Sawade was studying from 1958-1966 and was later until 1969 a scientific assistant of Oswald Mathias Ungers at the Technical University of Berlin. He opened his own architectural office in Berlin in 1970 and meantime collaborated as a guest lecturer at Berkley University in California and Cornell University in New York in 1976 and 1981.

His most unusual and known building is Pallasseum in Berlin, where an old bunker was included in the planning of the residences. Another building to mention is the Hotel Esplanade from 1988, which is conceived as an "unique urban place" for a contemporary urban society. In this work Sawade collaborated with artist.

In 1991 he become a professor at the University of Dortmund. Since 2004 was a honorary professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Design of the Fachhochschule Potsdam. In 2002 he became a member of Academy of Arts in Berlin.