A different kind of bakery – Baking Lab Amsterdam

How do people perceive Baking Lab? According to culture reporter, photographer and journalist @_kanuchova , who writes for @the.amsterdammer we can look at Baking Lab as a “third place”. This sociological term (Ray Oldenburg) refers to a place outside your home (1st) and your work or school (2nd). A public space, an experimental place, where you can go frequently to relax, drink a coffee, participate in a bread-making workshop, or simply read a book from one of the shelves.

The Amsterdammer is an independent student-run newspaper that covers stories from the city of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.

What makes a place undefinable? I was thinking about this question while interviewing baker Ferdinand Doumic about Baking Lab, a bakery and café on Linnaeusstraat. For me, undefinability is when associations and memories are stronger than the original purpose of a place.

“I would say it’s a café, of course. It’s a bakery, it’s an educational place, it’s also a social place,” Ferdinand says. “So, there’s all those things that connect to each other. That makes it so hard to define. […] And I think also, maybe something interesting about the Baking Lab is that because it is so diverse, it will bring people who tend not to be so much specialists, but more generalists who have diverse interests.”

After trying to describe Baking Lab himself, Ferdinand asked me,……….. continue reading

Photo impression Baking Lab Amsterdam by Tamara Kanuchova November 2023