The Activists’ Bakery

Providence, RI, Fall 2012 Instructor: Daniel Hewett In this project, I was assigned a “virtual“ client, who is a local artist, activist, and expert on the history and art of bread-making. He learned to make bread 25 years ago in his grandmother’s Brooklyn bakery and has worked in small and large bakeries as well as famous restaurants in the US, France, and Italy. His passion is starting what he calls “TRANSITES”, dynamic, conceptually driven gathering places that serve as transformative catalysts in the community. This project is to provide young Providence artists and activists a place where they can eat, meet, and work. The client wants to somehow use bread and the making of bread as the a concept or organizing idea based on the personal relationship we developed with the process and experience of bread-making. He believes that bread is a form architecture and that many related lessons are to be found in the stages of its making. He trusts that from this experience a conceptual idea or logic may arise; one that may be used to also inform the design of my project. My concept, which is derrived from folding technique applied to the dough of the bread-making process. When individuals contribute to the idea/ program, it gets stronger, just like each fold applied to the dough makes the dough stiffer.