When do you know your head is out of the water ?
Chronology of the formation of BakeryGroup and their Light Volumes
Emmanuelle

When you read an article in a magazine or a newspaper, it's often hard to imagine it other than a 'fait accompli', a finished, clearly articulated thought that knows why it's there and where it wants to go. Similarly, photographs always seem to legitimise their content: I see therefore it must be. Presented to us in their completed states, these ar1icles, or photographs, often hide the original intent, process and context that lead to their making. This can be said of many things that surround us. Who are the makers of the things we touch, buildings we live in, bridges we cross? What stories do they hold?

The BakeryGroup was formed in 1999 by Anissa Szeto, Marcin Padlewski, and Michel DuVernet with the intent to develop designs for projects/ideas related to architecture that had been in the works for a while. One of the first investigation was 'POD', a design for a shelter (still in development) after which came different small contracts that led to the discovery of polypropylene. Polypropylene became fascinating for its potential as a , translucent light-weight shell structure. They tried it as surface, wall, and finally a structure for tense fabric that became a series of light fixtures. The combination of the stretched fabric(tensile member) and the curved polypropylene (semi-rigid surface) became the subject of intensive investigations, of which the ability to form a double curved surface (hyperbolic paraboloid) and the layered translucency were explored in depth.These experiments crystallised in the development of Light Volumes, a collection of light fixtures, wall mounted to free-standing, that become an abstract volume of diffused light that appears suspended in space thanks to very minimal detailing. After a year of intensive fabrication and product development, they sold their production rights in January 2001 to Prandina, a lighting manufacturer in Milan.

From an innate desire to make that which challenges our surrounding/lived space, came the unknown of the outside/how-to deal-world, and what it demanded in exchange. "It was like walking in the dark", not a clear end goal in mind, but always something in the hand, persistent questioning of the work and materials, and times of doubts whether it was worth the effort. Fortunately, their close friendship provided them with the environment and the ability to deal with that challenge, and when one person was down and had lost enthusiasm, the other two could pick up. That's not in the photographs. The chronology that follows hopefully shows some of those unseen string of events, thoughts, and projects that contributed to the learning, perseverance, and consciousness that led the BakeryGroup to take the shape they aspired it to.