Wendell Burnette
Phoenix, Arizona
Wendell Burnette is an architect whose intensity of crafting space is exceptional, yet whose starting point is his belief that the specificity of a place or context is the most important material for design. This sensitivity to the subtleties of the natural context is complemented by his minimal designs, which both respond to and engage their places. Burnette’s formally minimal interventions (paradoxically) result in experientially maximal possibilities for the inhabitants. Exceptionally attentive to the character of the materials with which he builds, Burnette has produced a contemporary American construction craft, thoughtfully fabricated and carefully detailed, from the most modest and readily available materials. In this way, his work may be said to be both practical, involving minimal energy use and sustainable practices, and poetic, allowing enrichment of experience through engagement of the senses. For Burnette, the architect’s primary task is “learning to see the place” in which one works. Yet the lessons learned in one’s place are by no means limited to that place, and his locally appropriate architecture has meaning for the larger world.
