As Seen in Norway...Todd Saunders Studio Tour

With good reason, Todd Saunders is one of the most talked about young architects working in Scandanavia today. And as luck would have it, he lives in Bergen, where our architecture/design tour through Norway was ending. He invited us over for a studio tour and take a look at some of the new projects he's been working on, including some top secret sketches and models of Zita Cobb's Fogo Island project, which Saunders is a big part of (with help by some other very impressive names, along the way). We were sworn to secrecy with what we saw regarding that project, but we thought we'd take you on a quick tour and pull out a few choice bits of what Saunders had to say. Saunder's studio is in this non-descript house-turned-office space near the center of Bergen. Head up the stairs and there you'll find the architect at work in his small space with 4 employees (though one lives full-time in Budapest). There are models scattered throughout the office. Says Saunders, "You can turn off the computer and the renders disappear. Models are always around, so I walk by a project 10 times a day and can keep thinking about them." Here's a model of his Sarpsborg Lookout Tower and Park, which he's been working on for more than five years, but is finally set to open in August of this year, on the border between Norway and Sweden: On his perhaps his most piece of work, the National Tourist Routes Project's Aurland Lookout (which, along with co-architect Tommie Wilhelmsen, they were commissioned in their early-30s, to much surprise), he said he's enjoyed returning to it now that it's finished and "hearing 'holy shit!' in seven different languages." With the project, he said he and Wilhelmsen knew they couldn't compete with the sheer beauty of the landscape and were trying to go for that moment where you make a "umph" noise when your breath is robbed of you, both from fear and practically stepping into the scenery. Having seen it in person a few days before, we can attest to hearing that noise a few times. On why he continues to mostly work with wood in his projects, he says he likes it because it's what he knows. It's more malleable and forgiving and relates to the areas he works in, largely Scandinavia and Canada (where he's originally from). And that he works so well in those areas, he's turned down commissions in places like Dubai and China because those aren't the environments he knows. However, after having worked on the aforementioned Sarpsborg Lookout, which is concrete, he says he feels that as he gets more experienced and ages into the profession, he might be more ready to move into other materials. Finally. A great line his friend and regular cohort Tommie Wilhelmsen told him in their early days: "Every morning while you're brushing your teeth, think that today you're going to work like Steven Holl." A big thanks to Todd Saunders for inviting us over, as well as to Innovation Norway for inviting us along on a press trip throughout their country.

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As Seen in Norway...Todd Saunders Studio Tour

Steve Delahoyde

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Steve Delahoyde