Issue № 07

Autumn 2026

Contents

Repair

07

What we fix, and what fixing asks of us. Fourteen stories about menders, spare parts and the right to take things apart.

Essays

The Honest Screw

4 min

p. 012

Reportage

Saturday at the Repair Café

3 min

p. 034

Interviews

The Last Watchmaker on Nieuwe Binnenweg

2 min

p. 058

Objects

A Darned Sock, 1943

2 min

p. 076

Field Notes

Spare Parts, Katendrecht

2 min

p. 088

Cover of issue 7, Repair — tools on a workbench

Cover photograph by Hana Sørlie

Read the issue

Back issues

The archive →

Assorted machine screws, sorted by a volunteer at the Katendrecht repair café.

Cover story

Essays

The Honest Screw

Why the humble screw — not glue — decides whether the things we own can be loved for decades.

4 min read →

In this issue

All stories →

Volunteers at work on the long table, 11:40 a.m.

Reportage

Saturday at the Repair Café

Four hours, thirty-one broken appliances and one retired engineer who refuses to give up on a 1978 toaster.

By

Tomás Okafor

Hana Sørlie

Joop’s bench, photographed exactly as he left it on a Tuesday.

Interviews

The Last Watchmaker on Nieuwe Binnenweg

Mei Tanaka talks to Joop Hendriks about fifty-two years at the bench and the parts nobody makes anymore.

By

Mei Tanaka

Eleven repairs in four shades of grey. Private collection, Lyon.

Objects

A Darned Sock, 1943

One wool sock, mended eleven times, and what it tells us about scarcity, love and grey yarn.

By

Aurélie Brun

Volunteers at work on the long table, 11:40 a.m.

Reportage

Saturday at the Repair Café

Four hours, thirty-one broken appliances and one retired engineer who refuses to give up on a 1978 toaster.

By

Tomás Okafor

Hana Sørlie

Joop’s bench, photographed exactly as he left it on a Tuesday.

Interviews

The Last Watchmaker on Nieuwe Binnenweg

Mei Tanaka talks to Joop Hendriks about fifty-two years at the bench and the parts nobody makes anymore.

By

Mei Tanaka

Eleven repairs in four shades of grey. Private collection, Lyon.

Objects

A Darned Sock, 1943

One wool sock, mended eleven times, and what it tells us about scarcity, love and grey yarn.

By

Aurélie Brun

Saturday morning outside a bike shop on the Tolhuisstraat.

Field Notes

Spare Parts, Katendrecht

A walk past bike shops, scrap yards and one very organised man with a van.

By

Kwame Asante

Letter from the editor

Portrait of Ines Vallejo, editor-in-chief

Ines Vallejo

Editor-in-chief

“Repair turns out to be less about objects than about time: who has it, who is paid for it, and who is allowed to open the case.”

Read the full letter

The people in the margins

All contributors →

Portrait of Ines Vallejo

Ines Vallejo

Editor-in-chief

Portrait of Tomás Okafor

Tomás Okafor

Reportage editor

Portrait of Hana Sørlie

Hana Sørlie

Photographer

Portrait of Priya Raman

Priya Raman

Contributing writer

Portrait of Luuk de Vries

Luuk de Vries

Art director

Portrait of Mei Tanaka

Mei Tanaka

Interviews

Portrait of Kwame Asante

Kwame Asante

Field notes

Portrait of Aurélie Brun

Aurélie Brun

Objects

The Marginalia letter

Four issues a year. One letter a month. Nothing else.

4,812 readers in 61 countries get the editor’s letter, one story from the archive and what we’re reading. Free, and easy to leave.

No tracking pixels. Unsubscribe with one click.

Create a free website with Framer, the website builder loved by startups, designers and agencies.