 Good to have you back for what happens to be our 234th episode of Think Take Hawaii's human, humane architecture. So this show might be the toughest one for us at the opposite end of the worlds, which is you, DeSoto Brown, Bishop Museum Historian and Archivist back in your Bishop Museum, hi DeSoto. Good morning or good day, however, whatever time it may be when you're watching this. Yeah, and me, Martin Despeng, when you wish so back near Munich, Germany. So last week DeSoto, although we're more faithful than religious, for sure, we prayed for peace, but I think our prayers weren't heard because the day after our show, if we can get the first slide up, which will actually be our only slide this week here, because after we rehearsed this year, just before the show, we decided we're gonna stay on that one slide only and gonna proceed with the rest of it, which is looking into kakaako, cool versus cool next week. So as this quote from the New York Times shows here, dating February 24th was exactly the day after our last show, when I took the students out early to show them the best practices here around the world to learn from, which you see at the very bottom or in the middle at the bottom. And when I was, we were done and I let them go to sleep and need to proceed with the day, I went back into the car, which you see on slide two up there and I turned on the radio and the war was announced. It was announced that the war had started. And that brought back sort of flashback deja vu, memories for us as though the ride of, when that happened the last time where we were in our cars and what was announced, right? What was that for you last time? Well, back in 1991, both you and I had a similar experience of being in our cars, turning on the car radio and hearing that the Iraq war had started. And for you, it was a different experience than me, but we did have the similarity of being in cars when we heard. I that day was getting ready to leave on an international trip to Australia and New Zealand, which I had been planning for literally a year. I had had my tickets for at least a year and I could not possibly think of dropping the idea of going on my trip, but it was scary. It was thought provoking for me because right when that war started, we were being told not to travel internationally. And of course, I was driving from my house to Kahala Mall to buy some last minute things for the trip. And obviously it was very thoughtful about what is this impact going to be on me? This is an international incident. Is there going to be threats of more terrorism? Are we going to have another energy crisis? Those are the things running through my mind and you in the car in Nebraska, we're thinking about a variety of other things as well. Yeah, I'm actually struggling for words given all the scenarios here, but how can you talk about anything else but that there are people dying out there, right? And I'm thinking of my hat that I don't have on anymore, which is my being the retired lieutenant of reserve of the Allied Forces of the Bundeswehr that I quit a long time ago. And this is people, soldiers fighting against each other, which is bad enough. The main reason I dropped out of that. But in this case, there are civilians being killed. This is architecture, again, kindergartens, preschools are being targeted and hit by rockets, hospitals and residences. So this is architecture. In architecture, people dwell and feel safe and they should feel safe and they can't do it anymore. We're talking 2,000 civilian casualties as of now, probably as we talk increasingly. And this is, again, this is a crime of mankind. And it's particularly tough for someone from a culture which is guilty to have done that to others as well, not that long ago. And so for me, it's particularly hard to think about all that and it gives me goosebumps and gives me shivers. And so, yeah, but to the cars, cars have been proven for us to soda whenever we sort of get stuck there and don't get any further with architecture, we default to automobiles as vehicles for thought. So we do this today as well and back to sort of the memories of war being announced. I was in that picture one and that 72 Plymouth Fury with my buddy from my school days back then when I was a student in Nebraska in the prairie. And our professor, Alex Mella, thank you, Alex. He led us out of studio earlier when we asked him and he finally said, where are you guys going? And we were honest and said, we go to Nebraska. And Nebraska was the only little hill and flat prairie in Nebraska. They turned into a ski hill and then I made poor Dan basically race down because he never skied before and he didn't want to be taught by me. So he tried it himself and survived. It was a really kind of a spooky, a foggy night when we got back into our big boats, we turned on the AM radio and in the sort of scratchy voice noise that came out of it they announced that the Gulf War had started. There was such an intriguing situation that when we reconvened some one and a half decades later when I came back to start my coaching teaching career back at my home away from home in Nebraska that was the first thing we basically recalled. So it was a surreal sort of a deja vu that again, once again we were in cars again I was in a car again even around the same sort of activity and event of skiing that the whole thing but the difference is we're fighting wars over fossil fuel for a while. And here the implication of fossil fuel is big. This you were talking about the oil crisis the energy crisis in 73, right? So this big boat was built just the year before that in 72 and I looked up the gas mileage was like the average is like 13 miles per gallon or something like that. While I have improved because the Audi we drive here and there's another interesting similarity because the car, the Fury was about two decades old when I bought it and Audi is nearing getting two decades old as well however, his gas mileage has exponentially improved because the former CEO of Volkswagen that Audi belongs to gave out the order to build the 80 miles per gallon which is three liters per 100 kilometers car and with a diesel engine that was before the diesel scandal of the W that car basically achieved that as the first one in its class. So things have improved but again, I think fossil fuel being kind of the threat and the argument that is in everyone's mouth these days is actually helpful too. Because otherwise when you're getting into your daily routine that subject matter, I was asked by Max our producer if we feel anything in Germany here not physically, right? But mentally, spiritually it's with us but once you get dragged into the daily routine you forget about it. But fossil fuel basically helps us to remember it and if we go back to the main slide because we're quoting something up there at the top left disorder, right? You wanna read this out or interpret what it says? Yeah, there's a news report that we might see gasoline getting up to $5 a gallon by Memorial Day. And you mentioned Martin that the energy crisis of 1973, 74. And again, this is something that's worldwide. We are seeing this, the effects will be felt throughout the world of the Ukraine war in just as the way the energy crisis of decades ago did. We were shocked at the time, particularly early 1974 that gasoline could suddenly become so expensive and so difficult to get. And that was at a time of your Plymouth getting 13 miles per gallon. A car with exceptionally good mileage at that time was getting 20-something miles per gallon. There were cars that were getting as little as eight miles per gallon because there was absolutely no reason particularly in the United States to improve gas mileage. And that shocked everybody and slapped everybody in the face to forcing us to do that. Now, in this case of the Ukraine war, the effects may not be as significant on the United States as certainly they will be in Western Europe. And Martin, you and I have talked about this. Western Europe depends a great deal on energy coming from Russia. And cutting off that energy for retaliation for this war is going to have some significant effects for civilians and economies throughout Europe. The United States is not gonna feel it as strongly but we are going to feel it. And it is something that is going to affect us even though this war is on the other side of the planet. So no, we're not going to skate through this without any effects, even beyond the mental trauma that you have just talked about that is far more immediate for you in a number of ways. It's still something we're thinking about everywhere. And the fact that, yes, civilians are being killed, architecture is being destroyed, people are trying to find places to survive where they are being attacked. This harkens back to World War II, which was so incredibly devastating in Europe and Asia. And Martin, I want to bring up something right now that we just talked about. Your father's survival in World War II at a time when there were massive shelters being built for protection against aerial bombardment. And that was very big in Germany, but here on the island of Oahu and in the Hawaiian islands at the start of the war in late 41, early 42, everybody was ordered throughout the Hawaiian islands to dig a hole in the ground, literally as a bomb shelter. And you had to, by military order, dig some kind of a trench or some kind of protective hole to go into in case the war came back to the Hawaiian islands as it had on December 7th, 1941. And this is not something easily achieved everywhere because as I just said to you, Martin, the house that I live in now is built on rock. I could not possibly dig a hole in the ground. Other people who live in sandy soil, you dig a hole in the ground and it just collapses in on itself. However, that was a long time ago, but it was something that touched us. And your father went through the catastrophic bombing of the city of Dresden in Germany in early 1945 in which tens of thousands of people were killed. And as you've told me, he celebrates his survival as a five-year-old child by saying that that is his second birthday. So this is something he personally lived through. Yeah, and that just happened to be the anniversary again that I congratulated him to a couple of actually days ago. And he survived through the knowledge of tectonics versus stereotomics because of the instinct of his mother because he was told to go into a bunker which where a bump went and killed everyone. And she went up to the main train station where he would think he shouldn't go, but she must have understood something about combustible materials or the absence because the roof only had flimsy boards that didn't give much mass to set things further on fire. So the main cast iron construction basically stayed, right? Ironically and tragically, right now the central intelligence agencies in the United States try to understand what the tyrant aggressor Putin mind, what's driving his mind and some analysis basically trace it back to that city, that second birth city of my father, which is Dresden which is where Putin was trained as a KGB agent, right? And they think that might have been the source of what's going on in his mind right now. In Munich right now, there is a demonstration going on as we speak in downtown, the mayor and the governor attend and their demonstrators holding up signs and this relates directly once again to architecture and as shelter because we have plunging sub-zero temperatures here again like in the 20s or something but these signs of these demonstrators basically said we rather freeze and shiver than getting Putin's oil anymore. And so this is a statement but then again, if you're out there this is what all the poor, the timing of this attack couldn't be worse because again, we're not yet in spring, it is still brutally cold here and to be out there and flee a country and having to stand, what did I hear? 60 hours in line for the Ukrainians, I mean, no blame to ask to check on their legitimacy to leave the country is no fun. I'm happy especially as Angela has proven to be able to have us Germans make up for when we had screwed up so badly and becoming a welcoming culture again and having let in a million people. I think we're nearing the same amount of refugees who are leaving the Ukraine right now and we're happy and ready to welcome again. But again, it all evolves around fossil fuel and can we get the slide up? I couldn't help myself to feel really guilty when I was going to skiing because all of a sudden I saw fossil fuel everywhere. Not only the bobcats, you see there the red ones at the top, right? But also the ski lifts, right? They run on fossil fuel. The artificial snow they make is based on fossil fuels. So the picture at the top, very top right could be from your archive if you would have your museum here to sell it because it's from 1833 where there was no fossil fuel and people were doing something that actually there was a renaissance and a revival during COVID where the lifts were not going people started to basically hike up the hill again. So something, and they're still doing this which is better workout for you than taking the lift and then maybe going back to the cave slash beach in combination with the marvels of modern technology maybe piezoelectric power could be built into skis and so you kind of regain the energy that you kind of lose through friction and gravity down there. They do this in fitness centers and they actually do this with breaks of cars that we go again, right? So I think obviously as bad as everything is but it is another opportunity for us to really thrive for independence as basically the key for freedom and get ourselves off again that we're kicking it in gears here. They're talking basically getting rid of heating your homes with fossil fuel, gas and oil by 2035 here in Europe and this is around the corner, right? And as we talked in many shows we've been testing that and building the first off the grid kindergarten for my hometown and Hanover as a passive house system. And that system is basically doing that. It's 15 kilowatt hours per square meter per year which is not bigger than the size of a hairdryer which yet then needs to be eliminated as well but that's as close as you can get it right now but we got to do this basically everywhere. And we're using this as to keep our spirits up at the bottom right you see where I actually drove before I turned on the radio and I showed the students the two most relevant architectural projects here in Munich right now. One is the one that just won the German architectural museum make you jealous. In Frankfurt we have a museum that's just for architecture and a jury and a steam jury choose a urban residential building that you see here having achieved that. It's basically around the paradigm of economy and saying how can you people who struggle to make ends meet? How can you provide an decent dwelling? That's pretty much what it is about. And they had to valiant engineer at this kind of dirty American term in a good way and squeeze out and use materials that are very profane and basically afford public and common spaces there. But it's basically within kind of the conventional paradigm and try to max it out and do the best. The other one at the bottom right is by an architect Peter Heimer who is trying to break with conventions and he's trying to synthesize basically habitation with circulation and you're living in these beehives and Peter basically when we talked on the phone and I introduced myself and where I come from basically said oh I wouldn't mind visiting you in Hawaii and I basically said we wouldn't mind being me up Scotty wise you're building to Hawaii because it's pretty much ready to be moved in in Hawaii because it's already having the major shelter from the rain and the sun and it doesn't need that triple pain glazing that we need so desperately here, right? So all our thoughts are with obviously the people in pain over there and hopefully we can minimize their pain with all the collective efforts all over the world whatever we can do we have to do it but immediately parallel to that we have to change the world so we won't have these terrible dependencies anymore and we know even from personal relationship if they're based on dependency that's a bad thing because then one person is in charge and the other one has to obey too and there can never be a healthy relationship and that's how it's been in the world around fossil fuel let's face it and if we all be able to get off that and don't rely on each other we can live on our own and by ourselves then we be more relaxed we can then reach out again and can basically welcome each other you know in a more relaxed way in a less tense way Ryan. Yeah and let's just say that it would be heartening if from this disaster from this war disaster that's currently going on that we come out of this with technological improvements that will make things better for everybody the reliance on fossil fuel as you said to be reduced and even here in the warm tropics we now are addicted to air conditioning which we don't need and we use it because energy is available and it's inexpensive enough for us to spend it wildly if we want and this is to our detriment because again the Hawaiian islands have absolutely no fossil fuels available it all has to be shipped in but we do have abundant wind and we have abundant sun these are things that it would be far wiser for us to be making use of instead of turning a switch and burning oil or coal for us to have light and to us for us to have our computers functioning and for us to drive our cars we at the moment may not be feeling the potential of Russia cutting off our energy but it's still a major concern for us and this should make us think about it Well when I asked the emerging generation how they feel one of them was saying by the way there was a Russian spy ship spotted off the shores of our islands so they're there but your other point is more important and that's how we turn it to a positive angle and it's sort of reminding me of why I came to Hawaii because I believe and I continue to believe even though it's been a decade ago and we need to walk that talk more than talking it we are the place on earth where we can demonstrate this overnight almost and we're working on this in studio currently and we will share this at some point that we're gonna convert downtown Honolulu into a beacon of self-sufficiency and self-dependency and again, building a passive house building and here in Germany I know what that takes takes a lot, takes a lot of effort takes a lot of materials, takes a lot of energy because in best case you build a building from scratch with all the materials that you have around you but in the bitter cold you have to build a greenhouse in one way or the other right and that needs glass and it needs triple pane glass so it's really hard but in Hawaii is the place on earth where you can demonstrate that immediately of course it will be a little bit like cheating because it's not that easy anywhere else in the world but it will be great as a motivator, as an incubator to demonstrate, hey here we go, make it happen immediately and then everyone gets inspired by that wherever they are in the world and they obviously need to adjust in the depth that to their circumstances. Okay, well with that we're at the end of this very different special show and what you just said last is how we will reconnect next week because we've got to look at the most recent developments in Hawaii and we'll assess them and they're not such good news unfortunately they're all what we always end on good notes in suggesting alternatives how to do it better so with that please all stay most importantly humanly, humane, humanly human, bye bye.