THE ADE SERIES
product design
H540 x W400 x D200
H690 x W340 x D170
H490 x W320 x D160
Birch plywood, polished stainless steel (designer's technique)
Estonian Academy of Arts
Mentors: Nick Ross, Mihkel Mäll
Estonia 2022
task
Create a piece based on the history of the once leading plywood Luther Factory. The piece must use bent plywood as the main material.
exhibitions
Milan Design Week 2025
Budapest Design Week 2022
Photo: Albert Kerstna
Photo: Albert Kerstna
CONTEXT
Luther Factory was a plywood manufacturer in Estonia, operating from 1877 to 1940. Once the largest and most influential factory in the Baltics and Scandinavia, it specialized in wood and furniture production, exporting to the UK and other parts of Europe.
One of the products the factory produced was Plymax - a trade name for metal-faced plywood. The sheets of polished metal were used as finishing material for partitions, doors and dressing cubicles.
Luther’s Plymax was rigid and steady – perfect for building thin walls – but the material had more potential. This led to further considerations on how else could the material be manipulated. Could it be made to appear softer? Can Plymax be used for creating something more artistic?
Luther Factory in 1924, photo: Ajapaik
FROM PAPER TO BUILD
With these questions in mind, I began exploring the potential of Plymax, sketching out different ideas. I then moved on to material tests, where I discovered that the polished metal part of the material could also function as a mirror. Revisiting the concept, I refined my sketches and developed a technique to seamlessly join steel and bent plywood to create mirrors. After producing nearly 100 prototypes using cardboard and aluminum foil, I finalized three distinct forms, which I then crafted into the final products.
FINAL SOLUTION
The Ade series displays the possibilities of bent plywood together with polished steel - a union inspired by the Luther Factory product Plymax. Uniting the two materials creates a functional mirror, while still being a dynamic and abstract artwork.
media
Photos: Andra Junalainen
