 Welcome back to another human-humane architecture show here today in our groovy boomtown of Honolulu, Hawaii in 1976 Which now you know who my co-host is today. There's no mistaking. He still has the same hair the same smile Amazing so welcome to show that he doesn't look like that That that was me Many years ago, but that's appropriate because we're gonna be talking about a house That was built and at the time that that photograph was taken mid 70s Let's just say 76 although the photo might be 75 but doesn't matter That's what I look like when this house exactly because number two is what we talked about in the last show This is 1975 what warehouse that's right by Steve owl And but before we and this project is very very directly related to this project here And before we dive into that with the next picture We're going to talk about the zeitgeist, right? Absolutely, and there we go now 1970 the early 1970s was a very tumultuous time in the United States Because for the first time as you pointed out the USA went through a big withdrawal of the energy crisis 73 and that was a big trauma I lived through that as a 20 year old and I can tell you it was a big trauma to go from Using a lot of energy very heedlessly just suddenly having to convert to conserve and a lot of people were stuck with cars that were Way too big and it got terrible gas mileage. So there was this quick try to in this particular case Create a small car and AMC American Motors Corporation didn't have a lot of money They had to take a regular sedan cut the back of it off and turn it into this sort of bubble-like car The AMC Pacer which was Cookie look at that. I think they even widened it a little bit made it even more goofy So we want to maximize the width of the yeah in a state. Yeah, yeah And it was I can remember going to a car show and actually sitting in one of those Looking at it thinking I should purchase this and keep it for the future because it's so unusual Which I did not do you should have you should I have enough of other stuff I guess I deal with okay bringing a car as well Okay, and I would say not that we want to make the pace a literal and an analogy to that to that project here Steve might probably not like that, but no, maybe he would but I mean it as a compliment because the cases are iconic They're really typical for their zeitgeist and the zeitgeist is the first time after getting bigger and bigger and bigger in America Everything it was like tight in the belt. It was talking about Jimmy Carter We don't want to go there, but these were all the circumstances of America being kind of sensitive about issues of Ecology and economy right absolutely, and that's the time that this house that you're going to show people Exactly, so the story is that Steve basically This was the first time his biggest project As a young architect and he had been renting ever since before that And so this was a time when he thought I could maybe own But not really because he was still on a small budget, you know the fee was moderate So he only had the money that he had for renting basically for buying something so I limited him To finding a very very cheap lot and build very very cheaply and the next picture number four shows us And we know kind of reveal yet where it is, but This is it. This is pretty much like a jungle and this is a steep hill So that was the only thing that he could afford and so what do you do? If you would start like they do it today if you have a lot of money you bulldoze that you level it You got to do a lot of land moving and landfill and that's going to eat a chunk of money, right? So that was not able what's not possible to do that So as we always tell I always tell myself my students and my colleagues is like restraints and constraints They're actually not a problem there and a tremendous opportunity to be get the creative chooses going absolutely for architecture That's really true. Mm-hmm and constraints in lots of projects do the same thing. Yeah, absolutely So the next picture demonstrates actually the project the project is a staircase a glorified stair a large staircase and it's one that is I love that too that's in the cold violation I'm a big fan of that is the ones who know me very well that You know, there's no guard rail and Steve and Irene told me that Basically generations of children and grandchildren were basically tumbling down Rolling down the stairs never breaking the neck and that gets us to they call this project a treehouse And if you think about trees the animals like the monkeys in a jungle, right? They don't have guard rails either, right? They just know how to go up and down the tree. That's right So they did in that building right pretty awesome. So you might think well, where do they live? Where do they actually do all do they sleep on the stairs? Do they like stare on the stairs, right? So the next picture here shows that and here Steve and Where whenever there's a landing there is actually a dwelling space, right? And so here you can actually see how close he then naturally is to that hill, right? You could just pick the leaves is that close right? He's literally living in the jungle correct, which is very very cool. It is it is and the next picture is that all these pictures basically We took at our doko momo event when Steve and Irene had us over Kindly and showed us the house and and told us the story. So everything. I'm telling is sort of repeating Recalling first what I heard from Steve and all right, so so that's that so you can see here There's a lot of people right so even though it's a small house You can you can have in these sort of landings in these sort of dwelling nooks you can have Significantly enough large spaces that you can that you can do with things very well Let me point out too that at the top of the picture on the upper left Those wooden trusses that wooden structure is something that is present in Ward Warehouse Yes, and it's also present in what we'll be talking about next week Which is another one of Steve ours buildings, which is the buzzest steakhouse in Pearl Ridge And it is very typical not only of his work that we have seen that I've become familiar with But also from the time period talking about the 1970s. So this if I'm not mistaken is Probably raw unfinished wood just stained. Yes, it's not painted because you've got the contrast of the white walls Yeah, the dark and that crisscross structure. Yeah, and the exposed structure is part of his work Excellent point and you know, we don't know the budget of the Ward Warehouse Exactly, but we know the budget of his own house this house here, which close which was close to nothing Yeah, so not only did the lot had to be very cheap But also the construction cost has to be really cheap and ever if I recall correctly, you know It was in the $60,000 range and 70,000 so the lot and the house basically the same but right something You don't even get a tiny house for what they call tiny houses. Yeah, and this is a tiny house But a little bigger tiny house stack up tiny house So and and everything was made way back and so you got to do the index and the inflation and all these things Yes, so it's it's it's also a custom house So these pictures here show that everything is custom made is really tailored around the needs of Irene and Steve and their children and And they are and they're their loved ones So it's really it's really nice to see how it's sort of custom fit, you know Almost like a glove around their human needs and activities. How many how many children do they have? You put me on the spot. Okay. No, I'm just wondering how many people live there How many people he designed the house to hold? Yeah, yeah If you say children that means there were at least four people Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, these two kids and new adults. Yeah, yeah, no There were more and grandchildren, you know, so it was like a beehive at times I know which the house was able to accommodate because like in a tree You have birds on this level of branches and on this level one so you can pack them, right? Because you find your privacy when you go one level down or half level down that reminds me too and this is maybe a little far afield, but the the diagrams I've seen of Rainforests in which there are huge trees immense trees and there are different ecological levels within this whole structure This vertical structure of the amount of light the amount of rain What there is to eat and who lives where in that natural ecosystem of immense trees That's exactly what lives at certain areas certain plants will only grow up here certain plants will only grow down here Certain animals will only eat those plants. Thank you to Soda I will make this a required lecture from our current studio. We're dealing with that. So thank you for that lecture here I'm sorry. I appreciate it So that picture number 12 shows sort of the creativity and how ingenious the house is that a bathtub Basically is sunken into this if you can get back a number 10 for a second You know the the bathtub is basically sunken in into the into the ground and So you have to step down to get into this sort of trough And that function as a shower and a bathtub. It is yeah It is and there is other ones like that. So there's a couple of other ones So it's really amazing and obviously what we tell every client what we tell ourselves would tell our the emerging art Generation is you want to have natural ventilation in the bathroom? Everyone knows that whoever has an enclosed trap bathroom you get mold like crazy here in the tropics So as we saw here, you really want to want to have that But on top of that you have a view and we already Disclose the view because the view is behind us behind us right this minute That's so now basically most people who are familiar with Wahoo know this and you will explain as a little further where yeah So this is that this is a hill behind Lonnie Kai Lonnie Kai is a development a subdivision of the 1920s and when it was originally laid out when it was originally put up for sale The idea that the buyers the idea was that the buyers would be well to do people who would build second homes for Weekend retreats were going on vacation So a lot of the houses originally in Lonnie Kai which now is a very very upscale neighborhood Were very low-key small houses Yeah, and of course as you just pointed out all of the flat land would have been built upon and developed many many years Before Steve was able to purchase there because that vertical property was something that people didn't want to purchase and Honestly, if you weren't an architect to begin with it's probable that you wouldn't consider buying something like that because of the logistics Yeah of trying to build there and everybody as you said their first thought would be bulldoze it So we have a nice flat plane to build on and exactly and Steve did this instead Which you can see there are all these sort of landings. They're all these hovering balconies and lanays that Allow you to really enjoy the view you're literally like in the trees and You're out there in the elements and the next couple of pictures. So number number 13 is one where Our background picture again. There are some areas because it gets windy. This is the this is the the wind port side, right? So it gets very windy. So you have to have glass at certain parts To keep the breeze off But then in other parts like this one here, you got to slice view and sliced air this this house is entirely Basically naturally ventilated and it's brilliant because it's such a small footprint So you just have one jealousy on this side another jealousy on that side and you basically get get the get the breeze through What we saw a number of 15 is a is a very spectacular spectacular a special part of the house if we can get 15 back That you see here the jealousy obviously and there's another one just like that on the other side to the right And there's something very characteristic for for modernism. That's the glass corner that's when architects really want to show off sort of immateriality and and and being being and if you're afraid of heights you shouldn't get close to that to that window because it drops like crazy Well, you know when you say that it reminds me that I have read that starting in the 1930s as you It was kind of a cliche of modernism to have a corner window Mm-hmm, and that was a big deal because up until then every building had to be supported on all four corners So you always had a post or a pillar at each corner And once you started building buildings that could stand up without that corner post you took advantage of it and Put some glass right on the corner there So this had been something that got started as I said in the 30s and in the 70s You could make it absolutely clean and clear with just a seam of some kind of sealant To put those two big pieces of plate glass together and I have not been to this house But it looked like that was actually an entire sort of rectangle that protrudes out exactly And so with glass and then the louvers here and here and we will see them later How that sort of iconically looks from from the outside. Oh, yeah, okay. All right. And yeah So why don't we take a little technical Promotional break here and then we're going to be back with the soda and Martin and talking and showing Irene and Steve's treehouse. See you in a minute. My name is Calvin Griffin host of military in Hawaii We tears here on think tech Hawaii every Friday at 11 a.m Please join us. We'll be talking about issues concerning our military veterans community and other related issues that concern all of us Hi, this is Jane Sugimura and I'm the co-host for condo insider and We're on think tech Hawaii every Thursday at three o'clock and we talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners and So I hope you will join us every week at on Thursday and We appreciate you viewing our show aloha He stand the energy man here Thanks for joining us on think tech Hawaii and I invite you to join me every Friday on think tech Hawaii at 12 o'clock Where I give you all the energy news. That's worth talking about here in Honolulu and I love to talk about hydrogen So join us on Friday on my lunch hour here at think tech Hawaii be there aloha We'll come back to the Soto and Martin talking about Irene and Steve ours tree house in Lonnie Kai That's a very exciting story of young architect You know with their first big project ward warehouse, which was really zeitgeist II Then having this unique chance to build a house for themselves, but being constrained with close to no budget both for buying property and land and I should add that That actually even The because the land was cheap. It wasn't enough. He needed to talk his business partner into Basically teaming up with him and there's another house right next to it and that's his business partners house So they even need to be creative on that part now You know the thing that just came to mind as we were discussing this and looking at pictures of the site in the house There was something here in the 1970s called a pole house Which you may be familiar with in which it was a Structure not unlike this in that it was wood and it was natural which is what we liked in the 70s And it contained it was sort of built on Telephone poles so telephone poles or utility poles wooden ones were used as the basic framework for this and then you Created it around that and the the main one that was built was I say I remember a University of Hawaii project in Manoa Valley And it reminds me of this because it like the treehouse was associated very much with a lot of surrounding vegetation So you went into this natural wood house and looked out at and were among a lot of trees A lot of vegetation a lot of plants in a wet moist environment So again, this reminds me again very much of the 1970s, which is the time we're talking about And if you can bring back number eight for a second here I forgot to comment on something that you correctly said which is the sort of expressionism of structure The beams the wrong kind of that's right. That's right. Correct. Correct. Yeah, so here it is so We said, you know at word warehouse It was sort of celebrated in almost exhibitionist, you know way right whereas again here It was the pure necessity because once again budget did not allow I mean nor did one want to because of the That's the thinking of the times, right? So one wanted to express but also one needed to express I mean this house is, you know down to the small dollar Making something out of nothing, right? Right. So you had you had really little choice as to leave it raw and rugged and And and so it's it's you know, what warehouse might be a little bit more fetishized as you you know perfectly pointed out in the last show We talked about it was all about selling it It was as much about selling it as as much as what it actually was correct correct the image was really part of that Yeah, yeah, the image that was stated I was also going to say in the photograph that we just were looking at of the of the kitchen look at the bench and Look at the countertop and look at the structure. That's above that That is raw wood as well. I mean, it's got a it's got a finish on it. Yeah, but it is a thick Heavy substantial pieces of wood which are displayed openly and honestly as pieces of wood and they're not pretty Dup, there's not a formica. There's no granite top. I mean that wasn't really very very prominent at that point anyway But he's again saying look this is the raw wood that we are using as its natural self. Yeah Which is very appropriate if you think about the context again and setting that's right You're in nature. So you don't want to oppose nature You don't want to come in and bring the tilts with other carbon footprints with other BTU's, you know And also you want to build I mean the big thing today is like healthy homes, right? I mean, it's about we all breathe Their families exactly fewest adhesives fewest outgassing chemical materials That was not much of a that wasn't as much of a concern in the 1970s We didn't know about it as much, but certainly that was we were more into naturalness, you know being real Absolutely, so the picture of 16 is Again, there is this multitude of places where you can get exposed to the outdoors and And you can also get up on the roof and the roof isn't to be permanently occupied But when there's a beautiful sunset They went up there You know the stairs goes all the way up to there and you got to watch you don't hit your head I remember and then you basically lift up this little Sort of the term sort of self-made comes to my mind in a very appreciative way that You know, this wasn't off the shelf these days architects sit in their office And they have all these binders in the back and then they pull and say oh this product There's this product So this is basically all from scratch and this makes the house so special, right? And I don't think even say when you say custom home, that's a term of these days I don't think this does the house credit. I would say it's self-made in a very sort of passionate way So this this lid is basically, uh, you know coated or covered with if we go back to 16 with this acrylic So you see like, you know, it's it's sort of the smoked So it it it reflects the heat and doesn't get too much heat gain through there But it's translucent so you can you can look you can look through And and so it's it's all and you just like, you know, go up there and lift it away And you can get out there and have have a most spectacular view of the suns that I can figure and even, you know When the sun is still there. It's just absolutely fantastic. So, you know, you were saying it's among the trees I would point out. It's actually above the tree. Oh, that's good point And in the view that we're looking at with us be that we were looking at it is higher than the palm trees So you have an unobstructed view the trees are around you and behind you But in front of you. Yeah. Yeah is the open view and this is a picture I'm very critical of because that's how most People would start to Describe the house and I think it does the house the least justice because This is what we traditionally call bird's-eye view or this is you know, and and but um Yeah, we're not birds and I would say this is when we say bird's-eye. Well, this is the vulture view And I mean this is the view the profession of Realtors no offense took and that's actually was how the house was was marketed because Steve and Irene Got to the point where they say they want to retire more and they want a more Accessible home for their needs in their part of this part of their life So they were looking for Someone who would sort of take over the house and We visited as doko momo and we were very worried because it's a very special house, right? It's in a house that doesn't really have traditional bedrooms all this terminology that doesn't have a stair with a guard rail That doesn't have marble countertops all these things that people Think they would need now which we highly question here in the show because as one sees you don't need them You're actually better off if you don't have all this stuff But this is really sort of avant-garde It has always been avant-garde, but it had stayed avant-garde, which is like, you know great a great quality So the next picture is the uh 18 which uh picture we took which is small But uh actually is exactly the illustration for what you just said before This is the house above the trees, right? Is the big tree above the lower trees You have that in nature too, right? It is. Yes, you do. That's right. And also too That you pointed out when we were talking beforehand. It is a weathered wood structure So there's no paint on that. There's no artificial surface that you see absolutely You see natural wood that has weathered to that grayish appearance Obviously when it got when it was first built it would have looked more raw But now it is Much more part of that environment and I think that's really nice considering that it is surrounded by nature It's on a steep cliff. It's on a steep hill. It doesn't protrude out a lot. It's not sort of invasive in the environment It's kind of at one with the environment in a nice way Perfect picture for that is the next one is number 19 Oh, yeah, there they are Shows how it works and as you perfectly said this is actually vertical or raw cut siding so the water always drains off And um, yeah, it's all natural. I always tell my clients, you know If they say, oh, why don't we paint the wood? I said once painted always painted You always got to go back to your maintenance intervals if you don't that you're in trouble So the best is actually to leave the wood untreated and and wood can last a long time and um, it's you know, um Again the nature of what warehouse is different than this one here as a typology So also by nature this has weathered much better And also the climate and the environment is much better. It's very way more windy here So when you got rain, you have the breeze basically dried out Pretty soon after that helping to evaporate as long as you Dry the rain the water the humidity off immediately. It's not a threat to to wood at all So that's um, that's obviously a great um, a great quality the house has and if we go back to, uh, number 19 one more time here is that um The the sort of um Strategy of the house reminds me a lot of master lukan for example amongst others where The house when you look at it, it looks strange because it doesn't follow any conventions, right? Of openings or proportions Correct, and I will never forget ashore cows blew me away, which you can't figure out what proportion what scale What these openings are Once just like this house here once you are and have the chance to be in it once you Understand the logic from the inside You will understand it from the outside and you will appreciate it. So if we go back to, uh, 19 one more time again is like that And we took this when we were we were so, you know It was about the house So we spent a lot of time and they hosted it graciously and then we were going down it was starting to get dark So that's when you see how the light, uh, you know goes on in the building So that top big thing there that opening is exactly that spectacular, right sort of hovering, uh, you know in the clouds Right space with a corner with a corner window, right and you see the you know, your iconic, uh, trust Wood trust looking right through the window. There it is And and uh equality. So it's it's also taking a very different approach to the views right as well That we have in architecture so much. We got a Phase out a number 20 is, uh, thanking, uh, Steve and Irene who had us over But also for being such a great inspiration and we started with you in the 70s So we're gonna close with a little laugh about me in the 70s now It's time to look at you looked at de soto in the 70s now. Let's see martin in the 1970s 21 And I was I was building a tree house with my buddy here and this would be Unimpossible these days with a paranoia of liability We were given a bunch of boards and nails and hammers and went to a public city construction site Later later on I was in my I was like in my tens like I don't know 12 or 10 12 in that range And later on 22 together with my family business my father and my sister We were building we called this tree top apartment so you can certainly see some inspiration there But most importantly is the last picture is number 23 where we're currently with an emerging generation 13 students and myself having proposed this here, which is called stratosphere Which tries to provide dwelling and dignity For the most underserved who who don't have a home who don't have a roof of their heads So we want to thanks Steve for being a lasting inspiration and the very best news is that actually they have found Buyers for potential buyers for the house who will keep the house and Appreciate the house With so a new family will end so the legacy will live on and continue And that is that is something to consider when you build a real unique property Absolutely. So with that all good things are three We're going to have one last of steve's sort of late hippie era of the 70s And you already released what it will be it will be juicy and meaty It will be that's right who likes steaks. It will be buzzer steakhouse So see you for that next week. Thanks for tuning in