Light behind the grid was an exercise on translating the culture of a prison’s microcosm to a line of lighting fixtures.

It started with lighting fixtures using residual MDF boards from a local furniture company. Every month there was about a cubic meter of small MDF boards leaving the automated sawing machines without a purpose. These boards were too small, and therefore too expensive, to be measured and reinserted into the production line. We did not have permission, or the space, to bring inside the prison the machinery needed to manipulate the boards. Hence we created a center stacking skeleton system that was cut on a partner’s CNC router outside the prison. We then assembled the system without the need of screws or machinery.

*photos from the NGO’s quarters, inside the prison