Mark Sanderson, FAIA, is a designer, thought leader, and co-founder of DIGSAU, a deeply collaborative architectural practice whose projects promote art, creativity, discovery, exploration, learning, health, wellness, and more.

Sanderson will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 3, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the U of A campus, as part of the spring lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

This is the Cromwell Architects Engineers Lecture in the Role of Engineering in Architecture and Design.

In his lecture, “Perfecting Imperfection,” Sanderson asserts that the designer's role as “orchestrator of improvisation and imperfection” offers an opportunity to produce authentic, enduring architecture that is rooted in place.

DIGSAU is a contemporary design firm grounded in an open-minded approach to architecture: who makes it, how it is made, and who benefits from it. Launching their practice during a severe economic downturn from 2007 to 2009 galvanized the founders’ fundamental belief that the best work arises from challenging circumstances, improvisation and doing more with less.

DIGSAU’s projects explore the improvisation and imperfection inherent in the act of making by counteracting the construction industry’s continuous march toward the selection of universal products that are quickly assembled. The design industry's shift away from craft and making toward product selection has led to a proliferation of ubiquitous, repetitive and placeless architecture.

In search of more specificity and nuance, DIGSAU interrogates not only the materials that comprise architecture but also the methods by which they are selected, organized and attached — and the various trades and collaborators who influence the final outcome.

DIGSAU serves mission-driven clients nationally in cultural, civic, education, hospitality, and urban development sectors. Their projects exhibit an exceptional range of sites and programs, confront a wide array of contemporary challenges, and reflect a distinct sense of materiality and deep awareness of place and purpose.

Sanderson earned his degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania and practiced architecture for several years before co-founding DIGSAU. His seminal project, the Construction Training and Education Center, is an innovative vocational training facility for The Challenge Program, an empowerment organization that trains young people in construction techniques, who learn and test methods on the building itself.

Sanderson’s recent work includes a mass timber fitness center at Princeton University; a new home for the Clay Studio, an internationally acclaimed community art workshop in Philadelphia; and City U, a competition-winning mixed-use housing development in Bentonville, Arkansas.

With his leadership, DIGSAU has garnered recognition the AIA Pennsylvania Firm Award, which honors a practice for a decade of consistent excellence, and the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices award for exemplary design contributions. Sanderson’s careful stewardship of design culture within the firm has garnered recognition from the American Institute of Architects, Urban Land Institute, and the Brick Industry Association, among other organizations.

For five consecutive years, DIGSAU has been recognized by AIA Pennsylvania as an EPiC firm, reflecting their dedication to fostering professional development and promoting inclusivity in the architecture industry.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.