Anderson Anderson Architecture

Dual Designers

Awards (partial list)

• Honor Award, Architectural Record Magazine and Tulane University “High Density on the High Ground” Competition (2006)
• Design Merit Award, American Institute of Architects (AIA) California Council, for Orchard House, Sebastopol, California (2006)
• Faculty Design Honor Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and Honor Award, AIA San Francisco Awards for Excellence in Architecture, for Chameleon House, Northport, Michigan (2006)
• Honor Award, Progressive Architecture, for Arboretum of the Cascades, Preston, Washington (2006)
• Honor Award, Progressive Architecture (2006) and Design Award, Boston Society of Architects (2005), for Wurster Workshop at University of California, Berkeley School of Architecture

Publications

• Prefab Prototypes: Site-Specific Design for Off-Site Fabrication (2006)
• Anderson Anderson; Architecture and Construction (2001)

Featured in:

• The Perfect $100,000 House: A Trip Across America and Back in Pursuit of a Place to Call Home, by Karrie Jacobs and Gary Panter (2006);
• Cliffhangers and Hillside Homes, by Ashley Rooney. (2006);
• High Fit Home, by Joan Vos MacDonald (2005);
• 1000 Architects, by Robyn Beaver (2004);
• Prefab Modern, by Jill Herbers (2004); 
• and Prefab, by Allison Arieff and Bryan Burkhart (2003).

Q&A

What started you on the path toward sustainability?

We started our firm as a design/build construction company in 1984. Most of our early projects were on wooded, undeveloped sites in the Pacific Northwest, often on waterfront and mountain sites. When you begin a project by taking down trees and disturbing the earth, you develop a great respect for nature and the ecosystems you are impacting. In a certain sense, any construction begins as a destructive act, which places a high level of responsibility on the architects and builders to ensure that the end product of their intervention on the site creates a positive impact.

More of our work is now in cities and other previously developed sites, but the lesson is the same: Everything we build becomes a part of the environment. Cities become a part of nature, rather than something opposed to nature.

Who inspired you, or nurtured your talent?

We started our architecture careers on the construction site as carpenters and builders, so some of the strongest influences in our work probably come from the people we worked with to make things—bulldozer operators, truck drivers, steel erectors, mill operators, hardware salespeople, millwork fabricators, and lumber suppliers all gave us the essential underpinnings of our education. Our formal education was at Pacific Lutheran University, where we got our undergraduate education in literature, history, and art, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where we both received Master of Architecture degrees. We consider these three sources of education to be equally important to our development as architects.

What gives you hope in your industry?

There are tremendous resources of knowledge, ingenuity, and design talent in the people of the construction and fabrication industries that are underutilized by those in the more narrowly defined fields of design and planning. For many years, there seemed to be an intentional distancing of designers from makers in architectural education, professional organizations, and the legal structures that govern our profession. In the last few years, however, this has been changing, and there is a strongly increased recognition of the interconnected relationships of good design, the process of making, and the responsibilities of the designer to the world. This is true not only for architects and engineers, but throughout the chain of manufacturing and project development industries, who are realizing that their work must be more responsive to the ethical, social, and environmental landscape in which we work.

What worries you most in this area?

Overly narrow definitions of green practices or sustainable design, which can be just as damaging to the world as ignorance of these priorities. We must not use these terms lightly, and we must not use them as marketing labels alone. True sustainable design requires a very broad understanding of the interconnected complexity of the world, and we believe that one should be suspicious of simple answers to complex questions. For example, a “clean fuel” is not sustainable if it comes from dirty sources, and “recycled content” does not redeem an otherwise wasteful product.

What is the role of technology in sustainable design?

The rapid advances in technology that we have enjoyed in the last half-century allow everything to happen more quickly and effectively. This includes very negative impacts on social and environmental contexts that resulted from rapid industrialization without broad analysis or understanding of the costs. The positive impact of technology in sustainable design can be seen in the much-expanded ability to study and model the impacts of planning prior to its implementation. As designers, we have unprecedented access to information and processes of realization that allow increasingly comprehensive and intelligent responses to the needs of the world. These tools exist and are getting better every day. We need to learn how to use them.

What advice do you give to young people who want to make a difference in the world?

Get a broad education. This includes not only formal programs of study, but also self-directed explorations to fill in the gaps and things that can be learned only through experience. Keep your eyes open. Ask questions. Use your own critical judgment in evaluating the answers. Travel. Build something.