 Hello, everyone, and welcome to Human Humane Architecture here on Think Tech Oyi. I am this program's co-host, Soto Brown, and speaking to us from Germany, where he currently is, is the host of our program, Martin Despang Martin. Are you there? Say hello to us. I am. Welcome back, Soto, and welcome, everyone, and be back together. So what are we going to talk about today, Martin? Pretty much along the lines of last show, where we take advantage of being trans-continentally all over the place and reflecting on our island architecture, which we did. This is picture at the top right. Oh, wait, no, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. Just behind me. We're not there yet. We will. We just have the Pan Am building behind me, for not letting you know that. And now we can go to our first picture, and now Martin can describe it. And that was stealing the show. And we had a couple of glitches today, technology, you know, we got to talk after on the world. So it's a miracle that we can do this anyways. And we said as it is a miracle that we can fly around the world, which we will talk about today again. That's right. And so aviation architecture has been a vehicle for reflection on what we're doing architecturally. And last show we had the TWA building reminding us of the good old bladesale center that you and I are increasingly sort of curious or worried about what they're going to do to the good old exhibit hall, which they're going to tear down and replace. And you just walked by some illustrations about the new one, and you told me you're not sure about the thing, right? Correct. So anyway, so here's our first picture. And we've got Tom Cruise on the left. And then we've got, we've got Martin on the far right. No, we've got DeSoto on the far right right at the moment. And we're talking about, and you said that Tom Cruise in this film, this of course is the German DVD cover, is a TWA pilot, but we're not talking about TWA today. We're talking about Pan American World Airways. And in addition to Tom Cruise, there's a picture of DeSoto Brown as he looks today, and then there's a picture of DeSoto Brown as he looked back in the 1960s down at the bottom of the picture. He always looked the same DeSoto, he always looked the same. I didn't have a beard back in the 1960s, but in any case, next to me are some Pan Am bags. And back in the 60s, if you were a local nerd, you carried a Pan Am bag to school with your books in it. And I was friends with the nerds who carried the Pan Am bags. They tried to get me to carry one. I said I just can't go that far. So I intentionally ripped it and then said, oh, sorry, I can't carry my Pan Am bag anymore. But it isn't. Thanks for sharing that traumatized experience DeSoto. That's right. And if you could see me live, which we weren't able to do because of technology reasons, you would see what's here under the chin of Tom Cruise is the Tiki lounge where I was supposed to report from, which is in the basement of my best friend Stephon and Kirsten. And we had reported about that about a year ago when I was coming back. And that was with Suzanne and her tropical tourism show. So all our thoughts are still with the island and you will travel. That's the picture at the middle on the ride. You will go to the Tiki Oasis, which is the world conference on Tiki. That's right. And so we will report on that. And again, as you pointed out, I was traveling and had the CBD and TWA was sort of the theme. And next picture, please, is there's another airline that I've been using being German. I'm using Lufthansa and these are the pictures on the very right. And this is a very vintage German air company, of course. And they were rather ahead of the game and bleeding back in the days as they still are. There was a ranking recently that we looked at the top 20 of air carriers. And this one made it to number seven. Unfortunately for us, the American side of us is that no American company made it on that list anymore, right? But that was different way back with this other airline, which is Pan Am. And this is another DVD cover here. This is the German version. And again, it says the complete serie, which means the complete series. And this is Pan Am. And I think this was running rather recently like until 2011 or so, right? And I want to point out in these two pictures that one of the things that's really being shown off here is the swinging stewardesses. Because stewardesses in those days had to be young. They had to be attractive. And they were thought of as sexually available. And if not, they were certainly attractive to men who were flying on airplanes. So that was a whole mystique back in those days of stewardesses. But that's not true. Yeah. So it was a total piece of artwork. It was branded. And we get to the next picture, Pan Am was hiring artists who were doing pretty magnificent to the posters. And this is one I could have been flying with that company, Pan Am, to Germany. Here you can see Neuschwanstein or some kind of artist interpretation of that. But let's do the next picture. And you're gracious enough, although we want to mainly promote one museum, which is your museum, the Bishop Museum, where you're generous enough to also support other museums. Yes. And the Pearl Harbor, some pictures I took, you know, pretty soon after I arrived on the island about like half a decade ago, I went there. And these are pictures that I took that they had a booth that's dedicated to Pan Am back in the days. Let's go to the next picture, which actually shows how it all started and tell us a little about that. Yeah. And the point about Pan American that's really important for the Hawaiian Islands is that it was the first commercial airline to fly here, starting in 1936. And at that time, this was absolutely the leading cutting edge of technology that planes were able to fly that far from the West Coast of North America to the Hawaiian Islands. That was the max that any airplane could fly. They started out with Martin aircraft, and then they shifted to Boeing. And in the picture that we see here, this is a very fantasy view of one of those Boeing clipper planes, Pan American planes. They really were not as huge as this, but it was a very romantic and exciting thing to do to fly all the way to the Hawaiian Islands. It took 17, 18, 19 hours, which sounds preposterous, but that was much, much less than four to five days, which is what it took on a ship. And if we go to the next picture, we can... And that's where you see that at the top right, you can see the old ships in the back in the days, and you see that clipper, which is the name of the airplane. Yeah. You can see, it illustrates what you were talking about. At the picture, the picture bottom left, which I found online, you told me you know that little girl that right. Absolutely. She was a good friend of my parents, and her name was Patricia Scott, Patricia Kennedy Scott. She dedicated the Hawaii clipper at Pan American plane at Pearl Harbor in 1936, and she poured coconut milk over the prowl of the aircraft and said, I christen you, the Hawaii clipper. And so as you were saying too, if you look at the cutaway views of this, the clipper planes were huge inside. And because you were paying a premium price, you could walk around. There were births. There were other different types of compartments. And I think in the next picture, we're going to see some of the interior detailing. And there we are. That was an event, right? It was rather exclusive, rich, and they were able to roam around. They had a lot of leg room, as they call it today. People weren't squeezed like sardines into a tin can like these days, right? Absolutely. This was luxurious. This was flamboyant. As you can see in these pictures, and the next page is going to be, again, pictures I took from the exhibit at Pearl Harbor, this is the next generation of plane, and this is the Stratocruiser. And that one was flying between, I think, the mid-30s and the 50s. No, actually it was. And that was the next level. Yeah, that's post-war. The Stratocruiser actually, this is a development of technology that was created during World War II. And the Stratocruiser, like the previous plane that we saw, had two levels, and you could walk from the upper level down to the lower level to go to a little cocktail lounge down there. And that's something you certainly can do in planes. Yeah, and you were saying, you know, from today's point of view, you know, I mean, way back I was cutting at state of the art that compared to these days, there was still pretty bumpy ride. Some of them came down and never, you know, made it. So it was pioneering. Yes. And then it was sort of replaced by the next phase, which it gets us to the next picture, which is the jet age. Yes. And here you can see, again, a very sort of stylish poster from Pan Am, sort of branding that and communicating that. You can see Honolulu, which is our city. And you can see people, you know, pretty much stressed internationally. That doesn't look very easy breezy to me. We're not talking about fetishizing the tiki aspect of the island. We're talking about a metropolis to be. And the role of pictures on the right side is my privileged view, which a couple of shows ago, we were talking about the Waikiki Grand in my view and Diamond Head. So just show them to the next page. And that one and the following ones are dwelling upon that most iconic view of Diamond Head, which Pan Am was using for its marketing. Right, correct. And those are both 1950s. The left one on the left is actually a poster from the jet age. It says by jet clipper at the top. And the ad on the right is from the early 1950s. All that's missing in Hawaii is you. So just as Martin said, they're using the iconic outline of Diamond Head to help sell Pan American World Airways trips to the Hawaiian Islands. And so it is on the next page, which again, thanks for providing these from your archives. So this is once again just variations of that. Yes. And let's jump to the next picture here, which is referring to the last show we did here. So here's the jet plane and it's sort of a low on. And you can see people still walking up to the plane, as we said. Yeah, different to today. Getting to the next page. Yes, where we said we were concluding last show. We were saying when you were able to open the door of the airplane, immediately the full senses are attracted and especially the one of smell. And where it's graphically shown here that, you know, the Diamond Head, once again, is sort of framed by flowers. But these flowers weren't just pretty to look at. These flowers were even more pretty to spell. And so again, as the picture you provide on the right side, you've got the lay, you've got the sun, you've got the tropical scent. So that was the whole deal, the whole experience that was so different than than any of the other places where Pan Am was flying. Yes, yes, absolutely. And because this is before Jetways existed, you were immediately exposed to the outside air. And as we were talking about earlier, the trade winds. And you can see the people in the picture are being blown by the trade winds, which is part of the entire ambience of your arrival in the tropical paradise of Hawaii. And all of that, and that's the next picture you were saying was was quite the undertaking to manage this all from technology to organization to logistics was quite the thing. Yes. Back in the days and still is. And this is portrayed by this sort of classic picture with the the Boeing in front of the terminal building. And you can see the crew there. You know, this is symbolic for OK, we're we're serious. This is business. This is professional. Absolutely. And it is comfortable and it is professional and it's safe and it's modern because we are using the most modern planes with trained technical people and with a modern Honolulu International Airport behind it. What else could you ask for on your trip to paradise? Exactly. And talking paradise and being a professional and modern get to the next page. These are my favorite of your posters you provided here because they're not they're not nostalgic. They're not taking. They're not sort of pre-contact. They're they're showing why it's modern way of tradition. This is very fine artwork. This is again, and then was a total piece of artwork. Back then, getting us to the next page where this is funny postcard. Tell me why you found this so funny. Yeah, well, let's go to the next picture and there. Well, this is a it looks like it's a real image of a Pan Am plane flying over the east end of Oahu. And if you look at it more closely, you can see that none of that is really very real at all. Hawaii Kai is not look it does not look like that. There's no Hanama Bay, etc. So it's really an artist's conception. But what it does show is that the jet age, which started in 1959, really led to a tremendous amount of growth in the Hawaiian islands, particularly in Honolulu. So the jet flying over the fantasy of you is still getting across the idea that real changes were happening because of this new type of technology. Yeah, we're in sprawl with it go up into the mountains. You wouldn't do it that bad. You're sort of more worried about that these days. We're back in the day, sort of correct, you know, being dynamic and being sort of emerging was a positive thing. It wasn't seen as problematic as it is these days. Absolutely. Problematic getting us to the next page. This is in the last show where we're talking about that some fine pieces of architecture. And at this point, this is sort of the audience might say, when what does it all have to do with architecture? Correct. And now we're talking. So at JFK where you were, you know, you were closed last time. We said a fine piece of our island architect, IMP, which is the East West Center is not anymore. And people WAs most sort of iconic building was this one here, which was called the World Port that was also at JFK. And it was built in 1961. Very iconic building that very sadly was torn down not that many years ago, I think like five years ago. And this is sort of tragic. And if you look at that building, it's sort of a perfect symbol for, you know, positive optimistic era of the jets. And you can probably see the roof being inspired by the long span of the wings. And look at that span and look at that iconic sort of technology and tectonics and said that this piece is not around anymore. But the piece that probably most people in the world associate that architectural piece with Pen and we see on the next picture and you stop by on your recent trip to New York. Yes, I stayed right near it. In fact, I took the picture in the upper right corner and the Pan Am building in New York City was very iconic when it was constructed, which is about 1960, unfortunately, because there is no Pan American airways anymore, it's no longer called that. It's called the Met Life Building. But in the picture, you can see that Grand Central Station is at the base with this other iconic building up above it. Now, one of the things we talked about also was that when this building was built for a brief time period, there was a helicopter shuttle that could take you from this my rise to JFK Airport, which it didn't work out very well for a number of reasons. And there was, in fact, unfortunately, a disastrous crash of one of the helicopters, which is one of the reasons they stopped doing it. But when they did do it, it was again an absolute symbol of the most modern way you could travel on this iconic airline that flew all around the world and was really a symbol of the United States internationally at the time that this was going on. Absolutely. And talking international, the architect was an international consortium of what we represent, Germans and Americans. There was Mr. Delushi and there was Mr. Walter Gropius. So again, very iconic building, very iconic architect. And so next picture is us, because if you do more research, you see what kind of, you know, Pan Am architecture is around in the world. And there's only one other building and we have that building. And this is the Pan Am building. And so at the very top, you can see the iconic original sign that is still so hip and so cool as, you know, you know, communicated through the these here is, and, you know, honestly, and I didn't want to reactivate your trauma with the bags. Luckily, you told me because I said at some point, let's get a t-shirt with Pan Am, which they're selling in that airport shop. And you said then you shared your trauma with me and said, maybe, maybe not. So anyway, so Pan Am is still, even though the company is gone, is long gone, right? Yes. They're still making money off the memory. Yeah, they are. And our building here still has the iconic sign, even though, you know, there's no business in there anymore, as you can tell. And architecturally at the very top left, we feature this briefly already in our introduction to tropical brutalism because we believe it's the fine piece. And the picture on the top right is introducing your next show in two weeks, which is about the sort of increasing in-significance of the magnificent mile, the Cavaliani Boulevard. Right. That's right. So let's jump to the next page and look at the building a little closer. And we once again, we choose this, you know, poster that you provided, which is about the lure of the exotic and the erotic in that case here. That's right. And being, you know, appropriate to these dress, which people would say is inappropriate. We would think it's appropriate because you don't shouldn't wear much because then you're you're getting too hot. And this is something that the building does. The building is comprised of a plinth at the bottom. And out of that rises the slick and slender power. And here, if you have an open linoid, yes, you got shade. Yes. You got plan. Yes. So what more do you want? Then that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. But it has an interesting texture, too. The exterior of the building. Yes. I mean, but not only get to that. Yeah, not only we can go to the next picture. And when I see the interesting exterior of the building in general, in addition to the close up views, if you look at this from a brutalist standpoint, you can see these two views of the building at different times of the day show how the exterior, the minimizing of the glass areas and the vertical fins, as well as the other exterior parts of the building help shade it. But you also were talking about the heat content and the what the what concrete does when it gets heated. And that's another consideration right here. Well, let's go to the next page for that. I'm glad you mentioned that because we yet have to do more research on that thermal mass problem, because if you minimize the glass, you know, you keep the sun out and the heat, but the sun is also going to hit the concrete. So today you can do ultra like concrete, which is sort of micro infused with our value back in the days. Not so much. But in general, we can say the approach is sort of traffic is exotic and gets go to the next page where I, you know, I have another very one of my favorite pictures of branding a Pan Am Hawaii here with that local lady here. And that made us think about about surface. Yeah, we go to the next picture there. Yeah. So here we can see that. Well, what? Oh, I, you know, maybe maybe it's a little bit of a stretch, but let's let's just think about surface and pigments and skin. Right. And her skin is naturally pigmented to, you know, withstand the UV of the sun better. Right. These are and here the building is doing that too. You can see the aggregates are local. This is the salt is called in there. There's maybe some kind of brown pigments. Right. So again, it's about it's a surface that is locally appropriate. Right. Correct. And we have these two pictures in there, which are, which is all our friends and collaborators from great specific Rocky Mountain precasts, Adam and Les Campers, and there it shows if you want to know more about, you know, why concrete is such a continue to be such a sort of pioneering material on the island, you can watch these shows. We want to get close to the end. So, you know, before you, before we go, I just wanted to say too, that as you said, that mix of materials adds a lot of interest to the close up view of the building that a lot of other buildings that are just playing concrete or concrete block would not have. And that's a kind of a touch that is more thoughtful and more artistic than sometimes is done for commercial buildings. Anyway, that's just me. Let's go to the next picture. And yeah, so we're phasing out that we're talking about, you know, OK, when, you know, in the bigger picture, I think 2045, we want to be off the grid and 100 percent renewable energy. So airplanes and big ships, you know, cruise ships. And I think we're going to do a show. We plant this for a while. We want to call them horizontal high rises because they appear in downtown every now and then. And they're the biggest guzzers and emission creators ever. So that industry is looking into, you mentioned the trade winds again, because people not from the island, when we abbreviate and say the trades are back, people think the stock market is back up. But in fact, it's the wind that blows predominantly from the northeast and the early people coming that they sail somewhere in Seattle and sail straight down. So that industry of shipping, you know, cruise ships industry is looking back into into wind as to power them. So let's go to the next picture. But when you go when you go big, when you think big, and this is one of our urban studies here, jungleism, which we pointed out in these couple of shows up there. And you basically start to make the city a city, which our point is it isn't to the extent it should be. And you really densifying to learn from nature and create a bio climatic building. So then next picture, you end up with what is that? What do you end up with then on the other side on the country? Well, what we talked about, too, in the primitive of buildings are mostly open. They are open to the they don't use as much fossil fuel because they get a lot of their energy, they reduce their energy use by using trade winds, by using natural ventilation. And they also are allowing people to move around more. They're allowing people to congregate. They're allowing people to be by themselves. And because the building is not very dense itself, it kind of fades into the background more than a solid block of a building does. So this is kind of a fantasy view of what could be if we were to adopt some of these other types of procedures rather than just going with everything that we have already been doing. Exactly. So here's the contrast that we're going to chart. And we're not going to do what, you know, the sort of the sort of you said, the artist rendering of that sort of more naive postcard of Kenan, whether we're proudly presenting, we're going to grow up the hills. Now you're going to say, we're not going to do that anymore. Not going to squall. We basically densify the city with the previous picture in order to basically free the country to do what we should do, what we've been doing all the back in the days, which is growing food and keep the country country, that sort of local term. And then every once in a while, a permittiva building can sort of be very efficient and effective in being tall and stacking Chris Sanver and cause a stack of knives. So you can grow food again, which we could do, but we can also grow something else. And this gets us to the very line picture because the industry is doing R and D research and development. Just like BP is the biggest researcher in TV and solar, because when comes the point that they run out of oil, they want to just flip the switch and basically still stay in business and be on top of the game. So the airplane industries are doing that as well. And I was listening to a documentary on the radio while driving in southern Germany in the Alps and the Foothills of the Alps. And I was intrigued by that. They were saying they can power airplanes. So you grow algae to still fuel out of it. And here we go. This is our vision that you basically can then bring back the many tourists. And we have a growing amount of tourists coming every year. It's going to be more. So how do we bring them back if we do it with kerosene? You know, this is part of what we do. And so we probably not going to meet 2045 being off the grid. But maybe with this technology. So this is our vision into the next future. And which is a fascinating one. And when you come down to it, everything comes back to the sun. The sun gives energy to the earth and how we use that energy, either it's fossil fuels or its fuels that are being created right now. They serve the same function, but fuel we're creating now can be renewable rather than used once and then gone forever. And that's one of the things that is going to make travel possible. So if we're talking about the good old days of airplanes that just use fuel, we've got to think ahead to the good new days of airplanes that will use a different kind of fuel. And that's what these pictures are. And that brings us to the end of our show. And I'll be back next week. I think Martin is going to be off next week. Martin, Spillbeats. Well, you will be back. Yes, I will be actually back in two weeks. Because we're in our two week schedule. And next week is going to be our esteemed local Momo board. That's right. I'm a member with another fascinating show. And you will be back. And we share your worries and hopes about the tropical exotic hopefully still in the future. Capulani Boulevard, right? That's exactly right. And so thank you, Martin, for being here. Thank me for being here. Doka Momo will be back next week on Human Humane Architecture. I'll be back a week after that. And until that time, everybody, thanks for watching Aloha.