 Good early evening here from downtown Honolulu Hawaii. Welcome back to human-humane architecture Today's show will be dedicated to the most important single-family residents on our island on the islands of Hawaii and We had Howard Wigg in the last show and this house here could be seen as a demonstration of all the principles that he's been talking about Making houses easy breezy he being mr. Breezy easy So today we want to show you a house that demonstrates that and maybe to the surprise of the audience It's not a new house. Well, actually it is because it's as fresh as it used to be But it was built quite a while ago and our guests today is Bob Lillestrand who is a dear colleague of mine architect by training and Currently dedicated to keep that's how I caught the show the Lillestrand legacy. So welcome to the show. Well, thank you, Martin Thanks for inviting me. Thanks for your total immersion in Hawaiian architecture and particularly for your support of this house Thank you. Thank you And I charge you with a tough task to talk about the house in about three minutes only because then we want to talk about You and how you keep the house so young and fresh and up to date in today's world Well, let me give you some background on the architect the client and the house and I'll try to keep it two or three minutes Asapoff designed by Vladimir Asapoff in late 1948 and built by my parents 51 52 Little background on Asapoff. He was born in Vladivostok, Russia But his father was a military out of shape to the Tsar of the emperor of Japan from the Tsar So he moved to Tokyo when he was two years old. He was raised in Tokyo The Russian Revolution happened so the family could not go home he Watch Frank Lloyd Wright build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and then in 1923 was what the Japanese called the great Kanto earthquake and The mother did not want to remain in Japan anymore She thought it was dangerous because it was earthquake prone. So the family moved to San Francisco to get away from earthquakes Uh Graduate of UC Berkeley in 1931 great depression little work, but a friend said let's go to Hawaii So he came here worked briefly for a couple of architects and for a building supply firm and opened his own office 1936 practice continuously until the staff basically until 1998 62 years Nobody's very sure nobody's sure about how many structures he built hundreds Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm My parents interesting multicultural story. My dad was a second generation Swedish American, but when he was four his parents moved to Sichuan China where they lived for 33 years from 1916 to 1949 My dad left China 1927 his parents stayed came back to the coast His father was a medical missionary. My dad intended to do the same So he came back to go to school, but he graduated medical school in 1937 Asia was in chaos His parents were saying why don't you hesitate and see what happens? So he came to Hawaii figuring he was more than halfway home and he figured I might as well do an internship in the West He came here because he wanted to study tropical diseases and work with Asian culture and That's how we got here. You never left. Mm-hmm for a long time They held on to the dream of going to China, but eventually they gave up and said let's build out And the house is different than these days when you would think where should a house be? Ideally you would say on the beach on the coastline. You got the view of the ocean Everybody was looking for beach lots. Exactly. My dad said no. He said I want to be in the mountains I want panoramic views. I want cool breezes and furthermore where he lived in China got over 100 degrees in the summer So the professors were my grandfather taught how to retreat up in the mountains and he would spend his summers And we're most when we say this is the most important maybe the most fancy house Most people then want to hide it and don't want to show it in this case. It's totally different, right? well, it Received immediate recognition basically this of course was a major article pace setter edition cover in 53 pages the editor house beautiful she was there for 26 years was Elizabeth Gordon and She did 17 of these where she devoted an entire issue to one house Interestingly, this was not the first publication of it and that's the by the way page ones or if you can bring this up in the background It would be great Thank you The landscaping was published in Sunset magazine in 1953 specifically the whole front bank used to be lilies They're not there anymore too hard to maintain But it's probably been published. I don't know 50 60 times at this point all over the world It is on the national register It's also unique because the architect did or selected all the major furniture Mostly selected I guess the freestanding furniture But he was known for built-in furniture and he did all of that of course. He also did the interior design work It's also unusual because it remains as it was basically. It's exactly the way as it was 60 60 years ago and It's also thoroughly documented My mother was on site every day She wrote extensive letters at one point she even said save these letters because I'm writing the story of the house and they photographed everything and The contents are there and all the architectural documentation sketches little tracing paper sketches The actual drawings everything is there so the the architectural historians really love it and So again the first publications from 1958 So usually people think you know when houses are a couple years old or a couple decades They basically the new mentality is bulldoze it down and build a new house So and your thanks to you and your great work. You keep this house alive first of all physically taking care of it, but also sort of Sort of mentally taking care of it because you continue Publications you continue so the Metropolis magazine that Zuri showed which is picture two is dated from 2008 and it has how many pages This one is probably six pages. This one is like eight pages and 17 photographs. That was just published about three months ago May in Japan interesting that was generated out of Monocles Monocles headquartered in London, but it was generated out of their Japan Bureau and they have major bureaus in all the major cities it's and the photographer, I think I'm really pleased with this article it's wonderful and The photographer is I believe he's from Japan, but he does live here. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm There's so the house just to clarify that you said the house is is almost as a museum and actually so No one is living in the house. Nobody's living at least not in the core part of the house There is an apartment on the property. My wife and I live there But the house is is is sort of not Occupied all the time, but it is kept alive their people and there when other people we do Maybe three four tours a week. Mm-hmm. And these are very extensive tours. They last for about an hour and a half to two hours We have an association with Holly Kulani. They send guests up there on two days of a month They will offer a tour of the house to their guests. Mm-hmm We do a lot with students We even had a studio from Harvard up there. Mm-hmm a few months back And since you mentioned that we should give credits to Dean Sakamoto For particular reasons, right? Well Dean pretty much put all this on the map He's Dean is originally from here practicing architect, but he was if I have this all correct He was working in New Haven and a professor at Yale Mm-hmm, and he came out here on a consulting job and kept running into osseboff osseboff osseboff Finally decided to look into it and he curated the show mm-hmm a museum show He did the book on Osseboff's work. Mm-hmm. He organized the film on Osseboff's work So actually in many ways none of this would have happened without Dean He's the one that really noticed because he started to do research and he couldn't find anything He said why isn't anything done on this guy? He was brilliant Yeah, and he did you mentioned that so he did a book and with a book when an exhibition or the book was a documentation of that exhibit and It was the catalog for the exhibit exactly and so he was the director of exhibitions at Yale and in that capacity He did it and they built awesome with his students They built scale models and the model of your house is in your house Yeah, I think he had his students the studio is doing models for a couple of years Yeah, and they're beautiful models corner his models. They're big Interiors are in the model and they traveled as far as where I come from there was an exhibit that exhibit went Models were built in New Haven flown to Honolulu for the opening of the show then flown back to New Haven for the show at Yale Mm-hmm, and then flown to Frankfurt for to be shown in the German Museum architecture in Frankfurt and then flown back to Honolulu And this is amazing and a little bit now I'm pouring Water into that wine. We just say the next show we should do with wine We just got it authorized by our Director like that. There you go Let's talk about that actually the mentality the lifestyle the mindset that's behind the house later on a little bit and The the phenomenon is that there's a saying at least in Germany that the profit isn't that much that much worth in its Own front yard on her own front yard And that's certainly true that this house to some degree is is no one more outside of the island Sort of a critical core of people obviously know about it and do that best interestingly That's true. Yeah, it It's probably best known in Japan. Mm-hmm. It's been published many many times Mm-hmm. I It might be fair to say a majority of the people that come on our tours are from Japan. Mm-hmm. There's also been published in China Russia England Norway Australia We've been a number of fashion shoots as well. Yeah. Yeah, and there is Their travel guides and there's one that I put in the announcement That's one of the most important art and architecture publishers in the world I also had quartered in London and Monaco is the other one But the other one is fade and wallpaper. Yeah wallpaper, and that's a magazine. We can highly recommend They're only ten bucks. Yeah, this one is as well Not much more expensive and they have a similar city guide which I'd like to that's fine But this one was just released But the thing is our little sort of constructive criticism is that we both without knowing about it We went to Barnes and Noble, right? Well, I don't know about this one. No, but the other one came out I called Barnes and Noble and I said you have the wallpaper city guide. They said no Yeah, I mean what giving credits to Wei Fang she actually had it when she still had the eye I remember that I remember that and then when she switched over to the agorites another forum So she she stopped doing it also for financial reasons and and she told me that the AI a the local AI a That you're an associate So you're trained as an architect, but you don't practice in an architect But you're highly involved in in the profession of the discipline. I did work for I went back to architecture school You probably know late in life and I did work for an architect for five years. Yeah So I have some experience. Yeah, and you're very strong ties to the AI a Here and then work together and also with the house and in general And so we were trying to Wei was saying she was the AI a said well Why don't you continue to do and make a bookshop and she said well bring me the customers? You know because otherwise I can't run right professionally and profitably So this is something for us to think about that that many people who are culturally interested Will be in major cities in the world in the good bookstores And there is a tower of fate and wallpaper city guides and they pick up the Honolulu one and they come here with a Perception of that. This is a prime piece of architecture and that's how they get to you But when you go here into the major and we don't have few Libraries and and and bookstores you can't get it. So once again, this is important So bringing this on the show. Well, I'm sure that this and also the wallpaper one. They're both out of Europe Mm-hmm. I guess into this part of Europe anymore. I'm not sure They probably got the bookstores all over the world. Yeah. Yeah, that's certainly true. Yeah So we will take a short break and pick pick up from there again, so Thanks again for tuning in about The Lily strand legacy with Bob Lillestrand, so see you soon. Thank you Aloha, I'm Richard Emory. I'm with co-host Jane Sugimura of condo insider Hawaii's weekly show about association living The purpose of these videos is to educate board members and condo residents about issues relating to association living we hope they're helpful and that they assist in resolving Problems that affect the relationship between boards and their residents Each week Thursday at 3 p.m. We bring you exciting guests industry experts who for free will share their advice About how to make your association a better place to live and answer a lot of very interesting questions Aloha, we hope you'll tune in. We'll come back to human humane architecture today with Bob Lillestrand about his Lily strand legacy Bob So the the show is is about humane humane architecture and I explained at times when I got the chance that it's it's an inclusive approach So we're talking about a house high up on the hills. It sounds like high-end and But actually the house isn't right talk about the scope both the physical size and also about the means There were available back About more than a half of the century ago. Well, you know Asapov took the Principles of Modernism basically and just softened them made them a little more Hawaiian Used wood and natural stone rather than concrete deep-deep ease slanted roofs The house is set back from the road Basically the entry sequence starts as you start driving in the 1400 foot driveway It's all overgrown and closed in he wanted a little path through the woods to come to this house As you approach the house the roof is very very conservative He did not like flamboyance on the exterior of his house Parking set away from the house a little bit of a buffer garden between the parking in the house Dark low ceilings and cool as you walk past the garden and into the main house the ceiling remains low And then finally he brings you to this point where he gives you the aha view But he takes you through this whole sequence. Yeah, and you talk about humane architecture the The Everything is comfortable You know, it's not like you walk through the door and you're in the living room There's a sequence. There's a passage and then it leads to here and at least there and He was brilliant with that. He was brilliant at these these ways that he You know manipulated and then offered views or retained views and then offered views It's a very it's also a very modest house and if you're comfortable to talk about the initial building cost The cost for $60,000 and that doesn't sound much. I went on the web. I went on to a Inflation table that came out to four hundred twenty thousand dollars This is what a generic DHSL house costs out there in Cabrera these days, right? So my mother who was very very much involved with making this house It used to her that people would say well They can have that big fancy house because he's a doctor because her position was It's cheaper to build a well-designed house than a poorly designed. I when all your walls make sense and your framing makes sense You save money There's a picture here from the from the from these good old days, right? Oh, yeah This is this is what my mother called the rug. You're sweeping up the dust on the floor you Kick this thing out pick the the little door open and kick the thing up and sweep the dust out of the rug So the house had an 11-page document that she gave the architect on their very first meeting on what she wanted in the kitchen That's what we call an informed client who know what they want. Well, interestingly, there was a programmatic Document of two pages But a specific space list Document of 11 pages for the kitchen the programmatic one was for the whole house. Yeah And I have all that stuff yeah little sketches, you know Star, you know, whatever roses or whatever you call it of the show, you know wind directions And the houses as fresh today, I just had the chance to be up there. It's basically exactly the same It's in a very small furniture change in the library. Yeah So my dad at 92 who loved movies Didn't have to drive to the movies alone at night. He could we set up a little theater for it There are two Jack and Jill bedrooms that had built-in double bunks There were four kids that two boys started and one of them the two girls in the other later We moved out into other areas When we left those bunks were removed and these rooms were turned into offices other than that the house remains Exactly as it was 60 years ago. It's almost surrealistic. Yeah Well, and you had us over I have my oldest son Joey still visiting who's here with us Hi Joey and you had him up there and we caught up on many things and after you left I realized we never went downstairs. I Realized that we save that for next time back, right and and it is but I have to say the house Is also so fresh and up-to-date because of you and Vicki because you keep it alive when we say it's a museum I would sort of respectfully disagree because it's it's really fresh and Although you were humbly self-critical because you just came back from far away from North Carolina And what was one of the reasons you were there share that the house was actually duplicated Seven or eight times Wisconsin Kansas Aspen, Colorado North Carolina Perth, Australia, Norway, I believe and These folks would write my parents and said we we saw that your house in the magazine and we want to build it Please send us the plans is well. I can't do that. You know the plans basically are the are the architects plans and But anybody but a lot of cartoony's plans in here anybody could copy it a number of people did some of those people have kept in touch the grandchild of one of them has now become an architect and We actually went and visited one of those houses about two three weeks ago And it was it was actually a very strange feeling to walk through our house Somewhere else And it was very interesting because they basically followed the plan and they did look at the photos and follow the elevations somewhat But they made some changes and the changes were smart changes for their lifestyle So it's not exactly the same the basic layout is the same but And it was also sort of It was I think it's fair to say this is very Japanese, you know people Documentary filmmakers have come from Japan to fill in this house. Yeah, and I think they took this house. They made it American But it was still really good. Yeah, you know, I'm sure they had the family had a wonderful time in that house on 65 acres two lakes was beautiful And talking the events you have and you you rented out for certain events and filmmaking and you know usually when you think about you know actors and And producers and They make money, you know, what did they buy these days? There isn't there isn't any general sort of education Aesthetical education anymore. That's actually interesting because when you talk about your Scandinavian, you know family heritage You know Scandinavia has always been at the forefront of design education, right? You know, so there's that but you also had so talking TV here on the island. We have Y5 oh, there's there's an anecdote about high five who Y5 or even well, they shot there. Yeah It's actually interesting to me that When Alex walked in he looked at me and said who designed this house and I said Vladimir Asparov and he said you're kidding. I just bought an auspice house And so we got a long conversation and after about we'd gone downstairs and after about 45 minutes I said, you know, there's a hundred people waiting for you upstairs. Maybe you should go to work And he said yeah, I should but want to continue this conversation. So I gave him a card He got a hold of me that afternoon said can I come up on Saturday and I'm off on Saturday and then took us out to his house and it was it was really fascinating I've been to a number of us buff house But I'd love to see, you know, how he brings you into the house because that's such a big part of Very celebratory, you know, he was He was known for using very few words You know my dad asked him about asphalt and he said as little as possible. That's you know, I said Very sure. I asked him once about the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, which has all the They've redone it I'm not sure how it is now But it has the marble of different shades a lot of different shades And I just got back from San Francisco and I said, well, I said, have you been in the Museum of Modern Art? In San Francisco. He said, yeah, I said, what do you think? And he looked at me and he said to strike it That's all he said It's a Mario Bada by the way, I know Yeah, that's so true and always to do a little bit of architectural history here, which you know I'm far away from being anywhere close to that but I'm reflecting on things so when people Try to label it as sort of the local version of Frank right I'm always sort of in slight disagreeing with that. Of course, there's some truth to that But I think it's actually more he's more in the sort of in the realm The school of thought of the case study houses in back in California Craig Elwood, you know I thought did it the same way the houses are very sort of us almost austere very close very Nondescript and the very first show we did here is is with a friend of ours who who's less Wallach Yeah, he just met and unless his house on on on Maui isn't I love that house He's in that tradition wonderful and of course the means and methods are different because you know times have changed and You know even your house is built mainly out of redwood Which is also a reason why it doesn't have termite problems to the degree that other houses have and so less is this out of metal because today We run out of wood here in the area. So that's the logic evolution and you could call our house austere Some people do no and I mean this respectfully. Oh, yeah, I know but that's part of the beauty of it It is you know the it's simple. It's really clean lines. The furniture is very matter-of-fact and yet comfortable Yeah, yeah, yeah No, and it has this We were talking the other night about what It has this it's very peaceful It really affects people that have you know, it's a wonderful place to just be yeah Yeah, a lot of people will just drift off when they say you get this sort of magic feeling Mm-hmm, and you asked me what what do you attribute that to and you're the professor of architecture. That's your department at times No, there's and I think it's it's great that sort of some sort of critical mass of People who engage with cultural issues and it reminds me of when my sister who also Showed the house some years ago when she was visiting She happened to be an L in LA a couple of years ago and was able to visit the case Case study house 22 by Pierre Koenig, which is probably the most iconic and Joel Silver Who just made the Matrix movies, you know had bought the house at that time? So there is a sort of you know intellectual You know realm of people who start to notice and and and and see What the value of these things are and you know through them, you know, they became sort of cool You know again, which which is kind of important to to keep them cold And we're getting close to the end of the show and I want to use that one thought that I just had about Cool because we just want to make make clear that this house is literally and figuratively cool Because it's actually naturally ventilated, right? Yes, us pop was a fanatic about that He did not like air conditioning and it's beautifully naturally ventilated If you leave all the doors and windows shut it then it doesn't work But if you open the proper windows and you know, there's vents on the Malca side there's large windows on the Mackay side and even in relatively still days because of you know, warm air comes up from Paola Valley below Little breezes come in from the vents from from Malca. There's always a little bit of mixture There is one climate control room in the house air conditioning dehumidified and that's because We've got photograph material back into the 1800s in there and letters sold over that Swedish and And it's an amazing archive. So we also have this incredible archive. Thank you very much We reached the end of the show. Thank you very much for this little appetizer about the most awesome house on the island That you keep awesome and share. So thanks for doing that. Thanks for being here. Well, thank you Martin I hope for your interest That's your most welcome Okay, thank you very much Look forward to see you again next week and Tuesday early afternoon Here in downtown Lulu for a human humane architecture. See you then