Larissa Sand

Architecture of precision is what Larissa Sand and her Studios team have been after ever since the founding of Sand Studios in 1993. Her journey of design discovery traveled from the micro of designs at the scale of the hand to the macro of a full-fledged exploration of architectural space in the private and public realm.  Through many years of actual fabrication in her shop, Larissa has internalized the response of materials themselves and made her own body an instrument of spatial awareness. Today that knowledge loops back in her design propositions tailored like a suit to the unique make-up of her clients.  

The early experiments with metal work laid the foundation of a distinct sensibility: to take bulk out of all materials and celebrate their slenderness. 

Larissa celebrates daily routines through architecture in domestic environments as well as workplaces. Her refined minimalism results from the orchestration of carefully arranged planes, where a great many materials form the notes of her three-dimensional score. The stark geometries of her spaces are the background against which the organic patterns of stone and wood come alive delicately bathed with equally designed lighting. This material exploration is ongoing with her team.  The shop is a lab where design ideas are tested and executing, closing this past gap between the designer and the maker of architecture. Her metal front doors, for example, are instances of ever-ending design inventions. Whether an adaptive reuse of a historical building, a commercial interior, or a stand-alone piece of architecture, in California or in Florida, Larissa’s talent craft an experience that is distinctly sensorial and fully integrated at all scales.

– Pierluigi Serraino

Photographs / Guru Khalsa