 Welcome back to another episode of Think Tech Hawaii's Human-Humane Architecture here with your host, Martin Despeying. We're broadcasting live from our wonderful Honolulu, Hawaii, which after you see the show, you understand why it could be, again, a very exotic, inclusive environment. We're going to introduce someone to you that you should already know if you're watching a couple of shows. That is one of the best ambassadors and diplomats for our, hopefully, again, exotic, inclusive Hawaii here. That person is someone who's homegrown on the island. We're going to introduce his father, who is Nathan Toothman. Hi, Nathan. Hey, Martin, how are you? I'm great. The way we see you now, you took this picture just a couple of minutes ago. You're broadcasting in from the ground zero of Silicon Valley over at the west coast in Menlo Park. Thanks for having you. If we can get the first picture, this is just us referring to previous shows. On the first picture, we see a show we did together, which we called Elevating Social Engineering. The very first show was with my colleague Chris Letham. That's referencing to that, the very picture at the bottom right. Just when you had me over, I just came back to produce this show, you compared that sort of prototype that you built in Kailua here to this character at the very top right. Can you explain why that is? Well, it's kind of a term for some models is considered a Shrek model. It's kind of creative prototype that's more on the extreme side and a little bit more outrageous. It's not necessarily exactly what you're going to build, but it's used to primarily spark debate, learning conversations. In that sense, it's kind of what the initial prototype was. It was to put the concept out there, something bold, different, unique. And it was helpful in that it gained that attention. It brought people in, like you, who got interested in it and other people that have supported Elevate. So it was kind of a crucial step in the early stages. And not that that was purely intentional, but it was kind of in hindsight. That's kind of what it was. You know, my very personal, I'm a big fan of Elevate. Everyone knows who knows me. And if I have to say it in a few words, I always say Elevate brings back dignity and decency to dwelling. And so once you had imagined and actually built Manufice at the Shrek, you started out in the last show with it, which is the big picture here to think about how these could evolve, how these become, you know, sort of populate and how they could become more and become a family and how can they serve sort of demands and needs in multiple ways. But next picture, please, you needed to go back and really find out because you're also an engineer. So the engineering side and you didn't let your rest to find out more what the anatomy of Elevate is. And so this is a show with our dear colleague and friend, Howard Weg, and you having a little 3D printed mini version of Elevate and going along with that, your logo that you see at the very sort of bottom right. But that was then and now is now. So what has happened ever since, and this is what the show about is to update you guys on the amazing development of Elevate. And the next picture is us sitting over at your place a couple of days ago and just thinking, you know, in what kind of context is your project in, and I refer to another show I did with the Soto, obviously here, which was about Bucky Fuller and his geodesic dome, his Kaiser dome, but more specifically actually his Dimexian house, which you see at the very bottom left. And when I showed this to you, which kind of similarities did you see to Elevate at that point, Nathan? Well, the Dimexian house was similar in some ways. The other version, the one that's shown here was actually raised kind of elevated in a similar way, had areas for water storage, had unique energy efficient aspects to it. And then, you know, for the dome, the geodesic dome, the modularity of it, the nodes, the way it's assembled by small individual pieces, kind of repetitive in a balanced way structurally that then creates a larger structure. So that's kind of what I saw in that. Absolutely. And it's sort of like the same sort of motivation to provide housing for the masses in an affordable way through prefabrication, mostly using metal. And so the next picture is I compare it to another sort of mastermind in that area. And that is Jean-Pauvet, as you can see in his tropical house. And he went out to build these and basically they were meant to be for Africa, for tropical climates, and it was all prefabricated. It was all sort of value engineered down in the best sense of that word and to be able to be shipped in, flown in by airplane and everything basically metal aluminum. So we see you up there at the top right following the same way and basically, once again, not being satisfied to think but to make. So you sort of reconsidered the anatomy of Elevate from its original sort of Shrek version down to a very skeletal version, right? Yeah, we wanted to get something that was more lower cost than what we had, something that was portable, something that could be done with less contractor, less labor cost associated with it. So we had a challenge from an investor in Silicon Valley who challenged us to drop the cost approximately five fold from what we were at the time. And so at the time it kind of seemed outrageous or undoable. And so it kind of set a high bar of kind of rethinking a structure all the way down to the bare bones and what can be taken off, how it could be made lighter weight, how it could include technology or in its design. And so that along with an inspiration from a simple box joint for a bench that I saw on Facebook, I kind of took that idea and did it to create a single member that as shade member that you see in the top right that contains the foundation, the walls, the floors, the other wall in the row of all in one section that we'll see coming up. So it's just kind of set by going for a higher bar than what we were shooting for initially. And the maker you are, you got it done, you did another prototype and you went on tour with it. And this is the next picture here, introduces your partner in life and in business Tiffany here basically. This is Elevate and you can look through the trailer and I made sure to put in the picture at the top right. You can see this is not a long trailer, this is the short trailer and Elevate and it's sort of, you know, very sort of comprehensive and sort of generous way as you will see later is to be able to be packed into that small trailer. Just like Provey packed everything in these small boxes and dropped them from the airplane, you basically put everything in this really sort of tiny trailer and went on tour and your first stop was next picture. Where's that Nathan? This is in Las Vegas at Airstream Park there in Las Vegas. You can kind of see the Airstreams in the back. So that was in our quite first stop. We did a few events here around the Bay Area. We did an event in Hays Valley, one in Oakland and then we had this opportunity to take it out here to Vegas. But we were really excited about the fact we could put it in a trailer just to open up our opportunities because, you know, this is something we're still figuring out exactly what it is, where the best use cases of it are. So when we have an ability to literally take it to some place and set it up in a couple hours, it just really opens up our opportunities. So we got just super excited about that and that's, you know, why we had to build it on this prototype and then take it on the road and show it off. And at this time, as one can see here live, the snapshot is pretty much how you were, it's an ongoing process of investigation and it's always been sort of perfected. And here you were experimenting with how it basically can provide shelter in the sort of unfold opened up position that we're going to talk about a little later. But for the show here, then it basically went up and closed itself, which we see on the next picture. This is basically how it prepared itself for the Vegas events, the Vegas night events, which we then see next picture here performing. And tell us also who is, because we have to explain who the guy in front there is, Brian. No, that's Marley. That's Al Pacca. He's a resident there at the Airstream Park. And then some of the other residents in the background there enjoying it as a kind of a pop up bar use case there, like a pop up wine bar. And then you have a period of 120 inch viewing screen with the rear projection system there to kind of show movies on it and bring people together. It was used for a wedding the night before this. Just for just really testing it out. And it actually worked really well in the setting and it actually brought a lot of life into this parking lot though. It doesn't have any trees. Vegas in general doesn't have right in many trees. And so really serve, you know, multiple functions. And what a lot of these cases are is multiple things in one. Absolutely, that's the nature of elevate. And what a party animal elevate is we see on the next picture here. And Yalama is a great party animal too. So here you can see, you know, this is elevate is sort of an invigorator and an incubator for activity. But then you went back home and the next picture is basically from here on. This is how I took the next couple of pictures together with you. And this is how you welcomed me a few days ago back home in the temporary home in again ground zero of Silicon Valley where, you know, it's like for me, it was surprising in the morning people jogging and all these Google people and Facebook people basically whereas here, let's just be honest, you know, elevate being homegrown. It just had a hard time here being sort of, you know, gain its respect. Whereas over there, it's refreshing to see everyone stopping by and chatting you up and asking what is this and liking it. So it's really refreshing to see. And also you see here that sort of this combination and duality and synergy potentially between the automotive realm and the architecture realm. And we would take the next picture to illustrate that maybe you can say a couple of things more about some potential development of elevate in that direction. Are you a number 11 now? I am, yes. Okay. Yeah. So here you're kind of starting to see for one we're showing how you can park under it. You know, that's one of the always the concepts is that you can use that space under there for parking or get the others as we saw earlier. What you can see here is just starting to mock up some floor systems, roof system, and then just a real simple wall system. So we kind of stepped away from the living aspects of it for a little bit to because of the challenges with any living unit and the man structure and it just creates greater requirements. And so we stepped away from it a little bit, but now we're coming back to it to that's always been the ultimate vision for it. And just kind of rapidly prototype and test out the floors in a way that it's a do it yourself sort of kit like a homeowner could do it. It doesn't take a contractor. It's kind of like a giant piece of Ikea furniture basically. And so in this case, I'm holding up a flexible solar panel that would go up onto the roof panel. And so if you were to get this kit whenever that time comes is, you know, the piece of pie shape for the roof would have the solar panel already embedded in it, waterproofed with the system that then sealed that onto the other ones in a similar way that the walls would already be pre designed and pre functioning the floors. So it kind of comes as a kit of parts and just assembled on site with unskilled individuals. So we're just kind of testing those things out here, both in the raised position and then in the lower position as well. And I put in the two pictures. One is a reference to my German background here, where my professor and my structures professor Wernher Sobeck did this sort of house for the typical house for the Germans, which is actively powered with photovoltaic enclosure and smart and Mercedes were plugging in as being sort of the energy storage and obviously Silicon Valley and ground zero being in the heart of where Tesla is as well. I was throwing in the model three as sort of, you know, being sort of hand in hand with elevate potentially. But let's jump to the next picture because you already said and you reconnected to the inhabitation, which I was really happy to see here. We introduced two more members of the elevate team, which is wonderful Lexi and basically, you know, Christian as your kids. And so you were so you can I was so pumped up that yeah, you can you can you can dwell and elevate again. But before you do that number 13 is showing what's potentially for that. So the next picture what the trunk could could sort of be comprised of what are you simulating there in the shot? We're just showing like a carving out a small area that of the trunk of the tree as a shower area, the bathroom area. It's just one case kind of mixed in with the spiral staircase. And so that that would be probably a lower cost option to use that space down there for that, that putting it up higher. So it kind of depends on who would be using it where the bathroom would go. But this just kind of illustrating it's a tight space but it's kind of like an RV sort of shower situation. So kind of depends on who the customer is where they would want that sort of feature. But just trying to pack in as as much as possible into a structure and but still making it livable, making it aesthetic. Yeah, and the shower would be behind the sort of implied here as spiral staircase and let's let's walk that up and go to the next picture. And there we are we're back in business we're back in elevate but in a very very different way whereas you know elevate was rather conventionally constructed and spatially conventional. But here we go this is a totally new beast of elevate a skeletal elevate that next picture shows all you guys basically being being up there. And this is just a fantastic evolution of of a creature again that is homegrown in Hawaii and has ventured out and is really thriving in the Silicon Valley as one can see here. And the next picture is doing that days and nights. So not only you know is elevate spectacular below as a sort of incubator for for socializing but you know it can be inhabited and you're having a movie night up there. I mean how fantastic is that. And go to the next picture this is you already refer to that that this is this is again work in progress and you already talked about sort of the kids of parts and components that we were talking about. But let's jump to the next picture which is the fascinating thing that then basically the next the next day you started out to transform back to the to the mandala and talking you is you're pointing out this is this is doable for a couple which you're demonstrating here right. Yeah I mean that's every part is designed to weigh less than 60 pounds. So that one person can carry it is easier for two. And that it doesn't take any sort of special skill to at the end assemble it. Just going to be engineered with all those aspects included in it and very doable. And the main one of the main things there is it helps take away a lot of the labor costs that's associated with specialized labor. And I can confirm that with the next picture because you put me to work and make me part of that and it worked out. But here we're already in the process of sort of hands transformation down to the mandala as half done and now we're putting up here some shading elements here which we then see in the next picture pretty much completed our project. And can you talk about the potential use of that situation or condition that elevate takes on at this point? Yeah so we have there's 12 cells that are formed with the 12 arms. And so what we're showing here is half up half down so that could be a use case maybe for like a farmers market where you have booths on the outside and then on the inside you might have say like an eating area maybe have a movie display. So that would be one use case there within the corporate context. There's some interest there in Vegas where we're putting forth three structures there to use to bring more life to a corporate setting and to allow them to have vendor fares on a large open area. So it just creates a lot of flexibility that you wouldn't otherwise have in a structure and we're still figuring out like what all those uses would be but a lot of it comes down to this aesthetics the shade aspects the elevate square footage of the the circle is 200 square feet and when you lower down into the mandala then in the full mandala position it's 1400 square feet. So it's a significant space transformation and then if you look at only that the footprint of the trunk of elevate you know what effectively takes up for the pedestrian area that's only 30 square feet. So you're transforming from effectively taking up 30 square feet to then transforming to 1400 square foot of shade and doing that in a very cost efficient manner in a very fast manner is I think it's pretty exciting. It absolutely is and the next picture shows us that this hybrid condition of to the right you can still see half of the up condition up there and to the left you can see the mandala situation and it's still an experiment. You're pushing you know as these great predecessors bucky fuller and pervaded they're just pushing the you know material to the limits and steel with these amazing tensile qualities. I mean you can't make it better and push it more to the extreme as what you know creatures do with their with their skeletons and with their bones they're absolutely you know absolutely perfected to to be minimal and you know not to carry as little as possible weight around and this is exactly what what elevate wants to do. So I I love myself to sneak away at this point here and spend the day next picture with one of our previous guests and most activist journalist Kurt Senber in here who then came back in the evening and we spend the evening together everyone around elevate and even into the night as you can see at the very bottom there. So that's also part of elevate that you're just like bringing in you know opinions and and and impressions and and assessment from wherever possible way so elevate is sort of this ongoing laboratory all the all the time. So while I had fun and you know we came back and it was evening and and Kurt saw it but only the next morning I basically was able to witness the the fruits of of your hard work over the day where he had immediately sort of incorporated some of the findings and thoughts we had sort of been brainstorming over the day and we really tried to capture this with camera with like the plain old function on our iPhones but what you couldn't so we basically decided to do a little self-produce that's why it's very dilettant video clip and if we can get that to run now here it would be great and you can explain now while we watch Nathan. Okay have you started it? Yeah we have started it. Okay yeah so this is enough the full Mandala position the plants you see there on those walls are basically what you take from the tree and just right now there's kind of hung in those areas to define those spaces and that creates a more life but it's a series of triangles large triangles and smaller triangles that all come up to a center point and so it creates a really interesting courtyard in the center really nice space to gather in and then each of those cells going out is 100 square foot cells for for different uses that we're working on and that just you know today actually got it mocked up with the center tripod such that all the fabric hooks to that and so the fabric stays within the structure as you raise it up and lower it down so just in the same way an umbrella you know fabric all stays within it it's very similar to that and actually have a way not to just one person can actually make that transformation in about a half hour so yeah we're like you said we're still prototyping it and figuring it out but it's pretty exciting. Absolutely me too and as the last picture is the next one here and the last one which is my favorite picture which Tiffany took and it's just like amazing how I mean you know living in the trees being a tree but also at daytime being potentially something totally different and we talked about that probably the next show is dedicated to a little sort of little time lapse of a day in and around elevate of different dwellers and this is so super exciting Nathan I can't even tell you so let's bring our permanent background picture back which is what you refer to which is in the back if I would go to the side which I'm doing now you can see the tripod and you can see you and you can see that fire pit in the middle there and have your sort of urban nomads gathering around it but already we're already at the beginning of an of a next show to continue to monitor and be with elevate who is again homegrown but has ventured out to I have no doubts at some point come back and populate this island which is so in need of it for so many ways accessory dwelling unit urban nomad shelter and in parking lots in so many ways so it seems to me that you know elevate needed to go out into the world to then sort of gain his or her credits and basically come back to the island and and take it you know as in victory with that Nathan thank you so much for having been with us and sharing with us the amazing evolution of elevate and yeah keep on keep on elevating us that's what we need here back on the rock I will thank you so much for having me on the show and for for coming over here and all of your input and helps that continuity between you know the thinking there and the thinking here it's very valuable all right well thank you so much hello also to the rest of the crew wonderful Lexi Tiffany and Christian hope to see you guys soon and for sure see you guys here on the next show that shows the next amazing evolution of elevate and until then see you guys all back next week and until then please stay elevated as perfectly demonstrated by this amazing pioneering team here thank you guys all right awesome all right great show i think yeah i can't wait to see it yeah so it's going to take probably till like eight seven ish eight ish and when i see it yeah before you say it i i send you the link but you get it directly from robin yeah together for all okay