 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome back to human humane architecture here from Think Tech Hawaii and our show is pretty much about that. And we're broadcasting from our tropical exotic paradise of Honolulu, Hawaii, where everyone wants to be, especially at this time of the year in January. And that's why increasingly people can't be here anymore because it gets too expensive. So we want to shed a light on how a dwelling has been and could be here on our island. And we felt a little guilty after our last show and our is the Soto Brown and Martin the Spank. And last time we were talking about the Kala Hilton condos and which should be a keeper because they're threatened because they're on leasehold by Kamehameha schools. We felt a little guilty because the rich people are not so endangered here on the island but more the one on the lower food chain. So we thought we'd do justice and make up for that. We ran across, literally ran or rolled across a project, another project that another school is involved, is threatening, and which one is that? Well that's Yolani school and the area that we're going to be talking about is the Date Laau Street area consists of some low rise developments. They are probably being threatened, it's indefinite, but it's likely that those are all going to be demolished for further redevelopment by Yolani school for whatever reason, probably for them to earn more income. So we wanted to examine this area and show people what's there and you were suggesting it was a proletarian paradise and I suggested it maybe was a little more bourgeois than that because of some of the amenities which we will get to. We will have more arguing going on. Yes we will. So let's go on a little tour of this Soto. Yes, let's. So let's get started actually where how you can drive into this little enclave is when you come from a date street as you said from the Kapiliani Boulevard side and then you take a right turn and this is picture one and this is a building I've been driving by for many years now on my way to work and back home and whereas the audience might say okay what's so nice about it and I'm sorry because it's so sort of deteriorated by now by purpose that it doesn't really come across but when there was light on and it was you know in better shape it's sort of the quintessence for how dwelling might want to be here in Hawaii it's the Lanai this the lie is spacious it's large enough it's easy breezy there is micro perforated metal and there is floor to ceiling glass sliding doors so this is jealousies and yeah and for the longest time I've been thinking wow I might want to move in there and this particular elevation is facing north so you never get overheating now it was always curious why you know with this sort of stressed market housing rental market wise is empty and we unfortunately found out recently that you know this is all going to be redeveloped and reconstructed so if we continue now to drive down this sort of one-way street u-shaped street that's the next picture we're going to look down that road that as you can see in the distance is is facing diamond head yes and everything that's on the left side is we want to talk about later because that's our pitch to keep that but everything on the right side is threatened to go soon and in fact the next picture please is what I took through a construction fence at the end of last year and both are now gone and the next picture is that one is the corner when you cut back to date street is also gone and that I found is the same thing it's a very simple rationalist tropical modernism a nice composition nice proportions by a climatic you got this overhang this is facing south so there was probably enough to shade it there's this little you know fruit-bearing tree there the only thing that's still there is this sort of very sort of three-dimensionally composed CMU wall but I'm afraid that might might go as well will eventually yes so next picture is how the whole thing looks now I took that for the construction fence just a couple days ago so it's all bulldozed and waiting for being redeveloped and we sort of accuse ourselves to we have not done research on what's going to replace it now leave this up to the developers and but we want to make a pitch for what's still there and and show you why we like that so for that we basically go across the street from here next picture and go and go to the to the other projects and this is where the little argument starts with us and a little competition because we were not able to decide on which of these buildings we like the best one so you're first and you please make your case for your favorite okay well there are there's more than one little complex on this on this piece of property of the date Laos Street but the two that we're focusing on this is the first one the Laos Gardens and it's got as we like to say a crazy canopy there for protection for cars and it's a freestanding structure it's not taking up space underneath or any other place like that but we're going to be looking out the buildings that you can see a little bit of on the right yeah and it's not next picture it's not that I don't like your project at all it's a very fine sort of race and this is my contribution I happen to be there when the beautiful rainbow was there so there's this beautiful lush and sort of vegetated fens and and behind that you see this sort of idyllic enclave right and this is this this the Laos Gardens is the project that was designed by an architect named Edwin Mia Masu and we have to thank Don Hibbert our friend for giving us this information he researched this area for us let us know when things were built most of the buildings that we're going to be talking about the Laos Gardens is from 1961 and the other one the Lonnie Halle is from 1959 so if we go to the next picture one of the things that's nice about Laos Gardens is that it has nice ground it's got vegetation it has green grass it's got a fairly nice level of maintenance that keeps it in good shape that's very jungly it's jungly and the next picture I'm sympathetic with your project so this is my favorite detail here that that wall that's in closing the Lonnie has a sort of wallpaper a lettuce green yeah so the door is basically sort of an integral part of that cladding yeah so it's basically hidden and that makes the Lonnie look way more spacious and you actually have that in high-end architecture yeah mostly museums and pay has done that I mean many architects throughout history have sort of been hiding utilitarian elements of course so this is a classical element but it's not a bohemian basically or very upscale so this is rather simple to do you know doesn't take a lot of effort but it's very thoughtful and just speaks for the integrity of of design and in these days that is exactly the case and so if we go to the next picture I think one of the things that's really nice about what you just said was amenities can be designed into the project that don't have to cost a lot of money but that add to the experience of living there and one of the features of our gardens are these tiles these exterior tiles they were commissioned for the building they were specially made for the building and as you pointed out they encompass different types of themes at the ground level these are sort of flora they're sort of plant related you go up to the next levels the next two and three floors they are human related and animal related that's next picture we can take a glimpse right and I like also in the left that you can see that the address is also a specially uniquely made tile situation but we've got fish and we've got human figures and they're very typical of the mid-century really yeah no what's typical about it as you point out always it's this is not literal but this is also not purely abstract it's somewhere in the middle and you can almost think these are rebars maybe actually they are they could be they look like they are rebars yeah they look like they're so fun and they're sort of this this sort of playful interpretation of local things there's a little sort of reference to some Hawaiian stuff yes it's not pretending that it knows because mostly these are again sort of exotic architects yes these are not native Hawaiians most like and they're not trying to make it no as you said this is not trying to look like a grass house yeah it is using however themes that are from the place where it exists and I think that's a really positive thing and in the next picture something else that's a nice detail of La'au Gardens are the breeze blocks and these are kind of diamond shaped which is also a very popular motif at that time the fact that they are painted a different color accentuates them again this is not a hugely expensive touch but it is a nice touch and it adds a little elegance I think to the overall appearance and at mid-century he got to have had the breeze you had to you had to and you see the birds to love it to this day as you took right well in our next picture we step up from what we were talking about to why maybe it's not totally proletariat because both this building and the other one that Martin's going to talk about have swimming pools this is not an amenity that most small apartment complexes have had or would have today so this takes this La'au area a little bit above just the basic basic level of housing and that's why the audience after that argument and discussion between the two of us we added that little question mark and brackets to the title of the show is it truly proletarian or is a little more yeah yeah yeah and so the next picture is sort of you coming full circle when you come around your favorite complex once again from at the corner of the intersection as it shows of La'au and Dade Street you see how it's it's got the classic you know golden section proportions almost it's very delicately you know composed between solid yes faces and and open ones and once again bi-climatically except that right part where it's flush the other parts are perfect these architects had to get by without air conditioning yes so the opaque parts block out the sun and the lanais pushed back so deep that it blocks the glass that's right so this is probably a lead whatever silver gold or so building well except we didn't have those then we didn't have that designation then today we would we wouldn't even think about that yeah and today is a lot of bullshitting and greenwashing yeah that's true that's really and you've got another and so now we actually cut the corner and go on Dade Street and you got some nice detailing yeah the next picture what we got there okay so as you pointed out to there's this little level of canted frontage that that that front wall there has got a little little angle to it so it isn't just straight yeah and again this shows that somebody was paying attention somebody was trying to make aesthetic decisions and that when this was constructed the level of construction expertise was not just super super basic no so there is there's our admirable qualities at the wall buildings like this that may not immediately be a parent I try this today it's tough because you got a tilt of formwork yeah and you got to get the concrete in from the top yeah so you have it narrow where the concrete gets in right it gets bigger I mean this really took some and that and that front handed tilted front facade has got to be the same angle the whole way so that level of again that's construction expertise it's not just slap that and next picture is the same thing stepping back and looking at it from the distance right and we both have talked about these the slatted the vertical slats the vertical fins that you see adorning the facade of the building which is where the title of the building is law gardens and also at the very bottom level at street level there are the apartments have small enclosures that can serve as a semi-private garden and or relaxation space again an amenity that you wouldn't normally see with this type of low exactly and when we were there separate from each other last Saturday I ran into a resident and I approached him and I said are you going to be kicked out and is this going to be torn down and he very very sad voice said you most likely yes and I said well how come and he said pretty much it's leasehold and Ilani school and they probably going to determine our lease and and and he said he has been there 20 years and I found him probably his front yard the second from the left he was planting these tiny little ones I plans so there's this care yeah from the occupants and which he usually don't find in low in lower income housing it's basically gets trashed people don't feel associated with us yes but here there's this participation there is this sort of care and it just speaks for I think the architectural integrity that you know with these very very sort of simple means sort of low input sort of from a budget there's a very high output and acceptance and and and relevance and also those small front private enclosures give you a sense of ownership that you want to take care of your own place rather than it being common but I think also the level of maintenance on the building in general is indicative that people want to keep it up yeah if it isn't trashed you'll help to keep it up absolutely and we're going to zoom into your which you already explained the lettuce detail in the next picture once again we did a whole show about sunslated you know Hawaii and here the single letter with a special typeface you know designed sort of custom made for that and next picture some more lettuce here yeah right yeah and I like the fact so so in the picture on the top you can see the wooden upright lattice the upright forms have integrated between them this little extra piece yeah very simple but it adds artistic and aesthetic interest to something that otherwise may not have it and then if you look on the right there are the concrete breeze blocks so we've got the contrast as and the let's say the compatibility of those two different forms right next to each other very typical of the time period of 1961 and to me the fact that they are old-fashioned now gives them a charm to you because this isn't replicated anymore absolutely and this concludes your pitch the solo story time is over that's that's my lao gardens exactly that's my lao gardens so now comes the better one but we have to say I mean this in all respect I have a lot of respect this is sort of in the best tradition of Kenneth Frampton sort of critical regionalism this is an interpretation of more sort of local references and the textures yes whereas mine and that's probably why where I come from I was a very almost nationalist approach right or international high into European modernism right basically coming to the island and that's the next picture and this is Lonnie Holly as you already said it right and who Ernie Haran you said was the he's the architect and that's probably what you find out later another reason why this is my favorite here and again it's within that you composition of the street the complex itself is a you that opens up to date street and basically is comprised of this central courtyard which we see in the next picture and I can only imagine I mean even talking aging and you know getting patina to say the least yeah it's true to the architecture and to the vehicles there yes and but you can imagine how this looked like back in the days in the late 50s with the caddies with the fins yes not here the late 80s or early 90s right whenever they did example that you see later right but but you can see if you just imagine that and the next picture is within our discussion you made the fair point to basically say well you know what ruins is that everyone has to look at the cars and I can't argue that that is certainly true but then we're so weird that we came up in our first show in this year here which the reference is at the very bottom to say what if there would be no cars on the island right and that's my pitch next picture if you would sort of redevelop that and find somehow way to do car share whatever things you can do these days and you basically give back the courtyard to nature right and largely vegetate that that would help the biochromatic sort of heat island effect yeah preventing effect and the pool would become this evaporative cooling center of the courtyard and that would be beautiful certainly yeah and the other problem also is that the pool to get to the pool you have to traverse the place where vehicles are driving and that's always not safe no so that that's an unfortunate aspect of this but again the pool elevates it a little bit above just the lowest and housing yeah yeah next picture is looking at it from the outer side which is the circulation the excess side and this is towards lousy so this the long one is the west elevation and the other short one is the south elevation from the bottom picture and once again the picture I took at the top left was somehow midday probably earlier not late afternoon where you can still see a pretty significant overhangs their circulation so their multi-purpose that's how you access your unit yeah but it also shades you and shelters you from the rain so it does everything you need in the tropics yes what you also should need is vegetation they have a nightly nicely and neatly integrated and then the CMU is sort of laid in this running bond sort of a very modern horizontal it underlies the horizontality of the building so once again a very simple very utilitarian but very elegantly sort of accentuated building yeah down to its detailing next picture I got some crazy concrete to to compete with you and mine is the stair steps and they're even basically integrated into the into the wall and they're kind of levering from it and then you can also say they're tapered they are tapered yes yes and this is this is this is high standard this is really cool try to do that these days that you're going to basically lose a lot of money or spend a lot of money and also like on the left picture that composition there is strategically positioned at the end of these legs of the you at this blank wall and adding this other slab and then inserting it into this void is a really beautiful right modern composition and I just I think floating stairways like that are kind of a lost art and I admire them and they are very very typical as of I said earlier of mid-century sort of absolutely I think they're worth doing a separate show on the show okay done deal yeah we got to do well we talked about a stairway show so we're gonna do a stairway let's do that yeah and the probably the most iconic feature is next picture because I got some breeze box too you do and here they are and once again they serve multiple purposes here you can see it basically protects and shelters the excess of the units on that side so you're not out on the spot the whole time you have some privacy buffer if I'm a parent which I am and my kids are a little it protects them from running into the streets and run over so once again the modernist just you know figured it out to do things that were multi-duty and multi-purpose in a really clever way yes and the next picture is me basically and driving by there on a daily basis and this is why we're on our permanent background picture he's sitting in front of the bush and I sit in front of my bicycle right you want to get out of the bush and steal your bike no you can have it I got a car so there's this and also we got to do a show about breeze blocks and we probably have my friend and colleague Lance Walter has joined in because he's doing some research on the sort of evolution of that historic element and yes you already revealed probably another reason why this is my favorite building is because I'm close to the architect because next picture he's also the architect of the building I have the privilege to be in which is why Kiki Grant that we ran a show about and is why Kiki Grant still hot and cool yes it is because as we show in the show it's been featured in the monocle travel guide series where all these other fancy metropolises are featured in so there must be something cool about us and there must be something cool about the buildings by Ernie and it must be cool that you live in one of those buildings which makes you more special and hopefully I can stay there because again the pressure on the market is affecting all of us all all us little people right yeah so next picture the coolest of the building is when I come home late from work because all of a sudden my favorite building lights up and it's a lantern right yeah and just out of the simple utilitarian reason this isn't LED or stuff people would use these days there's a simple safety fluorescent light tube behind but due to the nature of the CMO you block it basically makes them glow and exactly how cool is that and this is what we talked about earlier when you have a facade like that that you can see light through and daylight it looks entirely different from the outside than it does when it is lit from within at night so day and night you get two totally different appearances for the same building yeah and that adds to the dynamics of living there and being around exactly in a positive way yeah and here we have that competition on whereas yours is because yours is more again front and lie critical regionals and the the diamond shapes the immune oh yeah this is the simple geometric one right the more generic one right the more international style one but yet the way it's bond is it's rather genius it also loses uses almost the least amount of material you can use because of this sort of staggering yes and you create not only the voids that the CMU has itself but also an additional void between the two right so how brilliant is that again it is very serve so many reasons so I was so impressed by that and it ingrained in my mind on a daily base in driving by it so that inspired me for a project we did so many years ago which is the next picture which we call the tropical textile which was proposed for Manoa and as you can tell it's very much inspired here also by the bio climatic aspects of it because they're strategically dimension three feet high deep and and and so in on all three dimensions three feet so then they shade the building all the time we ran a show about that in the good old urban transcendence days that's campers was my guest who is the concrete creator by a great specific rocket mountain precast so if you guys interested in their project look it up and you can say well Martin you're getting sentimental you like the good old stuff that's why design stuff that looks old so Martin wake up be modern yeah but this is the 21st century there you go exactly build more glass towers why you go and AC exactly so no we don't do that and do people think that's still cool next picture yes this is the mark magazine this is a contemporary Dutch magazine that features the coolest stuff in the world of these days and yes they selected us and featured us so there must be something cool about Ernie Harris work there you know that's so timeless let's call it timeless and I agree with you I agree with you I agree that it is timeless but I also like the fact that the buildings we just looked at are of their time so they are identifiable as mid-century buildings in addition to the very livable qualities they have the exterior does indicate the time they come I like that that's absolutely true next is the second the last picture that share that has another shows another fear that you have yeah and my fear and unfortunately I think it's going to come true is that the high-rise buildings that you see in the distance which started being constructed in the 1970s are probably going to continue their march into the date La'au little enclave that we've just talked about and praised and eventually all the buildings we've just been talking about will be demolished and replaced by high-rises and that could very well be the case but as Martin can point out the we don't necessarily have to go with a high rise that has all the bad qualities because no and we also want to make clear that always in our shows we're yes we love the good old stuff because it's so cool but we also understand that there's pressure of development explosion of population on this island so who are we to say you know you keep all the little stuff you should keep as much as you can but when you can't because of the reason you should develop but then you should develop in the spirit of the means and methods of the architecture from mid-century which was easy breezy pre-fossil and all the goodies exotic and not the invasive way we see unfortunately left and right in all the high-rise development in kakaako and coal right so yes as you are we're about to indicate if you should develop here in a higher way than next picture is something that you have already seen in a couple of other shows this is a development called permitiva this is number one we're currently starting to work on number two and this is how he can you how our dear friend Kurt Sandberg called stackler nice yes you basically apply that what you've seen from the previous right here is to us to a taller building right but again that only because if you shouldn't keep that there but our main pitch in plato is keep these gems both our favorites yes because they really they really deserve to be there they're as fresh as they were way back yes so from our point if you rather than sort of being greedy yeah right as a motivation but otherwise we don't see any need to build anything well and also to that first of all the livability of the stackler nice as you just said is positive the lesser usage of energy is positive but also the appreciation for the buildings that we just talked about their architectural features and their livability they shouldn't just be discarded because they're 55 years old they should be appreciated and particularly for their aesthetics that we wouldn't replicate today to keep them rather than bulldoze them sounds good let's continue to talk about that in our next show that we just saw we're going to call tropical tectonics okay yes that's right that's right that's right until that you guys please stay very proletarian exotic see you then bye bye