glued pieces of shaved timber together to create furniture.
It seems that plywood has been with us forever, and yet the first official patent for plywood wasn't granted until 1865. Nowadays it is used for everything from furniture to entire houses. The reason for its popularity? It's versatile, strong, lightweight, easily transported, inexpensive and, if used well, beautiful.
The Sydney Opera House was originally to have made extensive use of plywood, but following architect Jorn Utzon's resignation from the project, his original designs were changed. Yet the white birch ceilings in its concert hall and opera theatre are still a wonderful example of how attractive plywood can be.
Last year a plywood house won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects' Wilkinson Award. The home, in North Haven, New South Wales, was designed by Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier from New York firm SYSTEMarchitects, and was put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. A laser-cutting machine was used to produce 1,100 sections of marine-grade plywood rib, which were bolted together with stainless steel connectors and finished in a polyurethane paint.
Edmiston says plywood has enormous potential for mass-produced housing. The budget for the house, named Burst*03, was just A$250,000 (HK$1.6 million), and would have been less if it had been mass produced.
'One of the big advantages is transport savings,' Edmiston says. 'The whole house arrives on site in just four to five palettes of plywood.'