I am a huge fan of this material. In my opinion, it strikes the right balance of quality, affordability, and appearance. It is made of laminations of Philippine mahogany veneers and is intended for boat building. There are no voids. Any voids are filled with a Bondo-like substance. I wish that the faces would always be quality samples, free of Bondo. Alas, rather than struggle against it, I choose to embrace it. I also do not to mind the exposed edge. In the right light this plywood shimmers.
It’s easy to work with, though a bit splintery. Solid wood is inconvenient for me to process in my garage shop and I like to just get my ideas out of my head and into the world. The BS 1088 is an excellent enabler of self-expression.
I watched Design Is One: The Vignellis. There is a scene where Massimo shows us a table he made with crude construction material, however, the form of which was exceedingly elegant (it was taken on and elevated in material by Poltrona Frau). If a brilliant genius such as Mr. Vignelli felt comfortable working with and living with crude material artfully processed, why should any design-conscious consumer not?
I once had a project where I chose to glue and screw two thicknesses of 18mm plywood together. This chance revelation opened a whole new world of possibilities to me. You can span a pretty sizable distance with a 36mm piece of plywood. Furthermore the appearance of that thickness looks mildly brutalist to my eye–and I like a good deal of brutalist stuff as well as the ethos of Brutalism. I break the outside edges with a slight round over, to add a little grace and softness. Also, when you laminate the two sheets together, there is a line that forms in the middle due to two thicknesses running in the same direction next to each other. I like this.
I consider plywood to be a democratizing material, though the Meranti is perhaps a bit bourgeois. It empowers me to take a small step and do something worthwhile. It gives me a hope.
Oliver Liu 