Below and left Bauhaus ideas have provided Jasper Sanders with inspiration for his work
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Jasper Sanders founder/director, Jasper Sanders + Partners
Can you pinpoint the thought, whether yours or someone else’s, that led you to a career in design? One summer break, aged seven, I accompanied my father, an estimator for a small local building contractor, on a site visit. I was immediately full of ideas about ways the dilapidated building we were visiting could come back to life. Of course, my ideas were superficial given my age, but I still remember the tangible excitement surrounding the concept of reinvention. In that moment my father announced that I would make a good ‘interior and exterior designer’. Tis caught my imagination, and I have not thought of a better idea since.
In terms of the design and architecture industry, what do you consider the most radical era or pivotal moment? For me, it’s all about the early pioneers of modernism, whose ideas have never been bettered. Te period in the 20th century between the two world wars was remarkable, with the 1920s and 1930s seeing a real re-imagining of the art of the possible, no doubt as a direct consequence of the incredible destruction the world had just witnessed.
Jasper Sanders is the founder of interior design studio Jasper Sanders + Partners. Over the past decade, the Manchester-based business has
established itself as a leading, award- winning space innovation studio. Sanders and his team work across the UK, with a focus on commercial residential work, incorporating BTR, co-living and PBSA schemes, helping to define market-leading brand identities and interiors.
Which radical thinkers have been inspirations to you in your career? My philosophy stems from my art foundation days, when I immersed myself in theories and discourse around the early to mid-century modernists. Tese were architects and designers inspired to re-invent space and buildings from the inside out. From Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus to Le Corbusier’s La Cité Radieuse in Marseille – the first of his Unité d’Habitation buildings – and Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, these individuals were the original spatial engineers and pioneers.
Who are the radical thinkers who inspire you now? (Not necessarily forever or for a lifetime – just now!) I’m currently working on a personal project that has obsessed me for years: devising affordable housing with flexible spaces that can be customised to suit individual circumstances, preferences and lifestyles. My inspiration, however, lies not in the future but
in the past – with the designers of traditional Japanese houses, where paper screens open and close to shape spaces, and adaptable furniture allows rooms to transform throughout the day, optimising their use based on light and the needs of the occupier. Radical ideas aren’t always ahead of us, even if their outcomes might be.
Who outside the industry can architects and designers learn from?
I think we can be susceptible in our industry to being inwards-facing and listening too much to each other. I’ve always held the view that if we were more prepared to listen harder to our clients, and really investigate their dreams, ambitions, pain points and fiscal realities – rather than considering them potentially hostile forces, prone to value- engineering our perfect designs – it would lead to better outcomes. Design exists in a commercial framework, where what’s good for people is great for business. Te most advantageous end results come from schemes that really do what the client needs, whilst appealing to end-users; yes, pleasing ourselves as designers in the process too, but making sure that clear hierarchy always holds.
What will lead the way for more radical thinking in your/our field? Te answer is always optimism. As designers, we are very much part of and sensitive to the times we live in – the literal meaning of ‘contemporary’. Of course, we all instinctively react to the overarching events
PHOTO: JUNHAO / SHUTTERSTOCK
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