 Good to have you back for what happens to be our 186th episode of Think Tech Hawaii's Human-Humane Architecture. And we're ongoingly looking for a more free way to live on our islands of Hawaii. And for that, we have our utmost expert Friado. Fri means free and Fri means Fri and his long-term collaborator, Larry Medlin, back in Tucson, Arizona in the Rob Paulus studio. Welcome back, Larry. Nice to be here again. Good to have you back. And let's go. Yeah, we're on the first slide here and the top row we've been concluding with last time that amazingly you guys in this little Bauhausian Berlin box with little soap bubble and single and double multiple loop models. You basically made it to represent my native country of Germany in its most important representation on the World Fair in 1967. And then soon after that, half a decade Fri was jumping to the other most representative typology that a country can have and that is an Olympic stadium and we're going to touch on that briefly. And similarly, you know, we just caught the burn at the very top left, the hideous Hitler high rise on the 19 and 36 World Fair in Paris. And then there were the Olympics around the same year actually year before I believe down there. This is the Berlin Stadium that later on pretty much have been remodeled recently by the architects, Gürkan American or you'd see at the very bottom right. And guess what, they have put a canopy over it and has some fabrics on it. The little row of pictures on top of their one. We've been talking about fries Arctic project last time Larry and the material specification was supposed to be double layer translucent pillows and some three decades later that made it into the mainstream of architecture. The little blue bubble there is a reference to a show the soda and I did where I was sharing that project we did for mentally disabled children in 2002 we recovered some parts with what we know ever since as et of E, and some three years at September on did that stadium in Munich, that is both red and blue for different soccer teams. And again, it just proves how much ahead of the game you guys were and that's what was mainstream and envisioned and utopian at that time, made it into real live architectural application big times. And that's the next slide, because we're going to quickly talk about that that Olympic project here is a little lot on this one slide here but start on the very top left there. This is basically the fry as what we read you know was as an early child fascinated by zeppelins and airplanes. I should go back quick to the to the et of E basically we, the company we worked with in 2002 was foil tech, and the competitor this was kappa tech and kappa tech then ran bankrupt over the herds of tomorrow on Munich stadium. And so unfortunately did. This is the Bowdoin say up there and who was having his his firm, his company at the Bowdoin say Larry. And we see him where at the very top left. He's sitting there at this conference that you guys were all at the conference for the special portion of special research area. Yeah, was but he was there to all every one of those in that series. Yeah, and once again he unfortunately got into some trouble after Europe pavilion so once again you know innovation takes its toll but it's still worth it it needs these pioneers right and that's what you guys truly were. And the second half right side of this here is dedicated to his collaborator on this project here, and we've been talking about my dad gunter and he's holding this book here proudly and this is the big encyclopedia of world architecture that he represents in the hometown of Hanover together with the other gunter, and that's going to a banish and going to a banish and fry auto shares something because both had to serve in the world war. However, fry was up there in the air in the Luftwaffe, and the gunter banish was down there in the submarine. Now, if a little trip recommendation at very bottom right is a museum right outside of my door here at the Stamberg as a that's a lot of gunter buheim museum and this is the author of that novel later on they made a film out of it. The submarine right and and and gunter was a very sort of an a feisty guy and was was not shy of picking up some fights and rumors say he did that with his client lot of gunter buheim they had kind of a love and hate relationship. But we, you know, we know from and you told me that fry actually never really talked to you about his background in, you know, in the war and stuff right. Very little about his participation in the war. Yeah, it was only 17 years old time. And the thing that made an extremely strong impression was the city's burning below and the need for architects to do just the opposite. Exactly. And that's what united the similar, you know, an impression very personal is what gunter had because he said, when I ever get out of this tin can I make sure that no one is ever going to be trapped in space right so the airiness lightness transparency became basically a synonym for democracy and actually for both of them. And this is why they were such a good match on basically collaborating on to participate in the competition for and we go to the next slide. The Olympics in Munich in 1972, right. And we have to say there's so much to talk about this project. I actually took the top left picture, which I wasn't supposed to do out of my son roof of my quarter of a century young micro Frank compact car Twingo that has guess what a vinyl roof and it's you know it's the first one, or other p I mobile and back in Honolulu that the soda takes care of my old Mercedes has a fabric cloth and that one, as you explained to us last time doesn't last nearly as long, but also point out Larry the project at the very bottom right there and explain the similarities but also the differences of the Olympics and the Avery in Munich as well. And when you make aviar as you can make it a different size mesh depending upon what's inside the area. You know also is designed with the systems of support. So, in some cases they've been had openings where actually trees can pass through and things like that. And watch the bear chested guy walking on it on the very top rides a little small but we tell you there is someone walking on it because we want to get back to that as an as an inspiration for the project we're currently collaborating on with the emerging generation Larry. I want to quickly. What I don't realize is that they think fabric and mesh and stuff like that is really flimsy, but unless it's designed to be a flimsy mess. When it's pulled taught it's it's like iron rods of steel and so it's much easier to walk on it's not like it. You're bouncing on a trampoline. Absolutely. And one project obviously has no enclosure or the netting is the enclosure so the birds can get out but the Olympics has a plexiglass enclosure. And Fry actually, you know, they say he actually like the aviary more because it's more pure to that sort of agenda of doing the most with the least. On the Olympics the executive engineer was actually York Schleich and York Schleich I can share with you when we won the expo 2000 train station project, which we did without an engineer and the competition for certain wrong but at that little bit reasons when we won the competition I sent out two letters reaching to the stars one to Arab and one to York Schleich and York Schleich won't be back and basically said the young architect. Let me tell you if I can be part of a project from the very beginning I prefer that over to be brought in later and be your slave. It's something I didn't want to hear at that point but I needed to hear and Gunther and he did it right they worked on this from the very beginning. But fry being the critical guy and not afraid of speak up basically retrospectively found that the Olympics got a little bit too, a little bit too heavy. And, but there's so much to talk about it and again Larry, you know so much about it let's do a separate show about this one and for now leave it with that. And now we want to go back to your country and go the next slide. And while while fry was working in his country around the same time where he was so busy with the with the with the preparation for the Olympics. Explain us what he had asked you to represent you guys in your country, Larry. What was my the first project I did in the States that was the exhibition structure at the museum or modern art first and then it was transported to the Ontario Art Museum in Canada, and then it was transported to the Chicago Circle campus of the University of Illinois. So it had a long life of about 14 years I believe. Yeah, and once amazing in this short amount of spirit of time first doing the, you know, the World's Fair competition, doing the Olympics being you were the stars at that time and down there it says this is a quote from the exhibition in the catalog. This is really nice sort of honorary, you know, text from this from this journalist here, and at the bottom it says among the many collaborators who have worked with fry Otto is Richard Larry Medlin, who designed the exhibition 10 right and you told me that he turned to you and said hey Larry, let you do that because it's in your country and it's about your country right. I was not only me there was a bunch of collaborators I involved my university students and you made it a process. The basic principle of this was to study going from a simple membrane like some you see in the upper row. It was a simple saddle shape with slightly different configuration to a multiple saddle, so you could create dome shuttle volume shape spaces or linear tubes or whatever you needed to. And that you see as a tension ring around the edge of it and the initial idea for that it was intended to demonstrate the extension over the season. This is the summer and spring and fall version. And in the winter, it was to show how it could be winterized by putting a little bit like you're talking about the pillow tubes above. So it would rub up against the enemy for skin from a tension ring that goes around and then bring fabric grapes that would be scalloped around the perimeter to close the space so you could use it, even during the winter and take advantage of its passive solar game. Yeah. And speaking about climates you mentioned the summer and going back to your native culture and country and climate, which is way less tempered and is way more extreme right so you dedicated your research applied research, more than ever to the shading capacity of tensile structures. And up there is just a couple of them and can you quickly walk us through them maybe starting from top left. The top left is on the wall by nation and the Grand Canyon that's actually on the top of the ridge that extends out. And going around that what potentially shaped ridge is 5000 feet down is the Grand Canyon. And that's a simple south shape membrane in that case it's oriented true north south and the edge on the south is raised so in the winter you'll get some sun in there and hit the heat. It serves as a visitor center for people who come to that spot and the low sunlight to come there. And also what it does is, in the summer air moves up from the heat, and it pivots through, but it creates a nice gentle breeze that goes by venturi action right through the middle of that membrane element. And that that helps a lot in cooling that I remember the first time I was there after it was finished was from standing out in the sunlight out on the edge in the bottom of the picture and going up to that area. It was, you made it felt 15 or more degrees cooler. And then so that that's an example of a membrane structure where it's free standing from adjacent building elements, but then on the right. That's the zoo entry to the Tucson zoo. And that's designed very specifically with the architecture of the complex it's there. It serves as the entry and ticket area for the Tucson zoo. And it's a little bit difficult to see in that slide but the entry building slopes down to the right, and it drains on the right edge of the picture. It drains into a garden that is to the west. Northwest of the pavilion or where the late summer sun is the worst in the evenings. So it irrigates vegetation there. And then, in cases of times when there is no rain which is frequent in Arizona. The membrane is slid. So it actually comes down. And if you look very carefully on the lower right corner of that membrane, it drips rainwater off into the cistern. And that collects cistern, and that can be used into irrigate the same vegetation on times when it's really needed. Great. And talking water and cistern, there is another typology that the two other pictures on the right side. That's the adaptive recreation center. That was a project by, that was Burns and Walt Hopkins Architects at the time. Now it's BWS. Well, they actually did a design as architects or recreation center that would house not only physical therapy but public swimming sessions and so forth. They designed a traditional building with all the pools indoors and the environmental control system will require the condition that because of the humidity generated by the pools, just not pragmatic. And somebody asked them, why have all the pools inside, why not cover them and leave some of them outdoors. And that's when they got me involved. We started concepts over from the very beginning and said, well, what if we create a shaded area, it actually in the abstract is like a giant umbrella. It's a big roof that will shade a large area. In the summer, it will go over the top and protect the more of the area directly beneath it. And then in the winter, a little bit of it will get back underneath the pavilion. So you could, which throughout the year, you want to be able to have options between sun and shade. And that provides lots of area for that in the winter, but not quite as much in the summer that protects the area, which you want basically. Also, the city was concerned about getting the biggest area they possibly could. So we basically took in principle a simplest sort of structural concept, which is three guys are the minimum number of guys to guy off the main mass. And then membranes that rises up from the edge so that warm air will rise up to the top in the winter. The fan pushes some of it back down in the summer. The vents are open and it's exhausted to the outside. Very good and Larry before we follow you further into your extended career in your home country through practice and education and coaching. Let's stay a little bit in your in your other country in my native country Germany and go back and and just very quickly, we're also going to only do a little pre glimpse of it because we got to dedicate another show to that to another fellow German who became a very close friend of yours. And we're on that slide now. It's gone read Waxman who was a original member of the Bau house. And he was good friends with Walter Gropius. He actually a escape Germany in the war war, and he went to Cambridge, Massachusetts and he actually live in Walter Gropius is a basement where they did some more drawings and the exhibit material for a general panel house. There were some working drawings of which were exhibited at the Museum of modern art and a recent one, not a recent exhibit about five or six years ago. And then he also was. He read it in the newspaper that that Albert Einstein had won a medal for his work and energy, and that the city of Potsdam had awarded him a prize of a house to be built in Potsdam. And so it was literally coming on the train from Munich, from Berlin going to Munich to get turned around on the train went back to Berlin, and then what he knew where the Einstein's apartment was back then you could just look up addresses, and he went up there. And he came to the door and introduced himself my name was Conrad Waxman the architect who's going to design the house the Einstein house for Potsdam and the care person was there at the door inside nobody's been hired for that. Mrs. Einstein heard him talking in the background and came to the door and they start having a conversation. And he told her he had some ideas for that and would like to talk to them about how they could approach that and how it could be meaningful in many dimensions and what you did there. And so she invited him in. And as the conversation pursued, she said, he said, do you want to go out and look at the side and Potsdam. And she said, sure. So spring up the car and we'll go thinking that there's no way in post war war Berlin, we have access to a car but Conrad Waxman the clever guy that a Mercedes touring car. He went over to the window where he parked it below pointed out to her, and then they went out for a tour. And then they toward the side and came back and she talked outward and this is the right guy to be the architect. And then they became fast friends after that. Yeah. And so you became with Conrad and we want to talk about that in a separate show and you were really really close. One of the things I remember from you telling me is that he asked you to teach his kids the birds and the bees for example that's as close as you guys were. And we talking train we had the chance Larry to go to congrats roots as some years ago in 2014 when you were visiting and this is East of Dresden close to the Polish and the Czech border. And there's a separate show about if you guys want to look this up from the old urban transcendence day that you see a show quote up there from the very top right. So that was interesting because that's where he worked for the firm Christoph and unmark. And it was right before what you just told him when he met, you know, Albert Einstein which is obviously fostering his career right. And so but let's go to the next slide and quickly. And then the connection again to to fry auto because Conrad was also known, you know, for many other things and there's this space frame project he did for the Air Force right he projected which was unfortunately never built, nor were his prefab houses that he was. But he got many other things accomplished right, but so you know they were both also large deal kind of space frame guys at this point in 2014 Larry when we when you departed from us and said goodbye I wish I would have asked you more or you would have told me more where you moved on to after that and where was that after I'm sorry I don't quite understand after after we were in Niske together and looked at at Conrad's early work and you said goodbye and you kept traveling on and in Germany. I went to Stuttgart and I knew that triado was ill and they probably didn't have much longer to live. And I went, that's him and is that to you there and which is just at the bottom of the hill from his house and more wrong. And, you know, Ingrid his wife told me that, you know, he's not in the very good health maybe about a 20 minute visit, and we ended up talking three and a half hours was unbelievable. We, and what we talked about was things that he accomplished what was good, what he still wanted to accomplish and wish he had time to do. I also spent a lot of time, like reminiscing about the projects in Montreal, and particularly the personalities of some of the French Canadian contractors that work in building that and their ingenuity and how important it is to have that sort of collaboration between the builders and the architects and the constructors and set that process up as hopefully as soon as possible. We put in a picture of the young fry in his et alier and bonbon on the right, and at the very bottom left very important very the Pritzker Prize jury was already in preparation to make him the finalist nominee for the Pritzker Prize right and he, and he still witnessed the process and he, he, he was, you know, assure that he could get it, and then it was, it was awarded to him very close to him passing away. They announced it to the next day, which was earlier than the normal time they would have done that. So what what great, you know, chance that that you guys had, you know, took the opportunity and you took the opportunity to visit him one more time and to reconvene and, you know, talk, you know, for hours and hours. And then you said, you know, when, when you were basically leaving Ingrid and him came right and waved goodbye. They left the building and walk, which is not the easiest test down the stairs into the street, instead of the curbside as we left and wave goodbye to us. It was, it was a very emotional moment. I can only imagine Larry. And maybe that being the case, maybe we make a cut here and leave, you know, this moment, leave, leave the show and leave the, you know, for today and only to continue in the next couple of shows. So once again, following, you know, fry for a little bit longer, but then basically following you as said through your professional and academic career, which is currently, you know, very interesting to us anyways, but also just as fries work has gone out of style or fashion. We're currently again heavily inspired by you guys work and happy to have you on board and on the team for some different ways to live in our paradise of Hawaii so thank you, Larry for sharing with us these fascinating stories and we're taking a little break. This week, you have some personal private obligations to take care of, but we're going to reconvene in about two weeks with the volume six, I guess it is already. So, look forward to that Larry. Thank you, Martin. I look forward to seeing you then. Me too. And see y'all back then. Bye bye.