 Welcome to Human-Humane Architecture here on Think Tech, Hawaii. I am this program's co-host. I'm DeSoto Brown, and I work at Bishop Museum as a historian. And joining us all the way from Germany is Native Land, is our host, Martin Despang. And let's see if we can see Martin on the screen with me. There he is. Greetings. Aloha. There he is. Hello. Hello. So what's our show today? Hello. Well, first of all, happy new year. DeSoto and everyone. So might be a great one. So if we can get the first slide up here, we can see what we're going. And so always around the holidays, I'm sneaking out. So I have to accommodate certain things as RPI mobile, which is graciously taken care of by Alexei and Nikola and Lukas at their 1315 Alamoana, which is one of our favorite buildings by Hamasaki. And the car in the building have been designed or gestalted, as we like to prefer to say around the same time. And the other sort of preparation is me flying half around the world. So at the bottom, we can see me at a stopover at San Francisco International Airport and walking by, as other people are, an Hermes store. And next slide, because why is that relevant to us? We're getting closer. So where is that DeSoto? Well, the picture on the bottom left is actually in Berlin. And it is a famous street called the Kudam. And that was West Berlin's main shopping street, particularly during the time between East Berlin and West Berlin. That's when they showed off the littering excesses of capitalism and how wonderful it was in comparison to drab and tiresome old East Berlin. And when we look up in the upper right corner, we see a fake Berlin Street, which was created for the television series Lost. And it's actually Merchant Street in downtown Honolulu. But it does, in fact, look similar to the real Berlin Street that we see in the picture on the lower left with Martin and his sons and their respective girlfriends slash wives. There you go. And we stopped by in Berlin, where Joey and Clara currently reside on their voyage to their culinary cross-cultural crossover, which we've been reporting about and updating you guys frequently. So next slide here, however, then went back to exotic escapism expert Susanna here in Munich. And every major city, probably in the world, has this sort of lychee, a magnificent mile, or a sense of boulevard, or however they're called. This one here in Munich is called Maximilian Straße, with all the vigilance on bells of the exclusive, as you can tell. And these are obviously not current climatic conditions. These ones I took last summer during my sabbatical here. This is summer situation. So let's go to the next slide. Go to where it's always summer. And you tell us how this picture is related to the previous ones, Susanna. Well, what we're saying is that even in Waikiki, which we're saying is our magnificent mile of a sort, there used to be a German-themed restaurant called the Hofbrau. And in the upper picture, you can just see the Hofbrau sign on the left in a picture of Kalakau Avenue in 1963 when President Kennedy's motorcade was coming through. Well, today on Kalakau Avenue, we have a lot of very high-end stores. One of them is our own one of our air mess stores, because we've got three actually on the island of Oahu. And that's my mother and my sister inside the new air mess store after it was remodeled in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. And in fact, that's what we're going to be looking at for today's show. Let's check this out and go to the next slide. Well, before we do that, we have to say, the audience might say, wait a minute, aren't you these kind of inclusive guys who have always pitched for the proletarian? What does that have to do with high-end fashion stores? But we're also obligated to talk, or self-obligate us, to talk about the legacy of tropical modernism as you were doing a keynote speech here at the National Local Homeless Symposium. So in that capacity to the next slide, we were curious about the store. And this is when Suzanne was there last time, and we were very curious. We said last minute, we should have put in a picture of talking Berlin when Crystal was wrapping the rice talk. So here that remind us of that, that big sort of gift wrapping around the construction side. And next slide is we got even more excited about when it was basically naked it, or the tarp had been taken off, because usually we could have expected from past practices to it having been cheesecake or Tiffany's, so heavily put heavy makeup on, but not so much you, or thinking they're almost stripping it naked again. So we got overly excited about it. Next slide. So it pretty much became. And you've seen it too, so share a little bit with me your impressions along this picture here, so. Well, one of the interesting things that I really noticed in this picture is that there's an interior green wall. Now, not all of that I think is actual living greenery, but there is some real foliage in there. On the outside, outside the window that you can see on the left, however, is real greenery. And we're gonna be seeing more of that in the form of living vines that are growing there. And against this green background, both inside and outside, we've got this nice sort of skeletal floating staircase that we're gonna look at more closely in the pictures that follow. Yeah, yeah. And the top right we referenced, we did a show about tropical ascending and descending. So this one here made us think this is in a lot of the lines of that tradition. And your presentation was about the sort of, the continuation of the evolution of innovation on the island. So this one here seems to be aligned with that. So let's go to the next slide. And more in particular, this reminded us of your architect that you had the chance to grow up in a building by Asipov. And the top right is his outbreak at Camus Club. So these stairs are not attached to the side of the beam, but sort of balancing over it. And it's got this very delicate, intricate and very sophisticated sort of tapering back of these. In fact, I think they're actually bamboo laminated. So there's some craft coming back that we like from the past that we've been seeing diminishing unfortunately. So there's some hope here at coming back, right? Right. And let's go to the next slide. And this goes through the whole detailing of the store. The guardrails here as opposed to doing one post for the structure is taking this double post. So this is also a very mid-century theme, right? They've been using to make things look thinner and more filigree. So another kind of renaissance or renaissance in detail. Next slide. Yeah, and so the staircase reminds me of almost like, it has a sort of a jungly feel, right? You're basically floating. It's very filigree, very dematerialized and it feels very lofty. And on the outside, we can see what you already indicated. We can see some jungle creeping up on the glass. And let's check this out further here on the next slide. So here they are. And as of now, we had to always say, the most innovative green literally and figuratively building is actually the TJ Maxx and Kakaako reference on the top right. Now we have another one here, which some of us think is even better as far as detailing and sophistication, but it's still kept pretty simple. So it's not that. The green wall is the way more artificial. I mean, the one on the inside is a green wall, but it's a very sort of sad artificial one because it's sort of drip irrigated and sort of very artificial, even though it's natural. But this one here is pretty much, pretty simple and original with what plants like to do. If you choose the right plants, they like to crawl up on buildings, especially in the tropics, right? Yes. And next slide shows us that the green is not just creeping up all over the glass, but also here in front of the concrete. And so, we had to reference to a sad example of retrofitting of another concrete building, which is the Goldbond building on Nimitz Highway. This one is likely a good example where you can see, oh, this is an interesting combination of systems. And of course, next slide, us being, yeah, we brought other experts there. On the right is Bandit Kanistakan, who we thought and we talked about in the show. He particularly has done one of the most progressive buildings out of concrete in Honolulu currently. And he was interested in the building and he took his buddy Richard Lowe, who was another previous guest of ours, who was Mr. Tarzan and they both approved and adores the building and its ambitions. And next slide. Yeah, and I want to just point out too quickly that they kept the original brutalist chipped concrete exterior. They did not put it up or smooth it out. So it's a nice contrast of the foliage to that concrete. Yeah, absolutely. And next slide. And this is again, where you and your mother were before. And now we can see what these horizontal lines are. They're actually louvers. They're put over the glass. So you get these kind of interesting slice views from inside out. And next slide. And from outside in, this is our typical mandatory biochromatic check. You can basically see that the building, which is at the bottom left of the Google map here, is basically getting some east sun in the morning, however, not so much because the sun is pretty low and the buildings around are pretty tall. And then you get some southern sun due to the location. You don't get much of a dreary western sun. So next slide. What the louvers actually do, usually it's all for the spectacle. There's no performance in retail design, but this one here actually tries to look pretty. And it also works pretty well because as you can tell, and maybe we jump to the next slide here, we can see in detail that this is somewhere, later in the morning, you can basically see how the concrete of the panels, the spandrels, the bellestrates of the building, the structural ones are basically pretty much in the shade. So the thing does actually a performative job besides its iconic sort of look to lure basically frugal people into the building. I noticed something else too, that there's an interesting contrast between the strong horizontal aspect of the louvers and the vertical aspect of the vine growing up and the structure that's there for that. So you've got these two kind of conflicting, but interestingly juxtaposed vertical and horizontal elements. Yeah, no, you're right. Absolutely fine composition. And next slide here. So you see another iconic building reflecting in the glass at the bottom. This is Pete Wimbley's Bank of Hawaii from 1966 that we're loving and continue to report on. And you see maybe an homage to that because that one has a screen that has to some level a performative aspect as well. And at the top, you see that the louver panels are actually sort of not one plane, but actually sort of staggered. And next slide makes us discover that and think about what that this is for. So you got this pretty huge panels and this reminds us of Tropicure Rockwood who always offers this class about prototyping screens. And so this seems almost like a student of his, took his class and basically became inspired to be the project architect on this project here. And the next slide is, well, and these panels are actually there for the purpose of cleaning the glass. If they would be fixed, you couldn't really clean the glass anymore. So they're actually on rails, on tracks and you can slide them away for the purpose of cleaning the windows. And they reminded us because after all Hermès as we should mention is a French-based company, right? So, and the French have these kind of very typical and sort of characteristic for their climate and their culture, these shutters. And these shutters have been incorporated in other classical architectural pieces and tell us a little bit more where and when is so along the pictures. Well, we see some of those here in Honolulu. We certainly see them in the lobby of the Kahala Hilton Hotel in our friend Ron who was one of the designers for the company that built that and the architect who designed it, Killingsworth, was there to tell us about that. We also see them in the Holly Kulani Hotel, the rebuilt new current Holly Kulani Hotel from the 1980s. And we see them at the Harbor Square condo. That's the one of the top upper right corner which is also a Killingsworth design. And what's the one in the middle on the right? The middle on the right is actually the converted to the new Holly Puna which is sort of an appendix of the Holly Kulani which Ron Lindgren designed as the Waikiki Park Hotel, right? So again, another sort of continuation of the evolution of post-contact innovation pieces of architecture, right? Yes. And let's go to the next slide here which we like to see. And you can see how the screen wraps around the building and then basically the one at the right is sort of this more hideous sort of like add-on to the thing but again here it leaves it pretty pure and clean as you were pointing out. And next slide gives us a whole view of their signage. And again, as you said, and after all again being French this style that the original Royal Hawaiian Center has we categorize as Brutalists and Brutalists comes from the same country that Hermès has had water that's French. And here we have Le Corbusier on the right and here again Hermès is sort of celebrating or re-celebrating that sort of national legacy we can almost see but putting the single letters on it and having them back lit and that we basically enhancing the Bush hammered rugged concrete rather than basically what they've been doing in the past being ashamed of it and putting big cheesecake makeup on. Right, right. So this is very promising. So next slide here. And again, as it appears from sort of across the street it seems to be more subtle, right? It's not in your face. It's not like the Tiffany around the corner or the cheesecake by the other ones. It's very subtle and you got to, you know the closer you get as it is in very good architecture the better it gets. So let's go. Now you know what else too? It that's noticeable in this picture is because it's not in the full sun. The appearance changes from day to night. So it's lit from the outside. It looks quite different. When it is lit from the interior as you see in this picture the appearance is very different. It no longer looks like a brown exterior but you see the warmth of the lights coming through it. Absolutely. So let's move to the, I think we got to move a little bit more quickly here. We're running out of time. But I want to chip in here. Hermes has been known for doing really good architecture for many of these stores. This is the Tokyo store by the acclaimed colleague, Renzo Piano that Neil Ambercrombie was, when we had a review with him at school he was saying, you know, we should get a Renzo Piano building in Honolulu. And I agree with that. This is a very delicate store out of a glass block that sort of is an abstract very modern way reminiscent of the flacons which are these glass bottles where the perfume is in. Let's go to the next slide. And we've been inspired by that when we, believe it or not, once we were invited to participate in a competition for the facade of the mall. Can you imagine that? And so this is actually at the top but at the bottom is our main train station from the 1890s in Hanover, Germany, my hometown. And next slide is us and previous works here. This is me post occupancy evaluating our train stations one out of glass block. And next slide is a colleague of mine from Hanover who has done this sort of more intercity train station also out of blue glass block. So we both had a background in this material. Next slide. That is why we were suggesting and proposing to give this new mall a skirt out of glass block that was sort of customized by Vetro Aredo which is an Italian glass block manufacturer in a color is similar to the brick of the adjacent buildings that at night it glows and it becomes this sort of beacon in this amber color. Next slide. And this is interesting because this is the same at the top ride that Renzo Piano has done this cultural center in New Caledonia in 1998 with his sort of very tiki looking huts. And this is what the main big pictures is this is what Hermes decided to basically equip its main one of its main stores in its main city Paris. And it's interesting that we didn't get these sort of very Polynesian looking huts, right? Bar stores, square and modern, yeah. Exactly, next slide. So they treated us very modern and here is another of their stores. And interestingly, you have a Brutalus building in the background and then you have a another kind of louvered theme for the Hermes store. Next slide. And again, if I would ever do ancestry research, you know, best spang, there is a good, a couple of good wines in France they're called Despandia. And to me, the store reminds me a little bit of the brown wine bottles that give the wine that glow, right, that sort of mysterious glow. And that's what the color, the brownish blinds and the light and the concrete gives us sort of this mysterious and rich and very sort of elegant kind of lighting and color feel. And next slide. Again, how, obviously our bad conscious as being the inclusive guys, how can you apply this sort of, and we had quite some trouble, we have to admit to say, how can we justify we pick up on something as exclusive as that? And we basically concluded and encouraged by Tropicure Rockwood to say, well, if there isn't any other good stuff somewhere else, we might go for what we get, right? And the Hermes store seems to be one of the hottest and best things currently. And this is an example, how we indeed could sort of apply these screens that we have prototyped in our critical practice on projects at the top left. And we had suggested to do this for the stratosphere, Lanai Gross, which is a very inclusive project of stacking cargo steel and converting it into housing for the so many in need. In our island, there's reference in many shows on the top right. Next slide. And there's another project going on that is inspired by this one here. And this is a doctor of architecture thesis that our school by Aaron Chow and the committee is comprised of a tropical tutor, Bill Chapman and Mrs. Easy Breezy, Kaili Chun. And they're both advising. And what we hear is that they're gonna retrofit the School of Architecture, which we have been reporting about you with John and Mayumi Hara. And that through unfortunate circumstances didn't turn out the way it should have been. So this could bring back peace to the building by them in generalizing it. So that's a good suggestion. Next slide. And so this is a reference to what we were initially reporting on the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and basically concluding and saying, well, bring the thing back to its old glory. It's like a car from the 70s that gain in value and you better treat it as a collectible. So we were literally saying strip all that. I think I literally said build a bullshit away and bring back its beautiful face. And this here seems to like someone finally might even listen to us, right? Yeah, yeah. Because that's what they've been doing. And next slide is where you currently are to Zelda, right? That's correct. We're in a new studio now for Think Tech and you are pointing out that this building that we're in is sort of that I am in is actually got a performative brise sole or screen on the exterior of it that isn't just decorative, but it is a brutalist building. It's of the brutalist era. And we can admire it because as you like to say it's a performative exterior and not purely a decorative one. And something like that inspired us to do what you see on the top left, which we've been talking about what we call the tropical textile. And again, it's very much along the lines of Le Corbusier with his screens that he designed for tropical climates and also for France. And so this is very appropriate. Yeah, so it's a performative screen and skin that we would like to see showing up on more buildings. And there's hardly ever, you guys had to have to cover up the window because of studio recording reasons, but otherwise there's hardly ever any sun hitting your glass and your windows. So you always stay cool inside and we find that really cool. So next slide is that it's a little longer walk to studio now, which you just experienced today in your premiere, right? And it will be for me because I will be back today in a week and we're both sitting in the new studio. And these are our PI mobiles again that the store West Marine is kind to let us part there for that little while. So here are these kind of German young timers here who are very easy breezy because they're convertibles but at times when they're parked and the showers come through that need this little, in my case, the blue tarp. And the walk to studio is always a procession for me because I walk by the dwelling communities of our urban nomads. So you can see at the bottom left another green tarp right next to where our park, which is way more essential because we got people living under these. And so if you walk further and it gets us to our final slide here, next slide, final slide, is that usually the condition I will see next week is unfortunately the one at the very bottom right where you can actually see our building in the next to the left in the distance. So that's kind of the distance we or I walk. But before that, we saw that beautiful tree that you see on the two pictures here. And that is what we call tree texture. This is what, you know, it's comfortable under there. So the urban nomads had a good time there. They felt well and I don't think, you know, anyone would have ever recognized them as you see in the big picture. They're so camouflaged under the tree, but some people must have thought, you know, they should go away. So in order to make them go away, they cut down the tree. And I found this really, really ironic. And so we wanna promise the audience to keep continuing to talk about these people more than the rich people. And so at the top right is sort of the preview of that we're gonna look into our cargo courtyard cabana theme and we're gonna cluster them pretty soon. So stay tuned on that, we will keep you updated. So with that, I think we might be at the end of airtime, the SOTO, so. Yeah, just about. And I think to just reiterate is what you said. I think good design is not necessarily just for elite people or poor people. It's for everybody. And if we look at the Hermes store and say there are elements that are applicable to other buildings even if they are for, as you said, re-housing the urban nomads, that makes them valid nonetheless. There we are. Okay, well next time we're gonna be, you're gonna be back in Honolulu. I'll be in Honolulu. We'll figure out how we're gonna do the show. But until then, thank you everybody for watching. Human Humane Architecture and Think Tech Hawaii. Martin Despang, DeSoto Brown. See you again next time. Until then, aloha. Here he goes.