We live in a single-use society, where fashion is fast, disposability is the norm and it is easier to replace than to repair. We don't need to mend things anymore – and yet we do. What is it about Homo faber – man the maker – that cannot resist fixing what is broken?

As we start to decouple from the linear take-make-waste model that has dominated Western economies since the Industrial Revolution and seek something more circular, an enquiry into what mending means has never been more urg...