Topic guide

Materials & Making

Materials, manufacturing methods and construction details behind mid-century design.

Use this page as a hub.
Link every related story back here, then connect useful sibling articles to one another.

Materials are not surface decoration. This section explains the properties, processes and constraints that gave mid-century objects their form.

Start with these guides

  • How to tell teak, walnut and rosewood apart
  • Moulded plywood: process, limits and famous misreadings
  • Fibreglass shells and the move towards plastics
  • Tubular steel, aluminium and lightness
  • Veneer, solid timber and honest condition descriptions

How this section is organised

Each article in this section should link back to this hub and to two or three closely related stories. Replace the list above with published links as the cluster grows.

Recently added

Stories with a longer life.

Profiles, field guides and close readings designed to be useful well beyond the week they are published.

The first stories are being prepared. Activate the Mid Century Form Site Setup plugin to add the editorial runway as drafts.

A quiet monthly letter

One object. One building. One designer.

A concise monthly note for people who want to look more closely at twentieth-century design. No daily churn.

Setup note: replace this placeholder form with the embed supplied by MailerLite, ConvertKit or Beehiiv before launch.