 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. Glad to have you all back for another exciting episode of Human-Humane Architecture here from our sometimes-evolved, elevated islands of Hawaii. And today we're looking back into something that we have over the last couple of years, I should say, and that's elevate structure. I say it's our most exotic architectural invention about dignity and dwelling, potentially, on our islands and way beyond. And we have its father, Nathan Toothman, with us. Hi, Nathan. Hey, Martin. How are you? And you are, and you're not here, as one can tell. But where is that what we can see in the background picture? Well, I'm in California. I'm not sure exactly which picture you have, but I'm in the Bay Area. Yeah, you are. And if we bring slide number one here, that is when we visited you last time. And we was actually me physically being over there. And this is just one of these wonderful moments sort of captured you and your family, your daughter up there in your treehouse, as some would oversimplify and call elevate structure. So let's, and please, you guys go back and revisit if you don't quite know what elevate is. We've actually been doing two shows, the release. And so ever since then, we want to now update everyone in ourselves on what has been happening to elevate ever since. So if we go to the slide number two, the next couple of slides are going to show that elevate was on tour quite a bit on the road, like with a rock band. And having many shows and many gigs, one after another. Where was this one here on slide two, Nathan? That was in Los Angeles for a Sean White Aaron style event. It's a music and snowboarding festival. And so it was the brand activation for the company Boxed Water is better. And I would say, you know, using this analogy of the rock world, I think, you know, elevate is a good groupie that is loyal to, you know, it's idle and but then again, is very sort of versatile in adjusting to the changing needs into the changing locations and the changing sort of audiences. If we could go to the next slide number three, there's another impression here, which is that the same event or was that another one? No, this is in Las Vegas for the Burning Man Art Car Festival. So this is, you know, a bunch of art cars that are taken to Burning Man. They brought them all together into this giant parking lot and sponsored by Lyft. And so community came in and engaged with the vehicles. And so they wanted our structure there to be be part of that. We should take a chance to greet our friend Christian Beck here at this point, who I think was at the Burning Man event as well. Have you have you met him there? Or I mean, you met him before, but I'm not sure if this time. Yeah, we met here in the Bay Area. And then I know you went to Burning Man, but we haven't been to Burning Man personally yet. This is just outside of that. So, so hi, Christian, by the way. And we got to do a show about your crazy friction welding with dowels at some time soon. But let's go back on the road with Elevate, the next picture here. This is the Lyft sort of association that you can see here in Elevate, sort of in a condition that is still familiar to us from the last time we visited. But the next couple of slides are going to show it in one of your favorite settings, in one of your biggest fans and mentors of Elevate. Go to the next picture, number five, please. Who and where is that, Nathan? This is in Las Vegas on the Zappos headquarters in their central courtyard. So they purchased three structures. Was it springtime delivered in the summer? And so this is being used at a brand summit. So a lot of the brands that Zappos works with all came in for this kind of big corporate conference. And so that's the image you see there. And we see a couple more. If we go to six here, we can see another impression. And again, Elevate is a very social character and beast, right? Likes to hang out, likes to be friendly, like to be friend people. And people befriend under it very sort of almost naturally, right? Because the circular nature of Elevate is very very inviting, right? And you sit at a round table, so to speak. You have something above you that gives a certain sense of shading, but also gives a certain limit to the sky. So you feel comforted and sort of cozy, but not trapped. Is that all correct to say? Yeah, and it helps bring people together. So Zappos is all about culture and bringing people together. And so these structures help facilitate that. Yeah. And from a formal point of view, and I hate to be a formalist that I want to be the least, but here it's obviously they're sort of hollow doughnut circle of the structure. And with them sort of repeating sort of the stamped out circle is quite fitting. And then sort of the additional sort of islands, the sort of astroturf islands here that were made is quite a pleasing composition here as for a social event. So the next picture gives us just another view. But if we if we jump to six here, again, the next not going back, but going one. Oh, eight, I mean, not sorry. Yeah, number eight here. You can see that elevator is very flexible. It can. And I've, you know, we tested this out a year ago in your front yard. What happens if you split elevate and have and how that sort of works? And again, if people haven't seen the previous shows, you don't come from architecture. You come from engineering, your nuclear naval engineer. So sort of figuring things out scientifically is your nature, but you're very experimental and sort of cutting a circular sort of self supporting system in half is sort of quite ambitious, but you're never too shy to try out things. Right. So here is sort of, you know, split in half elevates forming another constellation. Yeah, this is a request from Zappos. They wanted the structures to roll around. And so we hadn't really thought about that, but we really liked the idea because then it allowed them to really tailor it to different events and keep the structures in the courtyard and not have to move them out. So it's really flexible for all the different events that they have in this space. And then, you know, similar with the half tree that was kind of their idea too, that we accommodated and it just opens up a lot more options. You know, just great flexibility that we didn't really envision originally. And last picture of that sort of sequence here is the next one, which again is a big talking rock star and stage and being a groupie. And here elevate is sort of almost like a roadie and stands in the back. Again, the sort of half cut thing is here in the back. So once again, just demonstrating that elevate is a great party animal and very sort of multifunctionally suited for various situations. But going to the next picture, number 10 here is returning to, and this is revisiting our previous shows, how elevate evolved and continues to be evolving. And at the bottom right, I was sort of categorizing it sort of in sort of school of thought terms and pointing out some of your sort of quiet mentors. And one of them is Bucky Fuller and you then sort of without me knowing by recently sharing, you seem to have been inspired by Bucky. But as we were talking before the show, as it's the nature of scientists and an engineer, not in a formal way, but in a performative way to rethink sort of the top part of elevate. And if we jump to the slide 11 here, we can see what happened and explain this a little bit more to us. Yeah. So we basically shortened on the top of it from what it earlier images you saw. And then to keep it kind of at a waste level. And then we knew we needed a roof system over it. So the option that you'll see coming up is kind of like a convertible roof or like a cabana roof that comes across and retracts. And so the original idea for the dome was just to provide structural support for that. But then it turned out to be a really pleasing architectural feature as well. And we got so many moving parts going on to elevate, we wanted to then use some things that are already established and known. And so the geodesic dome is obviously well established. And so that's kind of why that was chosen. Yeah. And what looks almost like a little the little cap that Jews wear on their bare heads, right, that little thing in the back, the fabric is also a very performative nature. Maybe explain that a little more in detail. Yeah. So the idea there was that you could put the solar panels on that, you know, hexagonal shape. And then that the structure itself, being a circle, it could rotate to kind of follow the sun to chase it for maximum solar energy. And then also to shade the interior of the structure. And also just created like a it really enhanced the beauty of the geodesic dome. I always thought sometimes when you encompass the entire space with panels, the dome kind of loses its, you know, prettiness. And so that was just kind of an experiment that we are working with that we like to turn out well. And then on the inside of the gig, it gives a nice definition to the space and, you know, a fixed wall to put, you know, in real system to put things on. But then the dome can be completely finished off as well. And then see it's very bucky like, because again, you come from performance and that at the end creates form, but form is not at the beginning form is at the end of the process. And to my knowledge, I think that the Maxian home, there's something I think the big fan at the top is rotatable. But otherwise the geodesic domes to my understanding were never rotatable. So that's definitely, and it's like, you know, alluding to nature, not in a literal but in a figurative way reminds me of the sunflower that has also sort of a similar photosynthetic kinetic nature by turning its head according to follow the sun, right. So it's doing the same thing in a performative way. Let's look at what happens at night on the next picture here, which has always been, I mean, ever since I've been there about a year ago, it was sort of getting cold, but still nice days. And so hanging out at Elevate in the evening, watching a movie, having a glass of wine and wine culture, I hope you're we're not too affected by the tragic wildfires up there. And but but again, this is capturing just, you know, these notions of Elevate as being, you know, a nighttime animal as much as a daytime figure. We jump to the next picture 13, which, which again is like showing how and we were talking about what kind what the the effect the dome has for the or the the the grid of the dome has for the inhibitive nature, right. Maybe we should talk about that a little bit. I mean, what does the dome imply we were talking before? Yeah, it kind of helps define the space. Yeah, the tall ceilings really make it, you know, really expansive, really uplifting. It kind of draws your high upwards. And it kind of provides almost like a backdrop for the stars above, while still giving you a sense of space. And so it really turned out to be like a real powerful feature in nighttime. It really definitely kind of comes alive. It especially has the wood numbers are lit up in different form. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, I mean, that's why we make like observatories, you know, we assimilate the the orbit and the skies and we have the grid lines that help us locate the stars, right. So there's a lot of so there's cosmic, you know, alluding in a certain way. But again, in a very abstract way, people can see in it whatever they want. And in any case, it's, it's way better or evolved from that sort of chopped off, almost like Baroque nature of the previous edition, right, where it was just a horizontal roof. And this is how the people in the Baroque cut their trees to rather rigid, mostly, you know, square shapes. But here again, just opening it up, giving more clearance to stand. You can also I'm working on a show with the Soto that we call the air cooled, mobile and immobile, which is looking at VW is the vintage ones and sort of, you know, which were air cooled and air ventilated and the architecture at the same time. And there are the pop up, you know, roofs of the Vesvalia, you know, Vdub buses. So there's a lot of a multitude of inspirations and analogies going on. And so let's jump to the next picture, number 14, that is also the permanent background picture, a feature that shows very well how it evolved and how comfortable it is to hang out. And it also shows the little picture at the top right shows the elevated nature and the, you know, the trunk of elevate being, as it used to be a hybrid of circulation, vertical circulation as shower and building systems, right, just like in the in the natural tree trunk, all the systems are collapsed into that one vertical thing, right? Yeah, we use the center of the access, which is really nice. It creates an experience when you come up into that space and people are there, it's like you're welcome in a unique way. And then it's only 20 square feet, so it's small, but we still fit a small shower sink and toilet in that space. And so, you know, it turned out to, you know, I'm not a space for everybody as far as, you know, bathroom space, but it's doable and it just really creates a great way to come up into the structure. And of course, we have other ways to do like spiral staircases and things like that. But it's turned out to work really nice. And just the size of it, it's about 15 feet in diameter. It creates a nice space for talking, for having meetings, for, you know, interacting with people. So it's not too big, not too small. And as elevate is evolving, what do you have in the cooking next? And this gets us to picture 15, the next one. Yeah, so this is showing, this is kind of what inspired the dome, actually, was a platform for camping that you then know how to canopy roof that you could either open up or close, depending on the weather conditions. And just creates a lot of flexibility in the structure and the ability to kind of face a shaded side to the sun in the summer and transparent side in the winter. So it really helps with solar gain or avoiding the solar gain. It just creates a lot of flexibility. And so we're really excited about this. It's kind of like a convertible house. And so, you know, different forms of material to create different insulation values and, you know, different experiences and cost ranges, but it just creates flexibility in a house that really you don't have today. No, it's very, very cool and very, I mean, it's all season, you know, dwelling as the image on the right shows the easy breezy summer condition. And then when it gets colder on the left side, you know, depending on how far you into the winter or into the spring. And again, if you need solar gain, you know, you turn it with a transparent and it becomes a greenhouse and basically, you know, harvest past the solar energy. And then when you come into the late spring and, you know, into the fall where sort of the interstitial climate situation, then you can once the sun starts to be hot, but it's still too cold outside, you just turn the shading side over. So it's a very clever biochlametic, you know, nature that that elevate sort of embodies. Let's get to the next picture here, which is 16. This is getting back to what excites me the most. And ever since, you know, I left about a year ago, I was bugging you with that over and over again. And it's this sort of taking advantage of the sort of time share kinetic aspect of it that at the daytime, it could be that, you know, magic treehouse for the kids, your kids and their friends. And at night time, when your kids more or less should go to sleep, which I do rather late, as I always enjoyed them hanging out with a family as much and long as they wanted. And then, but if they go to sleep, then the urban nomads come home and they're formerly called homeless from their strolling over the day. And they come home and they take down the segmented pieces of elevate. And the right bottom part is the footing, is the platform, the floor platform. And the piece on the left is the floor and the wall and the ceiling piece. And it very naturally is laying on its back C form that you then only have to put like a typical upside down V shape tent over it to make a very versatile, you know, temporary dwelling out of it. And then let's see how that would look in its entire composition on the next slide number 17, which again is has its multi purpose and its multi duty. So it isn't just for one. This is this is sort of a display version of it, right? This could be a more mercantile version of it where it's on shows and and has a lot of shelf space and you know, has a lot to show. And again, could then easily be fold back into its sort of smaller footprint tree canopy condition. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. So let's jump to the next 18, which shows a little bit the spacious feel of it, sort of the procedure and processing through the nature. And you can already see sort of in implied lines how the temporary dwellers are inhabiting it, which we see in the next picture number 19 more. And here they would be it's almost like little caterpillars in their cocoons. They're ready to become butterflies and fly and leave. And sort of in a metaphorical way, I think this is the way that the original idea of giving home to the ones in the most need is like that, you know, through hosting them, you know, you can help them get back on their feet and finally spread their wings again and and be on their own. I think that's a very, very, you know, very close to the nature of the show, human humane architecture in humanity and humility. And next slide 20 shows again, that sort of preferred and desired nighttime condition of being that home for the houseless. And we have a couple of minutes left and want to jump to the next slide that certainly, you know, wasn't your most dream to have me show it. But I want to show it anyways, because it's like at some point you say, hey, Martin, look what happened to our initial prototype out here in Kailua at the quarry, where the, you know, people who are using it basically took off that very crazy beard fuzzy green screen, skin, which you see at the bottom right and transformed it into something rather ordinary, to say the least. And you know, I took me a little while to get over it. But I have to say that sort of, you know, initial sort of bad taste has vanished. And I'm thinking, if it shows anything, it shows the versatility and being on dogmatic nature of elevate that, you know, you're not telling people what to do, people can do with it, whatever they want. And if they want the ordinary house elevated, I mean, this has some artistic merit as well, it could be like a modern Gordon Metta Clark installation or something like that. And so anyways, I think it once again, it shows elevate is a creature that depending on where you plant it, and whatever different the conditions are, it could become many different things. Going to the next slide, number 22. And in your case, it becomes that where, you know, your kids have always been part of the creation and they're part of the creators and here you can see how the dome came together and how your children were part of the design team. And as children are more fearless and less afraid of things, I think that helps the continuously sort of rejuvenating recreation of elevate tremendously that sort of this fresh and virgin enthusiasm of your kids is always part of the development. I really appreciate. I mean, these are pictures you didn't send me as the final pictures, but you sent them to me in between and saying, Hey, Martin, you know, here are some updates. And I just put these in. And then the next slide here number, yeah, this one here is, is something that you show that for sort of the weather shell, you don't need to do what the current user of the prototype, the strike prototype does it, but you can use something as simple as a tent to give you the necessary rain and wind protection. And you don't need to cover the whole thing. I think this is a very clever thing. And next picture here, you know, we've been working together for a while and obviously have been become so sink that here in our newest primitiva to development here, we're using the same strategy that within a given framework, there is dwelling in a more nomadic nature and you can even see the same tent and the same in the same color here reoccurring. So we're once again always and forever on the on the same page. And I want to close with the last picture here number 25 is encouraging you as much as my dear son and my daughter in law here who are also educated and degreed engineers, him automotive engineering and management. And just like you, he said, I want to become a part of a corporate system that's already invented. I want to be an inventor and creator myself and design something that I truly believe in. And I want to design it all the way through as a business model and as as a construct. And so they dip their shaved eyes business in this prototypical trailer. And both of you are my heroes. And I believe that that's the way to go. And I totally believe that the success will be with you guys, that there will be customers and in your case, investors and developers who will see that genius nature of elevate and will buy into it, literally and figuratively. So once again, I cannot thank you enough for being such a great encouragement inspiration for my son and myself and and being the most emergingly evolved exotic creature with elevate on this island that is homegrown here and hopefully is is coming back sometime soon. So yeah, well, thanks so much for covering it. You're interested in it. And, you know, just, you know, these things and, you know, it really helps me understand that, you know, from from what you see in that perspective. And so we really, really appreciate it. Yeah, and that was when I was talking more than I anyways talk, you said Martin, I'm first of all feeling a little bit under the weather, so get better. But you also said, you know, I feel the pictures that you and please, you give me feedback on what you saw. So that's, that's what I did. And so thank you. Keep us updated and we will keep you guys updated on elevate frequently and periodically. And until then, please stay elevated, the exotic, exotically elevated. See you next week. Bye bye.