Hasta La Ideas

Competition: we’re giving readers the chance to win one of five copies of Todd Saunders’ new monograph of architecture, including artists’ studios on a remote island and a lookout point over a Nordic fjord.

Todd Saunders: Architecture in Northern Landscapes contains projects in Canada, Finland and Norway by Saunders Architecture, based in Bergen.

It includes the Aurland Lookout (above) on the Aurlandsfjellet Tourist Route, which was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2006, and the Fogo Island series of artists’ studios that we’ve previously run as a slideshow feature.

The hardcover book is written by Ellie Stathaki and Jonathan Bell, designed by Swedish graphic designer Henrik Nygren and includes photographs by Bent René Synnevåg.

It also has a preface by Domus editor Joseph Grima and is available to buy here.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture was at the top of the Dezeen homepage when it was used in Apple’s iPhone 5 and MacBook Pro launches last year.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Todd Saunders” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 12 March 2013. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

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books to be won appeared first on Dezeen.

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).

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)
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

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

Photography: Bent René Synnevåg

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

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture

Tower Studio by Saunders Architecture

Long 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photography is by Bent René Synnevåg.

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?”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.