Welcome! Thank you for
visiting the section of our site that shows our work with prefabricated construction
technology. There has been a lot of interest recently in experimental building
materials and systems, so I've tried to outline some of the important topics
here and give some details about our projects. If there is additional information
you would like, send me an email.
Peter Anderson
peter@andersonanderson.com
ANDERSON ANDERSON ARCHITECTURE
Here is some more background on who we are and what we do. Our firm works
from offices in Seattle and San Francisco, and we primarily are architects
working on projects designed for specific clients and sites. A lot of our
work has been on the West Coast, but we have done projects in many other parts
of the country as well, and have worked extensively in Japan. My brother,
Mark and I started our company as a construction firm in 1984, and we have
increasingly shifted the focus of our work to the design portion of the process,
partly as a result of our involvement in projects spread over a larger geographic
area. Our background in construction is very important to the way we design,
and we are very interested in developing and working with systems that allow
buildings to be built affordably but with high quality design. This interest,
and our work in designing buildings in Japan, have led to our involvement
with off-site fabrication techniques.
WHY AND WHEN DO WE
USE OFF-SITE FABRICATION TECHNIQUES?
We believe that
there are a lot of useful applications for prefabrication, panelization, and
other modularized construction systems that extend beyond simply cost savings,
although utilizing the efficiencies of off-site building is very important
to our design approach as well. We primarily are the designers of houses,
and have done quite a few projects that have been prefabricated to one degree
or another, for a variety of reasons. Usually these reasons are related to
specific design requirements that lend themselves to using offsite fabrication,
including sites with difficult access, or because it is difficult or expensive
to do a lot of on-site custom construction (in Japan, or in high labor cost
areas of the U.S.). In some projects the use of prefabrication has been primarily
a design decision--for instance we are doing a project now on a beautiful
mountainside site with a very small available footprint for the foundation,
so we are doing a prefabricated steel structure for the building that allows
long cantilevers out away from the small foundation. In most cases the choice
to use off-site fabrication techniques is made in part because it is the most
cost effective way to meet the design requirements, but cost savings is never
the sole reason for the projects we are involved with. We also design completely
custom, site-built projects when that is the appropriate system for the project
needs.
HOW ARE THE DESIGNS
PRODUCED? WHAT ARE WE SELLING?
We are not manufacturers
or suppliers of modular or prefabricated buildings, although we do have certain
companies that we have worked with in the past and can recommend or work with
in developing appropriate building solutions for particular project needs.
We have built some of our prototype projects ourselves with our own crews,
as was the case with the house featured in Dwell Magazine, but we are currently
most interested in working with other contractors or owner/builders to do
the actual site assembly and construction of buildings that we design. We
enjoy the process of working with various manufacturers or suppliers to apply
their existing technologies and products to new applications, or to develop
new directions based on their capabilities and interests, and this has allowed
us to work in many different areas. We have a lot of experience with these
kind of product and process innovations, and bring this experience and interest
to all of our projects.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
We are often asked about the cost range of our projects. We work on projects
in a broad pricing range, from very tiny, interesting work to large custom
homes, and we work in different places where the local construction costs
widely differ. We are currently working on projects ranging from a very small
(1000 sq ft) partially prefabricated home for an oceanfront trailer park site
in Malibu, California with a budget of $125,000, to much larger structures
of widely varying costs and levels of customization and details. Our design
fees vary depending on the size and complexity of the projects, and are typically
based on the approximate estimated construction budgets. We are happy to provide
estimates for fees based on our understanding of specific project inquiries.
We have a few designs which we have already produced which could be adapted
to other sites and clients, which would likely result in lower design fees,
and would be happy to provide more information on those possibilities to anyone
interested. We donıt have catalogs or brochures about these projects, but
can send drawings or other information after hearing about particular needs
and interests.
HOW TO SEE MORE OF
OUR WORK
There have been several recent magazine articles that have generated a lot
of interest in our work with off-site fabrication techniques, especially the
cover article from the February 2001 issue of Dwell Magazine, an article in
the May/June issue of Metropolitan Home, and in the September 26 Architecture
Section of the New York Times. A number of our projects can be seen on our
new web site at www.andersonanderson.com. We are in the process of adding
new project pages to our web site, so check back frequently for the latest
updates.
The best source for an overall look at the broad spectrum of our work is to get a copy of our new book, which was published last year by Princeton Architectural Press. The publisherıs information about that book and directions for how to get it are at the end of this text. We also have a lot of information and images of projects that have not been published, which we can send on request by email attachment or postal mail. Tell us more about what kinds of things you are interested in and we will be happy to show you what we have available.
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR BOOK:
Title: ANDERSON ANDERSON: ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001
Publisherıs book description: "Brothers Mark and Peter Anderson have been building things together since their boyhood days in Tacoma, Washington. Their work as architects, carpenters, builders, and general contractors encompasses the design and construction of residential, commercial, and public art projects. Anderson Anderson is noted for its highly customized work and its prefabricated systems for large-scale production. Informed by their experiences as carpenters and influenced by place and landscape-mud, clouds, and rain, in the case of the Pacific Northwest-the work of Mark and Peter Anderson highlights experimentation and adventure. Anderson Anderson: Architecture and Construction delves into the process of construction as a source of creative imagination and discovery-from the hands-on material process of making things, to the lessons learned from large-scale projects, to the development of new construction technologies. This book explores the simple beauty of their finished products as much as the process of getting there the unglossed stories of young architects working, learning, traveling, and having fun. The book features over 25 projects in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, and Japan."
Anderson Anderson: Architecture and Construction is available through local booksellers, or online through the following links:
Princeton Architectural
Press:
http://www.papress.com/books/1568982437.html
Barnes and Noble: http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=3MVTO960SE&mscssid=XVRT16PK2JPB9K78HHT227T0FE2C1077&isbn=1568982437
INFORMATION ABOUT ANOTHER BOOK OF INTEREST:
PREFABA new book from Allison Arieff, senior editor of Dwell magazine and Bryan Burkhart, author of the best-selling book, Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht. The book includes several projects by Anderson Anderson, and was just released in September of 2002 by Gibbs Smith Publishers.
Publisherıs book description: "Prefab houses have done a lot to earn their reputation for being cheap and ugly, and indeed, the prevailing vision of prefab--endless rows of shabbily constructed cookie cutter structures built with cheap materials--is, unfortunately, fairly accurate. But now and throughout prefab's history, there have been many exceptions to the rule, as evidenced by groundbreaking projects from architects and designers from Le Corbusier to Buckminster Fuller, the Eameses to Philippe Starck. Prefab takes a look at prefabricated housing's fascinating history and imagines its promising future by presenting a group of innovative homes and concepts from over 30 contemporary architects and designers including Shigeru Ban, Anderson Anderson, Thomas Sandell, David Hertz, Greg Lynn, and KFN. By showing how far this much maligned building technique has come, and how far it can go, Prefab endeavors to inspire a change in the way people think about housing, and the way architects, builders, developers and financial institutions approach it--and ultimately, the way individuals live in it."