Sander Architects

Profile of Sander Architects

Business Name

Sander Architects

Location

United States

Services

Architecture

Website

http://www.sander-architects.com

[L-R] Whitney Sander and Catherine Holliss.

Principal(s)

Whitney Sander (born 1957)

• M.Arch, Yale, 1985

Catherine Holliss (born 1963)

• MFA, UCLA, 1999

Philosophy

Sander Architects seeks to find a balance between poetry and pragmatics. Starting with essential elements: environment, program, site restrictions, we encourage forms to develop which satisfy these basic needs while embracing the possibility of the poetic. In this way, a house for an Orthopedic Surgeon becomes a covert study in anatomy: metaphorical skin and bones. The elements that make up an aerobics studio, its interior architecture and furniture, take on physical tendencies: tension, compression, torsion, sinew. The entry for a sculptor's house is a 'vessel' whose proportions are based on a large-scale clay jar produced by the owner. These strategies are covert, not obvious, and allow the built environment to resonate thematically with the program and the people who use it. It is a strategy of innuendo, not declaration, a struggle with nuance, an attempt at quiet fertility. If the work celebrates what it means to inhabit, in grander terms, the work is a celebration of man's rhythms and rituals.

Firm brief

Sander Architects is the international award-winning firm whose approach to contemporary residential design has been making waves in the architecture world. Their Hybrid House uses components of prefab technology to create homes that are custom designed for each client. Homes that are not only green but also very high design. This is a time of extraordinary change for practitioners in the design fields and Sander Architects is a young exciting firm determined to be at the forefront of green architecture.

Background

• Founded: 1987
• Offices: 1
• Design team: 6

Key projects

• Canal House, Venice, CA, USA 2001 - 2003, Single family house
• Residence for a Sculptor 3, Santa Rosa, CA, USA, 2001 - 2003, Single family house
• Delaware Residence "Tree House", Wilmington DE, USA, 2004 - 2006
• St. Kitts Biomedical Research Facility, St Kitts, West Indies, 2004 - 2008, Research Facility
• Orange Office, Venice, CA, USA 2005 - 2007 Office Building
• Djerassi Resident Artists' Program, Woodside, CA, USA, 2003 - 2008 Campus Sculpture Building
• Residence at the Butte, Terrebone, OR, USA, 2005 - 2007 Single Family house
• Residence for a Briard, Culver City, CA, USA 2005 - 2007 Single family house
• Jobs For a Future (Home Boy Industries), East Los Angeles, USA 2002 - 2003, Offices
• Fallen Leaf Condominiums, West Hollywood, USA 2004 - 2008, Multi-family Residence

Key publications

• Ecological Houses, TeNeues, upcoming - Spring 2008
• Venice, CA: Art and Architecture in a Maverick Community, Michael Web and Juergen Nogai, 2007
• Home: New Directions in World Architecture, Tracy Tucker, ed., 2006
• Best Designed Modular Houses, Conran, Octopus Publishing, 2006
• Great Houses on a Budget, James Grayson Trulove, ed., 2006
• Design & build Your Dream Home, Elizabeth Wilhide, ed., 2005
• 25 Houses Under 1500 Square Feet, James Grayson Trulove, ed., 2005
• Another 100 of the World's Best Houses, Images Publishing, 2004
• Brave New Houses: Adventures in Southern California Living, Micheal Webb, ed., 2004
• A House for my Mother, Beth Dunlop, ed., Princeton University Press, 1999

Key awards

• 2005, House of the Month, Architectural Record, USA
• 2004, Home of the Year, Architecture Magazine, USA
• 2004, DEDALO MINOSSE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE for Commissioning A Building,, ALA-Assoarchitetti, Vicenza, Italy
• 2003, DEDALO MINOSSE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE for Commissioning A Building,, ALA-Assoarchitetti, Vicenza, Italy
• 2003, Award of Merit, AIA, Los Angeles, USA
• 1996, Award of Merit, AIA, San Francisco, USA