The First Yugoslav Plywood Factory

address: Podvežica, Sušak
Period: Modernism
Kind: Immovable material heritage
Century: 20
Year: 1930
Purpose: industrial

The First Yugoslav Plywood Factory (later known as Plywood and Veneer Factory) operated in Sušak, at Podvežica, in the 1930s. Part of the complex has been preserved to this day as part of the Istravino d.d. plant, but none of its many chimneys have survived. According to archival sources, it can be concluded that it was a large industrial plant consisting of an entire complex of buildings with primarily industrial but also residential purposes.

In 1938, the factory employed two hundred workers. It produced cross-glued veneers (Sperrplatten) for making furniture, for decorating the interior of railway wagons, automotive bodies, steamships, airplanes and more. According to sources, the factory’s production capacity amounted to about 10,000 cubic meters of raw material or about 4,000 cubic meters of finished products. The factory had warehouses in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Split. As its name says, it was the first factory of its kind in Yugoslavia.

 

Valorization:

A part of the former Plywood Factory has been preserved until today within the factory Istravino. In architectural sense, these are buildings of almost no historical or artistic importance.