On my search for plywood and composite innovations, Archdaily released an article regarding a pavilion of curved plywood designed by students at the architecture department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
The pavilion functions as a sun shading for parts of the stairs in front of the department. Based on bending behavior under the self-weight of over-sized sheets of plywood of up to 11 x 2.5 meters, the design activates the material properties as the defining element in the transfer of force.
The cuts within the sheet influences the bending resistance of the sheets, an idea much like the work of Alvar Aalto and the Eames, scoring, cutting and bending plywood to achieve curvature. Other similar works include: Skylar Tidbbits' Surface Ornamentation, and the Probotics of the AA DRL.
Skylar Tidbbit's Surface Ornamentation
Probotics