Plywood: Material of the Modern World, V&A

The V&A is set to stage the first-ever exhibition on plywood, an industrially produced sheet wood that has shaped the modern world of design.

Used to make everything from hatboxes, tea chests, surfboards and skateboards, plywood has been embraced by designers, architects and engineers over the years to startling effect, with each successive generation finding ever-more innovative ways to shape, mould, cut and fix it.

Featuring groundbreaking pieces by Modernist furniture designer Marcel Breuer and Charles and Ray Eames, two of the most important American designers of the 20th Century, alongside a diverse range of objects including the fastest and highest-flying aeroplane of WWII, this exhibition recounts the revolutionary trajectory of this light, strong, affordable and versatile material.

While an exhibition about layered board may not sound like the most engaging of London's summer exhibitions, we don't underestimate the V&A's ability to make the mundane positively marvellous.