 Is it a think tech Hawaii's human human architecture broadcasting life from half around the world, from me near Munich, Germany and back. And this is volume two of a very exciting show, which is we're still in COVID-19. And this is about some promising thoughts about post pandemic production propositions. And we're picking up from where we have left last time with our guest. Hello, Martin. Good to have you back on the show. And let's get the first slide up and our most exciting announcement is what we have ended on if you can get the first slide for that. And this is your most important project, not that the one we're talking about isn't important enough, but the most important project is the one at the very top. And the last show you were about to say, hey, maybe I have to step out because my baby son is going to be born every second here. And kindly he was waiting and giving us the time to finish the show. And then he arrived soon later. So congratulations again. Here he is with proud that awesome. Thank you. Thank you. And when you were sending me the pictures, you sent them with a funny note that you said the fresh doctor of architecture here to a doctor of delivery. And so this way your son will remember that and, and also experience around what exciting other project he was born. And that's the project we see to show quotations at the very bottom, which is your crazy idea to make substantial housing out of cocoa palms. And we ended on the note and the very bottom right that you traveled all the way to where I am now pretty close, close enough, basically to Christian back and crew, and to test what you were having going on. And so let's go to the next slide and share today what you were doing when you were back. Sure, exactly. So my research did lead me to visiting Christian back in their team and we got exciting results with their ligno log gun. So I wanted to bring that all that back to Hawaii and start doing my applied research. And so I collected, I've been collecting a lot of coconut sources, coconut logs. Since I decided that I wanted to do my coconut project so way back in August and October of 2019 I was already collecting my samples because I knew I wanted to work with them. And so there's a couple of logs that I had collected and I really wanted to emphasize my own personal understanding and experience in working with the coconut wood. So I from scratch from ground zero, slapping up the logs. And from then I'm going to take it through the whole entire milling process. So there you have me slapping up the logs and it's exciting to know in some of the research that I found in Australia on the bottom images. You'll see some termite testing that was done. And so this referring back to the vascular bundles and the density of the vascular bundles. And so you see those samples down along the bottom of the image where the ones on the right have low density of vascular bundles say they got eaten quite a bit by the termites whereas the images on the left were high density of vascular bundles and they do great in resisting termites. Mm hmm. And that actually gets us to the next slide you were ahead of ourselves here so that so here we're on the slide where again we see you hands on literally and figuratively and at the very top you see the images and the bundles of different kinds and how they sort of impact the strength of the wood right and as the little diner is on the previous slide showing here as well at the bottom right. You have to be very strategic how you cut it out of the trunk right because as you explained to us last time, reverse to conventional trees where the more to the core you get the harder it is here it's actually the opposite right. So the middle part of this is almost not usable at least not for structural purposes you know it's very soft and in the periphery it's very strong so again let's jump to the next slide and see what else you did here. Here again are section cuts of the bundles and maybe again explain a little bit more what the nature of them is. Exactly so like you said we have to be particular what parts of the coconut trunk are used for what structural and non structural elements and going back to the density. So on the right, that twig looking item that's actually one of those pieces of vascular bundles extruded from the log. And so those are what you want to look for in the wood so these images of various coconut sections put together gives you an idea of what you want to look for in expecting what parts of logs are used for what items. And so the bottom image with the four pieces put together of course the far left has the least densities and probably not good for structural items. And then the ones on the far right are good for structural items whether they're blue lamp together or nail lamp together or whether they use a standalone pieces but they'll be strong enough to withstand the loads as a structural element. Mm hmm. And, and you were sharing with us that it's so amazing that they go all the way from the very bottom to the very top continuously right these bundles. Exactly. So that's, that's pretty impressive and you were sharing last time that Christian and crew got excited about, because they almost look like the nails they're using right. There's an interesting sort of family membership between them. Let's go to the next slide here. What was the next process here that we see in this image. Yeah, so these images here are actually taken from a process in making a wood flooring coconut wood flooring. I was seeing how they do their process as far as their milling machines and their techniques and their holding. And so, you know, just learning from their process and their techniques and taking them back to my own research and my own application. So going through the entire process of cutting off the outer bark area, extruding out the, the parts that are wanted whether they're medium density or high density pieces of center or the core or the peripheral area of the coconut log, and then the diagram on the left showing the density of the wood in various heights of the coconut tree. So as you see a 20 feet or 65 feet, you'll have what types of densities you'll find as you extreme the logs that are needed. So the hands on methodology we're applying next slide is basically you then again applying that sort of theoretical knowledge that you gain from from peers here again practicing it yourself right. So after I had slab these woods up and had them dried, then I took them to the planar machine through the table saw machines, and from here being able to not only one understand what it takes to go through this process, but also understanding the manpower that it takes some of the timing that it takes to be able to put this together and understanding the viability of creating this type of nail lamps that I eventually be putting together and how much effort it takes into just making a sample and then multiplying that it's actually making a whole apartment or house or the tiny house or whatever have you. And that assembly we see on the next slide here. You once again, already had bought the nail done before you left and then you know, then Christian and crew switched it out for them, the newest one and then you brought that back and basically continue here. I just pointed out that your other sort of partner in crime was Ian Robertson from the college of engineering, and he was then basically stepping in and building upon where he had left with Christian crew right. Exactly. Yes. So here, like we said, I going through the entire process from the milling all the way down to actually nailing them together with the lit no lock nails. And once we had those put together, we planned it out with Ian, how we can strategically do some testing as far as testing and sheer and testing for some of the ways of how we would hold this together, whether whether they'd be standing up or whether they'd be vertical or horizontal. And so let's give us an idea about that and go to the next slide because here it's illustrated pretty well. Exactly. Yeah, so here you have us compression. So we did compression testing as well as your testing, as well as bending strength testing so here. We did some blocks that we're doing compression testing in just to get some numbers and understand the type of strength that we have with this type of local Hawaii coconut wood and so great results from that. And if we continue on to the next slide. We also have some testing in sheer as well. And so having a finding a good proper nailing pattern. We tested whether they were three boards nail together or four boards nail together and having what kind of results come from that so you can see the nailing the diagram on the right, how we held them together and how many nails and then we can figure out how each nail contributes to the holding power in sheer. Great results from that. Yeah, let's go to the next slide and see bending as well which you mentioned before. So also doing some bending testing and these logs they had great results but to be honest, they weren't the most dense sections of the coconut woods so we could even have better results. If we were a little bit in selecting the perfect areas of the coconut logs and you know understanding more of the bending strength of the coconut logs. Yeah. And when we go to the next slide is introducing to us. Another aspect that is potentially holding this back from being, you know, enthusiastically embraced by the industries and the authorities and the Department of permitting and planning. And that's as far as I rating and explain how you confronted that. Exactly. So you know that's often the question using a wood in all wood in the structural building is the potential for fire. And so I really want to do my own test and although this is not one of those ASTM B 119 official test, I think we still yielded great results from this. So I had nailed together about six boards myself put together my own rig with the torch and putting it on the platform, and I wanted to do a one hour testing so I burnt it with a torch about nine inches away from the sample piece and burnt it from one hour straight so through this time lapse images you can see how much char we got out of that one hour of fire testing. And what's also astonishing as well is when I put my hand, as well as use a thermometer to measure the thermal heat that is going through it was very minimal. I believe it was at about 119 degrees was the highest that it got, but averaging in about 107 degrees Fahrenheit on the backside of these. And these are about five and a half inches thickness on the backside are only getting about 110 to 119 degrees temperature. And at the top right, we make a quote to a previous show with the fire department and it's assistant fire chiefs and he's very interested in your work and innovations on the island. And the article I was throwing in was, was my project that I was able to help you with in the same techniques almost two decades before we had Germany's most experienced and expertise fire reading engineer Dr. He was working with us in a very creative way, leading to that our 40,000 square foot school was getting by without sprinkler systems and with only two sections that were, you know, blocked off and in the hallways when fire, you know breaks out in one part and the smoke detectors close the doors. So a very kind of a low key preventive, you know, case, based on the same finding that you experienced once again first hand, risking burning your hand, but you know it wouldn't burn trust that pretty well and we also should thank the Polynesian Cultures Center right, who is one of your many employers who also allowed you to do that over there right. Yes, exactly. And a big thanks to them. They were a major part in me using their mill shops and using a lot of their resources and their manpower to assist me with putting together a lot of these testings that I did spend many hours, lots of long nights in their shops, putting these samples together. Yeah, and it true. Doctor of architecture you are you didn't leave it with a theory you want to apply this research to a potential project so let's go to the next slide and share that with the audience. So in selecting a potential for this to become a reality led us to needing to pick a site and actually proposing a real life scenario where this could be built. And so in looking throughout the island, I wanted to select a section of Waikiki in the very beginning area of Waikiki the fruit for Darussi area, because historically there was quite a few coconut trees here, and the early royalty purposely planted quite a few trees here and this was a residence where they found relaxing There was many royal homes that were built here, and the royal family stayed here so this beginning part of Waikiki in the for Darussi area is where we selected for our site and if we move to the next slide. So we have a diagram of the location in the area can see historical pictures how there was always coconut trees in the area so it's not something that's new or just forcing this type of this type of model to this place but it's always been that there was coconut trees. And for the people who don't might not recognize that this is our jungle of a different kind of concrete jungle right now Waikiki that look way more natural back because there's diamond had and you have that clear view of diamond had which you for sure don't have any more because we've got artificial mountains in between you and diamond had these days. So yeah let's go to the next slide and get more particular about the site. Exactly so moving on and selecting the site. There's an area right there in for Darussi, but there's quite a few coconut trees in a big open land and another reason why I wanted to select this area here in Honolulu is that I feel there's an opportunity for a lot of our visitors who come to the islands to be able to experience one of our natural resources that is the coconut tree. You know oftentimes tourists want to come here and they want to see these coconut trees but all they see is coconut trees without any coconuts on them so sometimes they don't even know if they're looking at the coconut tree is some other type of palm tree. And so what I wanted to build here in this peripheral Waikiki area is a cultural center that page homage to the coconut tree itself so coconut cultural center right here near Waikiki where visitors can walk to if they didn't have the opportunity to go around the entire island and visit a place like the Polynesian cultural center or go to some of our other cultural areas throughout the island like Waimea Valley and such. So the type of architecture that I profiled it after was type of shadow box, you know keeping it very just a lot of structure in there so you could see the structural components of the wood itself so that's the reasoning for that picture of a shadow box there. Yeah, because shadow is what we need first and foremost and some shelter from the rain but the rain isn't as you know like it is here we're just talking before the show that we had a hot muggy day like in the 90s and there's a thunderstorm rolling through that brings it down to the 50s here. We don't have it in a way right temperature is always more or less the same. So we really don't have to worry so really wanted to embrace the elements in your project and sort of going back from the kind of invasive hermetic. You know ceiling you're building off basically and really catch the breeze and catch the wind and catch the sun by the same time providing enough shelter. And also I think the kind of the zoom into the nature of the graininess of a palm tree right is something beautiful about palm trees is we're talking about on many levels, both on the sort of the the pragmatic side the kind of scientific side that we were pointing up before but also on the on the sort of poetic or kind of tech tile side. So let's jump to the next picture and share the next step in your design process. Exactly so taking it from that and understand what kind of design I wanted to follow after and following this shadow box type architecture this is a floor plan and a building that I came up with our cultural center. And so being in the three level structure. Lots of louver windows on the front side as well as the backside oriented to be able to maximize on the amount of shade that was provided here on this southern side of the island, as well as maximize on the winds natural ventilation coming through the building so with many louvers on the north and south side. We get a lot of breeze coming through as well as at an angle from the east, as well as the West so coming out from the mountains. And so this building, although it looks beautiful it is also very comfortable to the for the users within the space. And to illustrate how beautiful it will be let's go to the next slide and share a suggestive illustration of it and explain what we see things. Exactly. So three level structure with a rooftop trellis on the top as well. And one, proving its structural stability and being used as a for the coconut woods be used as structural components. So mostly, as it is put together nails with those legal lock nails. And so you can be able to see as much coconut wood as possible. So use as far as in the stairs in the trellis up on the roof in the structural walls in the louvered windows on the outside in the flooring in the ceiling so exposing as much of this natural coconut wood as possible. And while probably many of your peers have and would have probably even write me so stopped and say this is enough, enough is enough, not you. So let's jump to the next slide, because once again, you were digging in and diving in deep right. More of my samples and like I said in the beginning I really wanted to get a hands on understanding of what it takes to put this together so I got more samples and Joey Valenti on my committee. He introduced me to Elmer and his team over at wine Manalo Woods, of course in wine Manalo. They were so kind enough and generous enough to let me put a bunch of samples in their kilns and we stuck it in there for just under two months until we could get a moisture content of about 18%. And once we're able to know they let me know just a couple days before our final critique that it's ready. So I had about two days there as quick as I could put together my sample. Okay, show us your all nighter outcome. Next slide. Yes, and there we go. So I quickly put together a design for my one to one sample. And I wanted to show the floor section, ceiling section, the upper floor section as well as the party wall in between as well as the louver window. So this is me stacking those logs once they've been once they've been put through the table saw as well as the planers to get them to the right size and dimensions. Yeah, and I put a reference up there again to me sharing my better wounds with you and saying when I did this crazy school for mentally disabled children and was suggesting this sort of solid timber tectonics to my client. And I said, I think you need more treatment than my kids. And then I said before you fire us, give me 3000 euros and I've earned you a full scale lock up. And I gave him three weeks and put it in his hallway and every morning he called me and had another reason he thought why I wouldn't fly and I did through it and at the, you know, at the final day he said. I didn't even do it but get it out my hallway because the fire hazard. And then I said, well thank you for assigning a fire raining engineer and I got the house on board this is how it went so nothing beats the real deal. So, emerging guys join us in the reciprocity of the thinking of the making of architecture it's really the method that we can really recommend as you can tell and on the next slide you will see again. Again, how you put it together and what it became explain more detail. Continuing this design of this one to one component model. It took me about two days to two long days and nights actually put this whole thing together, and it came out beautifully you know seeing the party walls seeing the exterior side as willing to be able to look on the interior of this and understanding what the how beautiful it is to look in and out of a louver window and have that breeze come through. It came out beautiful and one of my only regrets is not being able to show this off in our final critique or in our final presentation because of this COVID-19 thing because I feel, you know, seeing it and touching. You will, you will hopefully do it in the fall and we reopen and you will hopefully share it with us and it's got the next slide because instead you were again using your computer skills and doing suggestive illustration so this is an animation of yours that shows how beautiful. It filters the light and how beautiful the warmth of that very beautiful would will play off and and support and next slide and last slide here once again illustrated through the real deal is your sample again and this is this is how it would look like. And we're getting close to the end of the show and again thank you so much for having shared your journey with us which was quite a ride and well worth it. And I hope many of the future emerging generations are going to be inspired by that and are not afraid to go the same path of again of architecture not being something that's abstract, but something that's real. And also, as you've shared with us, there's some real interest from the industries both on the island and off the island so in the best sense of the case I hope this is, I know this will not be the end this is actually the beginning for a career as as a woodpecker. And I can tell you how excited I am to continue to hear from you and and and hear from your successes as as a wood pioneer on the island and beyond. Yes, thank you so much and thanks for giving me another chance and another platform we will to share this I think it's really important and there's a lot of opportunity here not only for the local people here in Hawaii but there are a lot of a lot of other tropical nations as well as to apply this understanding of this knowledge. Thank you so much Martin, appreciate you having me on the show. Yeah. And although it wasn't intentional, none of us knew what would come but I think you were right on you had a sensitivity for this is a good example for that practices in the future can't and won't be as they were before so I think yours fits right in as we said at the very beginning as a perfect kind of post pandemic problem with all the proposition and so I think it's a very valuable and not only I think I'm biased because I was honored to be, you know, guiding you through but also many of my colleagues were really fascinated and extended that congratulations after your review so Thanks again for that. And now I let you off the hook and go back to your other babies into the other children. And again, thank you so much for having shared with us your exciting project. Great. Thank you so much for having a wonderful day. All right.