Kenn Busch 
Before Henry Ford, there were furniture makers moving through an early precursor to the assembly line. See how one famous furniture designer was almost forgotten to history.
English colonists were constrained in every building supply but wood. And America’s history with it has shaped our housing style, choice, and aesthetics for 250 years.
Four Material Leaders sit down for short interviews about the work they and their colleagues are doing across the industry.
In this episode of Material IQ, host Kenn Busch sits down with Alicia Powell of Columbia Forest Products to unpack the first domestically manufactured, third-party certified Class A fire retardant veneer core plywood.
Formica’s brand historian Renee Hightree Darrington joins the Material IQ Podcast for a rare deep dive into the company’s century-long design legacy — from its 1913 origins as an electrical insulator to the birth of mid-century modern icons like the “Skylark” boomerang pattern and Raymond Loewy’s postwar pastels. Along the way: the real story behind matte finishes, Color-Core, and how paper (not plastic) built an industry — plus an unexpected sustainability angle tying Formica’s history to forest health and carbon storage.
Milan Design Week 2026 is set to be the world’s leading design event. The entire city becomes a global stage for over thousands of events, products, exhibitors, and more.
In this episode of Material IQ, host Kenn Busch sits down with Chris Tutuska of Funder (Genesis Products) and Meghan Bell of Garnica to explore a breakthrough in decorative panel technology: thermally fused laminate (TFL) pressed on a sustainably engineered poplar plywood core. The conversation dives into how Garnica’s meticulously cultivated, plantation-grown plywood—virtually void-free and carbon-neutral—solves historic challenges in using plywood in TFL applications while delivering superior strength, lighter weight, greater thickness accuracy, and improved tool life.
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