 We're happy to have you back to think take Hawaii's human humane architecture, which we're broadcasting live once again, from the opposite ends of the world, me near Wurzburg, Germany, and you to Soto back in Honolulu, Hawaii. Yes, here I am with an airplane flying over making a lot of noise. Well, we're kind of glad they're fly again right. Yeah. So, but us all being a lockdowns more or less we're trying to project into the post pandemic production future. And this is our volume two of our TOD graciously gentrified Garrett's read and we're looking into a German town that has done urban densification in a way that we thought is worth sharing and maybe get some clues for how we could do that when we get the the heavy rail going and get developments around the particular train stations which is what one calls transit oriented development TOD. So let's go to the first slide and recap a little bit what we did last week. Well, we talked about this little town, which is located right at the end of or it's one town away from the end of the main train into Munich. And what they have done is redevelop their downtown. They've already finished one project and they're starting their other project is under construction. These to us seem very small and low rise but this isn't a small this isn't a very big town. So we're going to be looking at first of all the one that's already been completed, but more at the, what we can anticipate for the second one, which has an interesting background as to how it's been developed and which you just looked into and we'll find out about. And the one that's currently under construction with the cranes that we showed last time is called BG, BGZ. And here we're happy I was digging this out from somewhere fishing in the net that shows us they have terrorist lanais we're happy to see that we would like to see some of that in in Hawaii, because, as you always say here, I wouldn't be able to sit on that lanai right now, unless I have my heavy winter coat on. We don't have a 12 month summer, you know, endless summer we don't have that summer ended here. So let's go to the next slide, which is how we left last time and now we know we did more research that the building that this gentleman is sitting in and under is actually BGZ and the G in that basically stands for Co-op. So it's different than most of the developments in Honolulu, which are developer based and they try to make a profit and then walk away. The Ganasansha, the co-op is basically members based. So everyone basically chips in and becomes part of the client of the developer. But the project that has recently been completed we see in the distance there is a different one and that one we want to take a closer look and let's go to the next slide and walk around it and let's share observations. So what's on the ground floor. Okay, well this is interesting and we're going to see a map of what actually is in this particular place but on the ground what we would call the ground floor and one in Germany is called floor zero I presume is and this has three levels by the way, which we'll see in just a second, but we see here that there are commercial developments so there's retail there are people on the right buying flowers which are presumed is in front of the supermarket or the grocery store. And then there's a small restaurant in the center where the young adults males or teenagers think that they are impervious to anything so they're not wearing their masks because they don't think COVID could do anything to them. But as you pointed out the girl on the bicycle on the far left is wearing her mask so she is more sensible than they are. And the two older people on the right are also wearing masks and I think Germany is in a tighter lockdown now than it was when you took these photographs. Exactly, that's right that's correct. And what we see baby is not that shockingly new to us this is what the developers call. Oh we're doing mixed use right so we're doing retail on the ground floor and we're doing, you know, living on the floors above which actually isn't that innovative it's, you know, it's has been the model in many cultures including the European and then Americans inherited that when they were like on their wagon trains building their, their cities the women who ran the saloon lived upstairs so it's not such a new thing but it's good to reintroduce that for sure. And especially if you're providing the mercantile infrastructure so can people can walk down and walk their dinner or lunch up there instead of driving it so that's good. But as you indicated let's walk up there because there's more surprises up there so let's go to the next slide and this is your weekly German lesson because he took some closer look on these German signs here and what did you find. Well, the directional signs show that there are three levels and the ground, the level of underground, which is referred to as minus one, which again is a strange concept for us is parking on what we would say the ground level which is referred to here as zero we had as we just saw the retail and then on the floors above that, in addition to the housing, there also are a variety of tenants and those include the some offices of this town itself so there's some government offices there, there are some doctors in there and then there is a there's a bank, there's a people's bank as you said, and I can't remember what the other functions are but this is its offices but it's also government so it's not purely a commercial development. I think that we'll get into why that is because this was a redevelopment of the town itself so they needed to accommodate these other things in addition to just providing housing and retail and part. Yeah. No, absolutely. And it gives us a first clue it's actually the players involved actually must believe in the project that much that they actually move in. So there's the bank and the real estate part of the bank which I believe are financing some the project itself and maybe people renting or buying in there. There's even the city with a department of social and family services having moved in there. So that gives us a first clue that's a really participatory kind of process and project. And let's look into the into a closer on the next slide, because we're now up on that elevated plinth with that circulation we're looking we're seeing the crane for a GBZ two and we're seeing GBZ one just there in the middle of the picture. But now let's walk on that plinth and basically get to a surprise. Let's go to the next slide. And there's our surprise and I confirmed with you that this is not at ground level this is actually on what we would consider to be the first floor. And it's on the roof of the supermarket and the retail and the restaurant that we just saw in the previous or previous pictures a little bit ago. And this is a whole landscaped area, which is available for the residents and as well for the tenants as well the people are in the offices. So it's up on essentially the roof, and yet it gives you the feeling that you're on the ground because it's vegetated. Yeah, that looks very jungly by the way right. Yeah, for that purpose let's go back to Hawaii for one second which gets us to the next slide. Now that's not here. Doesn't it look like everything in Hawaii should be we got we got largely nice. This is actually facing south. So you got the overhang the shading you can basically live outdoors. And there was I was too shy to ask them didn't want to be a paparazzi but there was actually a Vietnamese immigrant family living on that ground floor and doing beautiful. Gardening outside there and enjoying the outdoors so it really we will see later on that I took the emerging generation out there and they were saying yeah this looks like aren't you back in Germany are you sure are you back in Hawaii. In a better Hawaii that that you know that most of what we unfortunately know from Hawaii that recently been developed which is all hermetic and invasive but this looks very tropical exotic. Once again these are nice are not usable at this moment of the year anymore. Yeah, so go to the next slide and look at it a little bit more in detail here. This is this is interesting you pointed out that these planter boxes that contain all this vegetation. First of all are equipped with benches, and that's something that we're familiar with here too but what is unfamiliar is and I was I confirm with you underneath these benches there are light sources so these function also as lighting for the outdoors. It's very cleverly inserted into the structures for to hold the plants and for people to sit on. So that's something that I we rarely would see here that I think it's very clever and it looks really nice to. Yeah, and if you would, if you would imagine that on 4th Street mall, and you're a funneuring there in the evening that would be certainly nice to see let's go to the next slide and while let's look at the backdrop of the jungle and you made some interesting observations maybe the next slide is already the better one to look at how you looked at that interesting layer of a threshold that is not so familiar to you right. Correct. So what we see here is this building has got sort of two levels of outdoor spaces for the people who live there. There are deeper line eyes like what we would be expecting here but there also is a sort of a shallow one, and to access that to get out to where that railing is and you can see this in the picture on the left. There are these unusual door slash window combinations which we do not have in the United States, the window that you can see open can tilt inwards at the top so that's for ventilation. But as Martin has described to me, you can also close it and open it with hinges like it's a door. So you've got a multi purpose use of this big pane of glass to be able to get out onto that very shallow small line eye if you choose to, or you can just close it off or you can open it up for ventilation, which is really versatile and something we should emulate here. Yeah. And next slide is looking at it again in a more elevational view holding the camera up and you see this interesting layering of these two shields almost of a threshold. The other one basically being the balustrades and the inner one being the thermal threshold that's composed and comprised of opaque panels because again we're in temperate climates. And that in Hawaii these might want to be vertical louvers that you can open and close, but here where it gets cold there's there's really sufficient insulation between that one. And then I go to the next slide which I went out to try to find a floor plan and shame on me I couldn't find one but I found this instead which is giving us a clue of because we're looking for the plan in order to judge is it for families is it for single and here you see like dinkies double income we don't see any kids so we have to assume there aren't any, but they're doing something that we think everyone should do in Honolulu basically eat and dine on their lanais. And if we go to the next slide, we see I found an earlier version and earlier rendering that actually saw the lanais being even more apparent, but apparently they were thinking more about the privacy issue and then they were pulling more opaque parts of that continuous Belastrate band over where there is a lanai so when you're sitting on the lanai you're not being looked at entirely you can hide some precious body parts basically behind that kind of Belastrate, which is the thing that's very familiar to me with these soon being back to the Waikiki Grand there's actually the lower part is opaque is concrete. And then you got horizontal steel guard rail. So when you're sitting on a lounge chair, you can look out, but no one can look at you very cleverly designed by Ernest Hara in that case. So let's go to the next slide and do credit to the dear colleague this is the architect Mr. Yeah, Baum. And the difference between the early version and the second one as that secretive soft edges, the corners and certain details of it and he seems to be into that as I found this other work here. But the next slide is more important because here the architecture is more boxy again that these is almost hard to believe is more stuff that he proposes for that still pretty small town of Garrett three. So he's continuing to think big and he's more urban densification and renewal development proposals. Let's go to the next slide and and and look into the project more in detail. We were saying you know what's really critical in Honolulu is like keeping yourself cool right we're looking behind you and you're was saying you know it's relatively cool now but it's starting to be winner so it's okay. But still you still got the jealousies open and I hear the birds singing and the dogs having fun hearing the birds right. So, in Germany it's either freaking cold as now or it can be really hot in Germany as well and for that. You got it all in place you got the Linnaeus set back their shading where there's no little night and be described by you kind of friend for the ceiling door. You basically have retractable aluminum jealousy shading that are basically retracting in this even on the on the on the ground floor here in this horizontal dark line. And these verticals are basically the tracks where they where they run, and then you got vegetation in front of it, which is softening it and also helping to keep it to keep it cool. That being recognized somewhere in a in a very temperate climate we should have all that in the tropical climate for sure. Right. And next slide, as we should have what we see on this picture here right that that would be the standard in Honolulu. And I think one of the things that strikes me that's interesting is that there are exterior walkways in a cold climate. And as you pointed out if that's the case and you don't have an interior hallway to get access to apartments, then you've got to have the thermal barrier as you described it on the exterior where your front door is. And that means that to keep the cold out and the snow when it snows, you have to have the installation around your front door and all your way exterior windows because they're not protected by the exterior of the building, the way they would be in an interior hallway. Yeah, exactly. And I know from having walked it that before we got to the courtyard you actually go through the lobby, which has the staircase is the main staircase and the elevators. You basically have an access to your unit even your commercial unit, which this is not a residential one of a commercial unit you have your main access to them from that main basically foyer, but here. So this is extra this is extra benefit and I'm sure there's some doors so you can maybe sneak out of the back door when the meeting gets too crazy or you're late or something like that. And you also see the just described additional aluminum jealousy shading. So we can assume that this orientation might actually not be south where the overhang would shade. But it might be face either tricky west or east where we know the sun is so low so no overhang would would would help you so they recognize that. So once you got the setting sun actually we know that and we will see it in a couple of pictures here, the sun is low, and we'll basically bake you behind that glass so they just added that so it's like a no brainer to say, by climatic performance and we remember that from one of the construction sign banners that there were prodding themselves the bgz developments of environmentally friendliness and so obviously this project was doing that as well. But you are covered from the rain for sure and whenever it snows you got to do some snow shoving. But again that facade would be just applicable as it is for Hawaii right and would work just fine all year round you can walk in the dry whenever it rains which it does at times and you're going to stay cool behind so it's kind of surprising to say shocking that something that is designed for such a different climate would work just as well and you of course you wouldn't have to make this fixed glazing in Hawaii where we say you know maybe maybe less glazing so this the threshold could be could be more tropical but basically the principles could be applied just as well to Hawaii. So let's go to the next slide and look at it even closer because unfortunately in more commercial developments, the closer you get the less interesting it gets and the more trashy the architecture gets. And a good architecture has always been the case and will always be the case the opposite case that the closer you get the finer it gets and here again the the bell straight guard rail where they were intending to have that steel profile run, you know, run across in exactly the same that made them basically not child that that steel which is quite an effort you know that's but that's intentional so again the project wants to be as good as it is as a whole in its bits and pieces and let's look at more example of that and the next one was surprising you too. Right. Yeah, this is the railing that goes down to this is the stairway and the railing of the stairway that goes down to the parking level which is underground. And what you pointed out which I didn't even see till you said it is that there's again lighting on the bottom incorporated into the railing itself. And the lighting is provided by that little strip of lights, which means you don't have to have separate lights which means it's all part of the integrated thing that you used to get downstairs to get to your car. I thought that was very clever and it's also smart because that's where you need the light you need the light down where your feet are so that you can see where you're walking to get downstairs and upstairs safely. And when we step back we see that situation here when we go to the next slide. And we see that situation more and again. This is something that probably you know you would have to argue with, as far as as you said as far as maintenance with the custodians with a developer saying oh is this really working with a code people because this is just pure glass right. This is butt joint this is structural glazing. So this is really top notch and kind of high end. And, and they were believing that must have been believing that's the way to go and so there's some really high standard of detailing and quality. We also what you pointed out which I did not see when I first looked at this picture. It is protected on the top by a sheet of glass so there isn't a separate structure for a canopy or a roof. You walk down and you've got a glass roof over you so essentially you're descending in through a glass box that's up at sidewalk level to get down to where you are getting to your car. Exactly. And speaking of that let's get to the next slide which is our European pying twingo mobile here on the way to drive back home. And it's once again stepping back and and seeing that new project from a distance again well, I have to admit, you know, even though I'm kind of an expert and and an informed and interested citizen. I guess I have to say, probably the least, but even I was suspicious, you know, of like this kind of out of scale development and but all things considered what we walk through looking at it from all angles. It makes a lot of sense. And it's it's actually a very, it's actually a very friendly development. And so what we see cut off on the on the left is when we go to the next slide is that town hall that we introduced there's a beer garden, you know that interested you for various reasons of that partying basement. Mostly that tradition that German tradition and, and there's very fine attention to detail to that building for sure historically with these wooden shutters with your favorite uranium, you know planner boxes and a little tower there. But then next slide. Again, kind of evolving which we talk about a lot. If you have a tradition a good tradition you should evolve that. And today we have bigger issues and housing is one of the biggest issues we're facing worldwide for sure and you on a little and here as well. So it's catering to that. So you can see the same philosophy the same mentality, basically transformed into into a new era into a new time. I think we found out the secret behind why this worked out so well and that's the next slide. Right. And who are these people. This, this, this was particularly interesting to me this is a father and son, who are the brains and the developers of these two projects right in the center of this little town. And the important thing is that they are residents themselves they live there they own the property, but this was not purely at least to me it doesn't seem like it wasn't purely for profit. They had more altruistic beneficial motives for the people who live there, and because their residences they are invested in it too. So it's quite a different situation than a developer buying or leasing a piece of property building the biggest tallest building they possibly can to maximize all of their profit, and then just walking away. And that's what we see a lot of in Honolulu. We don't see that level of commitment we see somebody who wants to essentially, as I said maximize the profit that they can make off a piece of land. And that was not purely what was happening here in these two this two phase project that we're looking at right now. Yeah, and that's definitely something to recommend. Once the rail will go through Kali for example right rather than buying these pieces of land from some local people buying them out and then doing what you just described. Now you find ways of clever innovative financing and project developments to basically make the traditional owners, the developers of the project, and that way it seems like a good recipe for success that then it works out because they're involved, and they want to make sure, you know and built with pride for their community. And, you know, getting to the end of the show getting to the next slide which reminds us of some similarities again we're seeing the Malka in the back and the sunset you see a lot of green. But this is that location over there in the very at Germany, but let's go back to Honolulu and back in the days when the first sprawling out started to sell the next slide. And this is one of the first episodes of the Y 5 oh we're analyzing and researching. And these are a particular interest because you're once again, not just a professional observer of that but also a personal eyewitness of this. Right. Exactly. This is particularly interesting episode and it's from level if I vote first or second season, and it's about a developer and spot somebody who's protesting against attract suburban tracked homes being built. The picture in the lower left is Steve McGarrett the protagonist of the series visiting the guy who was the developer in his home. And I actually watched that being filmed back then in 1968 because it was shot at a house that's just a few houses away from where I am right now my family home. And in that particular picture Steve and the developer looking out over Honolulu which is at that point being developed with lots of high rises and they can see a building in the distance with a crane on top of it. So this is exactly what we're just talking about right here in the situation in this little town in Germany development, protest against development etc and you pointed out that when this GBZ got started there. There were people who objected to it and thought it was too big, and it was going to be overshadowing them which of course I find laughable because it's only what seven stories you said or not even that being fine. That's not very big building. Certainly not by standards in Honolulu it's not. Absolutely not. So getting into the end of the show and I go to the next slide, second to last, lots to learn from we thought and also the emerging generation who I took there out on an XP day and they found it rather interesting and took some clues for their current studio project which is addressing similar issues of trying to make a living in dwelling and back in Honolulu increasingly challenging and last slide here is phasing out. Again, we've been talking to my Umi and John Hara about out West because they've been building West Wow, you age out there. And we've been talking about that developments like primitive or one could do something similar as this project has been doing for Garrett's Reed, but it could do it. It should do it differently because here it's still Garrett's read and we got a lot of, you know, wall architecture next to the project which we wouldn't need in back in Honolulu right this could be way more easy breezy than I vegetation with a 12 month growing cycle more more aggressively incorporated. So again, some more food for thought for potential transit development, your dog is cheering the end of the show. That's right. They're saying it's time to end the show. So I think Jay wants to adopt that for all the shows that the dock is the clock the alarm clock. So, with that, thank you all and look forward to see you again for another episode of our human human architecture. Bye bye.