ABSTRACT
The fashioning of anything requires a maker to confront substance, to consider how a material or set of materials can be shaped or assembled to affect a purpose. The choice of material is thus one of the fi rst choices of design. It should not be surprising, therefore, that changing material choices can be important infl uences on design, but the linkages between material changes and design are not often appreciated in design histories. These linkages have been particularly important since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the confl uence of industrialization, scientifi c and technical innovation, and the emergence of a culture of consumption upset many long-standing design assumptions and traditions.
