Architect of The Week #1

Todd Saunders of Saunders Architecture

My friend Landee has been in Norway for the last 2 weeks and has been sending me pictures of how beautiful the country is. Not only is the country beautiful, so is some of the architecture. Norway is such a beautiful place!!! So this week I thought I would talk about a Norweigan architect..Todd Saunders.


From Saunders Architecture website:

"Saunders Architecture is a firm owned by Canadian Todd Saunders who has lived and worked in Norway since 1997. Saunders has worked in countries such Austria, Germany, Russia, and Latvia. Currently, the office is working mostly in Norway, and has projects in England, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada. The office consists of four architects from Canada, Germany and USA. The work combines a Nordic design sensibility with environmental concerns. Each project is unique and inventive. Every project has a new process. This strategy derives from an ability to be inventive and to constantly question the purpose of our buildings. Depending upon the setting and the program, each building suggest a critique of urban planning, provides solutions to contemporary housing solutions, or creates sympathetic yet robust new forms for residential housing that are additions to the dramatic landscape in which they sit. Todd Saunders received a Bachelor of Environmental Planning & Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada. While doing his bachelors, Saunders spent a semester as an exchange student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Architecture. He subsequently received a Masters of Architecture from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Saunders has been a part-time teacher at the Bergen Architecture School, since 2001. He has lectured at various architecture and design schools in Scandinavia, Canada, and England. In 2005 Saunders taught a one-week design/build course in the International Architecture Program in Oulu, Finland. In the spring of 2006, Saunders was a visiting professor at The University of Québec in Montreal, Canada. In the fall of 2005 Saunders was a part of an exhibition entitled 20 under 40: Young Norwegian Architecture hosted by the Norwegian Architecture Association beginning in the fall of 2004. Previous awards include a 3-year artist scholarship from the Norwegian Association of Artist, a business scholarship from the National Business and Development Apartment, and an environmental prize for a schoolyard designed and built together with parents and students. In October 2006, the Norwegian Association of Architects has nominated the lookout for the Mies van der Rohe Prize. The prize is granted every two years by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe. While studying architecture, Saunders received an American Institute of Architects Research and Special Studies Scholarship and a Canadian-Scandinavian Travel Scholarship. Saunders traveled for 9 months from Paris to China doing research on Ecological Housing. While on this trip he decided that Bergen, Norway could be a great place to live and work."