LAYER's Ripple Table Cuts Weight With Wavy Plywood Core

LAYER's Ripple research table weighs 19.8 pounds across 8.2 feet of dining surface. Roughly the heft of a medium dog, built to host eight.

The London studio shaped the table around a corrugated plywood core produced by Canadian manufacturer Corelam. Each sheet measures about 0.12 inches thick before pressure lamination forms the repeating curves. A flat plywood skin sits on top, giving plates and laptops the ordinary surface they expect. The waves stay underneath, mostly hidden from view.

What does the wavy core actually do?

It removes material. LAYER's project documentation claims 70% to 80% less wood than a standard timber table, though the studio doesn't name the comparison slab. A thin sheet, ridged and laminated, resists bending better than the same sheet left flat. The point isn't just to look unusual from below. The point is structure without bulk.

The original specs put Ripple at approximately 8.2 feet long and 39.4 inches wide. The footprint stays generous. Carry-it-alone weight, dinner-for-eight length, in one piece.

Why pair LAYER with Corelam?

Corelam brings the pressure lamination process that turns thin plywood into corrugated sheets. LAYER designed Ripple around that capability, then added hollow triangular legs in a refined version to push rigidity in two directions. The tabletop's underside curves gently across length and width.

The legs follow the same rule: shape over mass. From the side, the top reads almost like a sheet balanced on four narrow supports. The repeating curves along the short edges give away what's actually happening. The structure supplies its own ornament, with no carved border or heavier frame required.

The red finish keeps Ripple from disappearing into a room. The geometry keeps it from looking like a sheet balanced on four narrow supports. Both tricks do real work.

What's the environmental case?

Seventy to 80 percent less material is the headline figure. The documentation doesn't establish a defined baseline, so the percentage floats. Adhesives, finishing, production energy, and working life stay outside the claim. Less wood, less weight, easier shipping — true, though incomplete.

Still, the basic logic holds. A table one person can move doesn't need a second mover, a delivery van, or a reinforced floor. Ripple answers a specific problem: furniture that follows its owner, not the other way around.

So what?

The lifting problem disappears. The corner problem doesn't. An 8.2-foot tabletop still needs a clear route through the house before anyone takes it around a bend.

LAYER presents Ripple as a studio research project, without a current retail price or ordering details. Anyone wanting one today will wait, commission something similar, or simply admire the engineering from a chair they already own.