Fogo Island Furniture by Ineke Hans

Dutch designer Ineke Hans plays on traditional Canadian furniture as part of these collections for remote artists’ community Fogo Island (+ slideshow).

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

Hans has created two collections of wooden furniture for the recently built Fogo Island Inn and a seating range for public use on the island, built by local craftsmen.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

The designer’s outdoor furniture consists of chunky wooden planks painted bright red and sits on the hotel’s roof terrace.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

Seating for the interior of the inn includes a traditional rocker with tapered legs and a slanted recliner called Get Your Feet Up.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

“From the start I thought, whatever I do has to fit the island, its history and its people,” Hans told Dezeen. “The way things used to be made there in the old days was playful and practical at the same time.”

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

The wooden furniture is painted in colours taken from existing Fogo Island interiors and textiles. “I wanted to design furniture that the makers would also feel proud of and connected to,” said the designer.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

Hans has also designed public seating scattered around the island, referencing local wooden structures and fencing to form six benches connected together in a zig-zag shape.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

Fogo Island Inn was designed by Norwegian architecture studio Saunders Architecture as a hotel and gallery on stilts.

Fogo Island furniture by Ineke Hans

The picturesque island is dotted with artists’ studios and cabins as part of an ongoing arts residency programme being established in Newfoundland – see a slideshow of them here.

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by Ineke Hans
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Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture

Saunders Architecture of Norway has added a hotel and gallery on stilts to the picturesque Fogo Island in Canada, where the firm has already created a series of rural cabins for artists (+ slideshow).

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

Named Fogo Island Inn, the building is the latest edition to an ongoing arts residency programme being established on the Newfoundland isle. So far Saunders Architecture has completed four of six live-in artists’ studios and, most recently, this 29-room hotel and cultural attraction.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The building has an X-shaped plan comprising one two-storey volume and an intersecting four-storey block, both clad in timber.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

Dozens of narrow columns support the protruding ends of the building, ensuring it has a minimal impact on the rocks, lichens and plants that make up the coastal landscape.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

“The inn is completely tied to Fogo Island and traditional Newfoundland outport architecture by the way it sits in the landscape and the materials used throughout,” said the architects.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

“The knowledge and skill of local carpenters and craftspeople were essential for establishing the details used throughout the buildings,” they added.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The smallest side of the building contains a series of public facilities, including an art gallery, a library dedicated to local history, a cinema, a gym and various meeting and dining areas.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

The four-storey structure runs parallel to the seafront and accommodates the 29 guest suites. The majority of these come with their own wood-burning stoves, plus three of the rooms feature a mezzanine floor.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

A deck on the roof of the building offers saunas and outdoor hot tubs, while laundry facilities and storage areas occupy an extra building nearby.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

Here’s a project description from Saunders Architecture:


Fogo Island Inn

The Fogo Island Inn is a public building for Fogo Island with 29 rooms for guests. The building, located between the communities of Joe Batt’s Arm and Barr’d Islands on the Back Western Shore, is an X in plan. The two storey west to east volume contains public spaces while the four storey south-west to north-east volume contains the remaining public spaces and all the guest rooms and is parallel to the coast.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The public areas on the first floor include an art gallery curated by Fogo Island Arts, a dining room, bar and lounge, and a library specialising in the local region. The former president of Memorial University Newfoundland, Dr. Leslie Harris, donated the foundational material for the library. The second floor includes a gym, meeting rooms, and cinema. The cinema is a partnership with the National Film Board of Canada. The fourth floor roof deck has saunas and outdoor hot tubs with views of the North Atlantic.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

All guest rooms face the ocean with the bed placed directly in front of the view of the Little Fogo Islands in the distance with the North Atlantic beyond. The room sizes vary from 350 square feet to 1,100 square feet. Guest rooms are located on all four floors with the 21 rooms on the third and fourth floors all having a wood-burning stove. The ceilings of the rooms on the fourth floor follow the slope of the roof and the three rooms on the east are double volume spaces with the sleeping area located on the mezzanine.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

An outbuilding to the south of the inn contains service functions like laundry, storage, wood fired boilers, backup generator, and solar thermal panels on the roof. The required number and orientation of the solar panels dictated the form of the outbuilding and the angle of the roof. The space between these two buildings creates an entry court and frames the main entrance. Vehicle parking is off site.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The inn is a fully contemporary structure, built using modern methods. Ecological and self-sustaining systems were subtly integrated from the beginning of the project, incorporating the latest technologies to reduce and conserve energy and water usage. It is a highly insulated steel frame building and the windows have the equivalent rating of triple pane glazing. Rainwater from the roof is collected into two cisterns in the basement, filtered, and used for the toilet water and also to be used as a heat sink. The solar thermal on the outbuilding panels provide hot water for in-floor heating, laundry and kitchen equipment.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The inn is completely tied to Fogo Island and traditional Newfoundland outport architecture by the way it sits in the landscape and the materials used throughout. The building hits the land directly without impacting the adjacent rocks, lichens and berries. The exterior cladding is locally sourced and milled Black Spruce. The knowledge and skill of local carpenters and craftspeople were essential for establishing the details used throughout the buildings.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Alex Fradkin

The interiors of the inn continue the incorporation of the traditional with the contemporary. The materials, history, craft techniques and aesthetic of outport Newfoundland are the starting point for what has become a long term and ongoing collaborative project between contemporary designers from North America and Europe and the men and women makers and builders of Fogo Island and Change Islands. The furniture, textiles and interior surfaces throughout the inn are reminders that you are on the Back Western Shore of Fogo Island.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture
Photograph by Iwan Baan

The Fogo Island Inn is owned by the Shorefast Foundation, a Canadian charitable organisation established by Zita Cobb and her brothers with the aim of fostering cultural and economic resilience for this traditional fishing community. The project has been a collaborative effort now lasting over 7 years starting with the relationship between the Fogo Island based Shorefast Foundation and the Newfoundland born and Norway based architect Todd Saunders. This atypical collaboration continues to be a happy adventure and is a kind of miracle considering the typical client-architect relationship on a project of this scale and duration.

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Saunders Architecture
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Slideshow feature: Fogo Island Artists’ Studios by Saunders Architecture

Slideshow feature: this week we’ve published three more of the wooden cabin-like artists’ studios that Saunders Architecture of Norway have designed for the picturesque Fogo Island in Canada, so here’s a slideshow rounding up all four completed so far (photographs by Bent René Synnevåg).

See the detailed stories »

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Slideshow: we’ve already featured three artists’ studios from Canadian Fogo Island, making this wooden hut on legs the fourth (photographs by Bent René Synnevåg).

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Designed by Saunders Architecture of Norway, Bridge Studio has an angled body that projects out towards a lake.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

A wooden bridge connects the square glazed entrance with the lichen-coated granite of the surrounding terrain.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

The base of the building slopes at the same angle as the roof to create two tiered floors inside.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

On the upper tier is a built-in desk that faces a large window, while a wood-burning stove and small kitchen occupy the lower level.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

A solar panel mounted further up the hill generates all the electricity the studio needs.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

So far four of the six planned studios are complete. You can see the other three here.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Here’s some more information from Saunders Architecture:


Bridge Studio Deep Bay, Fogo , Newfoundland

As with all the Fogo Island Arts Corporation’s Art Studios, Bridge Studio is paired with a traditional Newfoundland Saltbox house, this one is located in Deep Bay, the smallest community on Fogo Island with a population of one hundred and fifty people. The Bridge Studio’s Saltbox House is a freshly painted, in sharp contrast to its dilapidated condition, only a few months previous. A local carpenter who is putting the finishing touches on the house, points out the project’s double-hung, wood frame windows that were crafted at the local woodshop, initiated and operated by the Shorefast Foundation.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

The trek to the Bridge Studio from the Deep Bay House looks short on a map. Of course, on the ground is a different matter as the topography enters the equation and one navigates the rocky landscape of the lichen clad granite outcroppings on this sublimely beautiful stretch of coastline leading to Bridge Studio, an art studio, completed in June 2011 by the Fogo Island Arts Corporation.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Along the winding path one encounters short runs of wooden stairs and ramps, installed in critical locations to help visitors ascend some of the trail’s steeper inclines. After walking about twenty minutes, the first sign of the Bridge Studio is an isolated solar panel (and battery enclosure) mounted on a hilltop to take full advantage of the Island’s limited sunshine. These solar cells generate electrical power for the near-by Bridge Studio, dramatically located on a steep hillside overlooking the calm waters of an inland pond.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

The first impression of the Bridge Studio is its abstract quality. From the side elevation, it ap- pears as a windowless wood-clad parallelogram, hovering above the landscape, propped up by four piers and connected by a sixteen-foot bridge to the adjacent hillside. As one approaches the three hundred and twenty square foot studio, it becomes more transparent – with a generous glass entry and a large square window at the other end of the room.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Viewed from the glass entry, the ceiling from the entry slopes up to the top of a large picture window at the opposite end of the room. The picture window’s sill is flush with a built-in desk, the perfect place to write and contemplate the view. To mirror the sloped ceiling, the floor of the Bridge Studio is composed of two levels. The lower area, that accommodates an entry area, long counter and wood-burning stove is divided from the upper area by a short run of stairs. From the entry, the perspectival aspect of the project is augmented by alignment of the four-inch painted spruce planks that line the ceiling, the walls and floor.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

From the aerial photographs, the isolation of the Bridge Studio becomes apparent, a highly restrained, slightly distorted, elongated box sited on an outcropping of rock, overlooking a sheltered pond of water. The form, although resolutely contemporary recalls a traditional Newfoundland fishing stage (in the local nomenclature) a wooden vernacular building, typical of traditional buildings associated with the cod fishery in the province. It was in these fishing stages, equipped with cutting tables, that fishermen would clean and salt the once plentiful codfish that was distributed worldwide.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

It is an interesting twist that the Bridge Studio echoes this vernacular form, once a typical sighting in any Newfoundland outport. The fishing stage and the cod give way to the studio and the production of art. The Fogo Island Arts Corporation creating an opportunity for a roster of accomplished artists to generate works of art that in turn enrich the international scene of contemporary art.

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Client: Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation
Architect: Saunders Architecture – Bergen, Norway
Team architects: Attila Béres, Ryan Jørgensen, Ken Beheim-Schwarzbach, Nick Herder, Rubén Sáez López, Soizic Bernard, Colin Hertberger, Christina Mayer, Olivier Bourgeois, Pål Storsveen, Zdenek Dohnalek
Associate Architect: Sheppard Case Architects Inc. (Long Studio)

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Structural Engineer: DBA Associates (Long Studio)
Services Engineer: Core Engineering (Long Studio)
Builder: Shorefast Foundation
Construction Supervisor: Dave Torraville
Builders: Arthur Payne, Rodney Osmond, Edward Waterman, Germain Adams, John Penton, Jack Lynch, Roy Jacobs, Clarke Reddick
Construction photos: Nick Herder
Text: Michael Carroll

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Size: 130 m2
Location: Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada
Status: Finished 2011

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture

Photography: Bent René Synnevåg

Bridge Studio by Saunders Architecture


Here are the other three Fogo Island studios we’ve featured:

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Long Studio by Saunders Architecture

Long Studio by Saunders Architecture

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Slideshow: here’s another of the six artists’ studios that Norwegian firm Saunders Architecture designed for an island off the coast of Canada, this time a white angular cabin.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Located on the eastern coast of Fogo Island, Squish Studio has painted wooden walls that extend beyond the limits of the interior to create sheltered triangular terraces at both ends.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

These provide both a south-facing entrance foyer and a north-facing deck with a view out across the ocean.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

The ground beneath the studio is so rocky and uneven that the southern end of the building is raised up by just over six metres to maintain a level floor surface inside.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Like the other completed studios, Squish Studio provides all its own heating and power, plus facilities to treat its own waste.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

This is the third of the studios that we’ve featured on Dezeen. See the first two here.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Photography is by Bent René Synnevåg.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Here’s some more details about the project:


Squish Studio

Tilting, Fogo Island, Newfoundland

The Squish Studio is located just outside the small town of Tilting on the eastern end of Fogo Island. First settled in the mid-18th century, Tilting is known for its strong Irish culture and its recent designation by Parks Canada as a National Cultural Landscape District of Canada.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

The Squish Studio’s white angular form, sited on a rocky strip of coastline, that could rival Italy’s western coast, offers sharp contrast to the traditional vernacular architecture of the nearby picturesque community of Tilting. As its architect, Todd Saunders, has commented on the studio’s siting, “…it is out of sight, but close.”

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

The approach to the front entry of the studio is dramatic, as the most southern end of the studio rises twenty feet above the ground, in sharp contrast to its most northern tip that measures only half that dimension. The compact, trapezium-shaped plan of the studio is augmented by the extension of the east and west exterior walls to create a sheltered, triangulated south entry deck and a north terrace that overlooks the ocean. From a distant view, the streamlined form of the Squish Studio becomes apparent with its high back and low (squished) front designed, in part, to deflect the winds from the stormy North Atlantic.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

As we approach the entry of the studio we are greeted by Silke Otto-Knapp, a London-based artist and the first occupant of the Squish Studio. As Silke brings us through the studio, the spatial compression of the tall and narrow entry area gives way to the horizontal expanse of the main room. The downward angled roof leads the eye to the full height oblong glass window focused on a splendid view of Round Head.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

The vertical white planks that line the interior walls are interrupted by a playful series of narrow windows integrated with an expanse of built-in cabinetry. Silke’s quick figurative studies on paper are posted on the walls, as well as, several large scale canvasses. She is delighted to work in such an architecturally inspired space, especially when it is stormy and she can experience the immediacy of the sea and, on some days, observe the dramatic shift of the island’s weather.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

The Squish Studio, like most of its other counterparts, is equipped with a compost toilet, a small kitchenette and wood-burning stove. Power is supplied by stand-alone solar panels, mounted on an adjacent hilltop. Both the interior and exterior of the studio, including the roof, is clad with spruce planks that are painted white.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

At night, the studio, illuminated by the soft glow of its solar-powered lighting, appears as a lantern or a lighthouse placed strategically on a rocky cliff to over- look the North Atlantic. In its isolation, one can also imagine a sole occupant, vulnerable but protected from the elements – inspired to work late into the night, occasionally distracted by the crash of the waves, or perhaps, fully immersed in the work at hand, the first glimpse of the sunrise through the Squish Studio’s slot windows that face the north-eastern horizon.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Client: Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation
Architect: Saunders Architecture – Bergen, Norway
Team architects: Attila Béres, Ryan Jørgensen, Ken Beheim-Schwarzbach, Nick Herder, Rubén Sáez López, Soizic Bernard, Colin Hertberger, Christina Mayer, Olivier Bourgeois, Pål Storsveen, Zdenek Dohnalek
Associate Architect: Sheppard Case Architects Inc. (Long Studio)
Structural Engineer: DBA Associates (Long Studio)
Services Engineer: Core Engineering (Long Studio)

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Builder: Shorefast Foundation
Construction Supervisor: Dave Torraville
Builders: Arthur Payne, Rodney Osmond, Edward Waterman, Germain Adams, John Penton, Jack Lynch, Roy Jacobs, Clarke Reddick
Construction photos: Nick Herder
Text: Michael Carroll

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Size: 130 m2
Location: Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada
Status: Finished 2011


Here are the other two Fogo Island studios we’ve featured:

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Long Studio by Saunders Architecture

Long Studio by Saunders Architecture

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Slideshow: this small twisted tower is one of the six artists’ studios that Saunders Architecture of Norway are constructing on Fogo Island off the coast of Canada.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

The three-storey Tower Studio is the fourth and most recent folly to be completed and like the others it has a painted wooden exterior and a whitewashed interior.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

The floors of the building incrementally rotate, so that a terrace on the roof is turned away from the ground floor by 180 degrees.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

These twists also create a faceted recess at the entrance, which unlike the other exterior walls is lined with white-painted spruce.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

A large triangular skylight allows light to flood into the studio on the middle floor, while a mezzanine overlooks it from above.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

On the ground floor is a small kitchen powered by photovoltaics panels, a wood-burning fireplace and a composting toilet.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

A narrow boardwalk leads out from the building’s entrance to the main road, creating access for nothing larger than a wheelbarrow or bicycle.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

We published the first of the studios when it was completed this time last year. See images of it here.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Photography is by Bent René Synnevåg.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Here’s a longer description from Saunders Architecture:


Tower Studio

Shoal Bay, Fogo Island, Newfoundland

The Tower Studio is dramatically situated on a stretch of rocky coastline in Shoal Bay, Fogo Island, Newfoundland. The studio’s sculptural silhouette leans both forward and backward as it twists upward. For the average visitor to the island, this windowless black tower, more often than not, provokes a quizzical response and the enviable question, “What’s that?”

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

For the locals, they know that this structure is a project of the Fogo Island Arts Corporation – an art studio opened in June 2011. The Tower Studio’s official opening was one of the most festive and included: a roaring bonfire, flares dramatically shot from its rooftop terrace and the recorded sounds of local whales as a background score.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Perched on a rocky stretch of shoreline, there are no roads to the Tower Studio, it can only be reached by hiking along the shore from the adjacent community or walking on a narrow wooden boardwalk consisting of weathered planks that hover just slightly above a bog that features an abundance of cloudberries, known locally as bakeapples.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

From a distance the wooden boardwalk reads like a tether strap, linking the stranded Tower Studio to the lifeline of a busy stretch of road. The boardwalk, a mere twelve inches wide, is a vital component to the story of the Tower Studio, it provided an even track for wheel barrows to bring building supplies to the construction site without disturbing the delicate ecosystem of the Newfoundland bog and the lichens that grow on outcroppings of rock.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

The boardwalk is a testimony to the holistic thinking that is part of the Shorefast Foundation mindset that connects the dots of economic, cultural and ecological sustainability at both the macro and the micro level. Now that its purpose has past, the boardwalk will soon disappear in order to minimize the impact on the surrounding landscape of the Tower Studio’s construction.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

As one approaches the studio, its south-facing entry area is angled back thirty degrees. Overhead a triangulated section of wall leans forward to shelter the double glass doors below. Both the soffit and the angled entryway, clad in horizontal boards of spruce are stained white in sharp contrast to remainder of the building’s windowless exterior of vertical plank siding painted slate black.

The Tower Studio is comprised of three levels with an overall height of thirty-two feet. Its entry area is equipped with a kitchenette, a compost toilet and wood- burning fireplace. Its second level is a studio, day lit by a generous skylight that faces northward. A mezzanine overhead, juts into the double height volume of the studio. Aside from the geometric complexity of the space, the second feature that adds to a sense of disorientation is the elimination of architectural detail and the fact that all vertical, horizontal and inclined surfaces, clad in smooth plywood, are painted a brilliant white.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

The only relief from the stark interior is a sliver of the exterior visible through the studio’s sole skylight. A slightly angled wall opposite and parallel to the skylight provides the perfect viewing surface upon which a body can recline and enjoy the view. One can imagine the magical effect of resting against this surface during a moonlit evening with the audible roar of the North Atlantic and force of the wind against the exposed surface of the tower. From the studio level, a narrow ladder (also painted white) leads past the mezzanine level to the underside of a roof hatch. As one passes through the horizontal opening and stands on the rooftop deck, the view of the ocean and the rocky windswept terrain is spectacular. From the roster of studios recently completed, it is generally agreed that the building of the Tower Studio by the local crew of carpenters was one of the most challenging. Although the basic premise of the Tower’s geometry is a simple one – the plan rotates one hundred and eighty de- grees to the roof plan – the construction of the facetted form proved to be a little more complex. In order to figure out the framing diagram, a series of wooden models were constructed. Ultimately a large-scale model was fabricated to mini- mize any on-site confusion.

The story of the Tower Studio is not complete without referencing two structures that support it. The first one is a ‘standalone’ array of solar panels situated about fifty feet to the west of the studio’s main entrance. Because all the studios are located on isolated sites without access to the utilities of electricity, water and sewer, they are equipped with photovoltaic panels, compost toilets and water cisterns.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

The other structure necessary for the Tower Studio’s success is its ‘fraternal twin’ – a restored traditional house in the nearby village where the artist lives while he/she is not working in the studio. All the Fogo Island studios follow the same model in which the studio is paired with a Saltbox – a traditional Newfound- land house, where the artist abides when not fixated on his/her most recent art project. The restoration of the traditional Saltbox house and the new construction of the architecturally provocative studios has created an interesting dynamic that brings the local vernacular architecture face-to-face with the multi-faceted expressions of contemporary culture.

As the architect, Todd Saunders, has explained, the fact that the renovated houses were part of a vernacular way of building increased the level of architectural experimentation allotted to the studios. In contrast to the renovated houses, located in the middle of the villages, the studios are situated about a fifteen-min- ute walk on the villages’ periphery. The artists experience both the warm hospitality of their neighbours, as well as, the cool refuge of their studios. Because the studios are outside the local villages, their architectural character is both seemingly familiar and uncannily ‘strange’. In some sense the studios ‘fit in’, but more importantly they stand out.

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

At times, the stark abstract forms of the studios painted black and/or white seem to disappear into the foggy weather, typical on Fogo Island. Disappearance may be an interesting addition to the lexicon of Saunders’s architectural production that focuses on playful geometries that generate dynamic forms that are strangely familiar. This series of architectural projects on Fogo Island does encompass the vernacular within the production of the new. More importantly, it forms a contemporary sensibility that is vital to reframe, re-situate and rejuvenate any traditional culture, in order for it to meet the opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century – head on.