ONE DEDICATED VISION

sonderegger + associé does not limit itself to a specific style or look but rather creates custom projects for each client.The priority is to focus on the creation of the essence in each project.

We support our clients and partners from initial strategy through implementation and management.

PHILOSOPHY
Our architectural approach is more an open working process rather than a strict theoretical or stylistic framework we would conform to. Architecture is more ‘why and how’ than ‘what’. Our ability is to address projects at different scales: we design buildings, interiors or furniture. These simple facts have made us develop a method based on understanding the context, analysing the existing conditions, defining a strategy and inventing a project. The idea becomes central to our work process; it is nurtured and developed into the design at every stage and scale. This allows us to both give a strong direction – or meaning – to our designs and develop a unique formal language to each project. 
Initiating a project is about questioning. It is about defining what are the conditions that surround the project and about setting, with our client, the ambitions of the project. We challenge both conditions and ambitions at the early stages of our work in order to avoid preconceptions and give us a deeper understanding of what we are trying to achieve. Challenging the conditions will give us context. Challenging the ambitions will give us user experience.

USER EXPERIENCE
How a building or a designed environment is experienced is the essence of our work. We want people to be at the centre of our designs. It is about the reality of function, but also about how you move through a space, about what you see and what you feel. We organise views, functions, materials to create the strongest possible experience of the site, the surrounding spaces and the building. This is enriched, often, through the use of local cultural elements that are reinterpreted into our architecture. A strong identity with a sense of place or belonging will make the experience unique.

CONTEXT
The context is pivotal to our work as it forms the foundations of all our thinking. It is the breeding ground where we look and search for the ‘right idea’. We give the word its widest possible meaning. It is about the physical site we have to work with, about its conditions and how it relates its direct environment. But this information is only part of what we look for, as we take in many other elements into account: climate, culture, programme, regulations, financials, construction techniques, local know how, materials, tradition… An analysis of the different elements will make a singular ‘context’ for each project. This is the ‘inherent intelligence’ of the site. For each project, this is used to give meaning to our choices and to guide our design strategy.

A METHOD RATHER THAN A STYLE
We view our design process as a method to get to the ‘right idea’ and project. This idea is never a pre-established stylistic statement; it evolves from our vision of the user experience and context, which then develops into the project. Once a clear vision is set for our project, we will develop a unique formal language for our Architecture, each time. And we will then work at every stage of the design not only to maintain it but also to enrich it.
We believe that architecture is about invention and content. It is about creating a unique design and about giving meaning through our own interpretation of context. Content and meaning are underlying in the architecture, and they are guides to our formal work, which is based on simple spaces, rhythm and proportions and through the use of simple materials.

INSIDE OUT
Nature and the direct environment around our project is of the utmost importance to us. Our architecture is always turned and opened to the outside spaces. It takes in the nature and views, and extends out. It is never a closed object and engages itself in a strong inside outside relationship. 
In many of our projects, masterplanning and landscape are essential to our architecture, and the way we plan our buildings is very much influenced by outside spaces. Opening views or screening them, extending spaces out, creating patio gardens or courtyards, pools and reflecting ponds are all part of our architectural language which, again, contribute to the user experience.

Laurent Sonderegger
architecte ets epfl sia

Anna Sonderegger
architecte epfl sia