Architecture in Northern Landscapes

277 Pages·2012·46.901 MB·English

by  Todd Saunders

Todd Saunders
Architecture in Northern Landscapes
Edited and written by Ellie Stathaki and Jonathan Bell
Photography by Bent René Synnevåg
Preface by Joseph Grima
Birkhäuser
Basel

Todd
SaunderS
archiTecTure in
norThern LandScapeS

In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
From The Snow Man, Wallace Stevens, 1921.

Preface, 8
Introduction, 10
Fogo Island, 22
The Studios, 44
Long Studio, 46
Tower Studio, 64
Bridge Studio, 76
Squish Studio, 88
Drawings, 101
Construction Images, 111
The Collaborator — An Interview with Olaf Gipser, 118
The Modern House — Place, Pragmatism, and Cultural Memory, 124
The Process — An Interview with Zita Cobb, 128
Aurland Lookout, 134
Aurlandsvangen, 142
Fogo Island Inn, 146
Halvorsen Hansen Addition, 150
Hardanger Retreat, 154
Hytte Tyin, 160
Lund Gård Kindergarten, 164
Salt Spring Island House, 168
Solberg Tower and Park, 174
Stokke Forest Stair, 182
Summer House Alendal, 188
Summer House Sogn og Fjordane, 192
Summer House Åland, 196
Torngasok Cultural Center, 200
Villa Brussels, 204
Villa G, 208
Villa H, 214
Villa HC, 218
Villa Mohn, 222
Villa Moldbakken, 226
Villa Morild, 230
Villa Storingavika, 236
Villa Tyssøy, 244
Villa Vågen, 248
List of Projects, Biography, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, 253
Preface
In the frenzy of 21st-century production, it is easy to forget just how much architecture has
morphed over the last century. In this particular instance I do not mean in its formal codes;
or in the technology that dictates what is and isn’t possible structurally or climatically; or
even in terms of the legal codes that regulate environmental performance or impose min-
imum safety standards. I am referring to architecture as a profession: the quotidian modus
operandi of the architect. Architecture today is an urban-centric profession. It distinctly
favours large structures over small structures. Its ambition is to placelessness: ties to geo-
graphic specificities are eschewed. Its generative structures expand rapidly or die out. It is
as preoccupied with its own representation as with the spatial experience it generates. It
does not favour deviations from the pre-ordained path of growth or failure.
Over the past decade, the practice of Todd Saunders has consolidated itself as one of the
exceptions to this normative standard. It has thrived as one of the few practices preoccu-
pied with architecture’s relationship with the landscape, the countryside, a spatial category
considered at best unfashionable and at worst irrelevant to the contemporary condition. It
has explored vernacular materials and techniques and sampled them, adapted them, and
reproposed them in surprising and unexpected manners and contexts. It has worked on
projects with modest budgets, giving them all the dignity and value and identity of large
urban projects. It has limited its output to a handful of specific regions – mostly in remote
areas of Norway and Canada – coming to know and understand them intimately in the
process. It has been widely published, but has not become obsessed with the production
of images to the point of losing contact with the spatial experience that lies at the heart of
architectural production.
After ten years, the practice finds itself at a turning point. How does one operate a “techno-
logy transfer” and bring this experience and knowledge to the next level? Can these tech-
niques be applied in different, denser, more conflicted contexts, without corrupting their
innate purity? Could a new understanding of the city come not from within but from without,
from the countryside, from those spaces both society and the architectural profession have
turned their backs on? These are questions for the next ten years, perhaps. This monograph
chronicles the paths and processes that have shaped the studio’s first decade.
9 Joseph Grima