Le Studio Sanna Baldé was founded by Anna Sanna and Delphine Baldé in 2019, after pursuing separate careers in Paris and abroad, when they decided to merge their worlds to reconcile architecture and the city.
Anna Sanna graduated from La Sapienza - School of Architecture in Rome in 2003 and also studied for a year at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture in Versailles. She began her career at The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Cairo, Egypt, before joining the Jacques Ferrier Architecture team in 2005. For over 13 years, her collaboration with Jacques Ferrier allowed her to gain solid experience on iconic tertiary projects, such as the headquarters of Piper & Charles Heidsieck champagne and the Hachette Livre publishing house.
Delphine Baldé, graduated in 2003 by the École Nationale d'Architecture de Versailles, completed her training in African cities at the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in 2015. She began her career in Amsterdam at the Tania Concko agency, in a Dutch architectural environment that championed experimentation to develop new uses. She then worked with François Leclercq, where she developed his agency's urban planning division for 13 years. She has been a member of the Cergy Urban Project Management Workshops for 15 years (currently Vice President) and leads workshops, primarily in West Africa.
From architecture to territorial issues in general, their collaborative practice reflects committed convictions that respond to current issues: working with what already exists, transforming what exists for a more inclusive and desirable city, designing reversible buildings with sustainable materials, and responding to new uses, particularly for higher-quality housing. By exploring the interactions between space, the body, and the city, they take on an artistic and social dimension within their experiments, in a complementary approach that brings together the city, the landscape, and architecture. For this architectural duo, each project is an opportunity to combine the pleasure of building, of shaping materials, with that of proposing new paths and revealing the genius of the place.
Their shared passion for dance and music naturally leads them to explore the relationship between space, rhythm, the body, and the city. This search for a constant and evolving dialogue is at the heart of their approach. Dance is a common thread that runs through their projects, guiding them toward a project that tells a story through a systemic and sustainable approach. The richness of their dual European and African culture leads them to a recurring questioning in their practice to better understand contexts, uses, and the evolution of lifestyles. Choosing dance as a tool to question the relationship with the body, with the living, with others, and with the uses of space, is to unfold the city of connection: to design egalitarian, comfortable, joyful, and supportive living spaces for all.
