 We're delighted to have you back. So this is our show, Think Tech Hawaii's Human Humane Architecture, and this is our 250 second show, and if you're watching us live, you will be our 13,412th viewer. Great. So we is you, DeSoto Brown, in your Chile Bishop Museum, DeSoto. Good day, everybody, and good day, Martin. And me, Martin Despang, near Munich, we're like 8,000 miles apart, like the most you can be. So we're all over the places and also we're geopolitically, geo-economically, geo-ecologically all messed up all over the place, right? With all these almost as it feels, I'm sure all that, you know, when there were challenges in times they all thought it's unprecedented, but this time it really seems like there's a lot going down and coming at us. So how can you even talk about and think about anything else than all these challenges of climate change, coronavirus, war in the Ukraine, resulting or around that, you know, fossil fuel challenges, food crises, all these things, right? The human nature also is that life goes on and needs to go on. And if we can get the first slide up, we want to basically continue where we stopped last time, which is with our dogs. You are not with your real dogs today, nor am I with my sister's dogs. But, you know, I've been thinking about that, you know, the fauna dogs are, you know, smarter in several ways because they don't do anything to themselves or to the world that would bite them back, right? They're not talking biting and barking dogs. They wouldn't do that. But we human beings, we endanger our flora, our planet, and then we get ourselves in trouble. So, you know, that being said, people in these challenging days, they try to hold on to things they know to sort of practices, proven practices, so to speak, to traditions. And these traditions embody through, for example, things we wear, right? The attire. We've been talking about last time about cultural costumes, that in your case, and in my case, our cultures sometimes somehow turn into uniforms, because economically, that's how we lure people to the Oktoberfest, and we show off with our journals, and later Hosen, and over there, you basically show off with our hula skirts and with a coconut bra and a lion cry, which is not how people would have, you know, to dress anymore. It's actually sort of inappropriate given that we have changed cultures, but we pretend to still be like that. And that's a little odd, right? In several ways. But speaking positively, this is the anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the Olympics that we had in 1972 here in Munich. So we have currently the week where there are the most events going on to celebrate that, and also to commemorate that, because it was also the fair that tried to be tragically interrupted by a bad terrorist attack that was targeting the Italian ethnics, and several of them lost their lives, including one German police officer. But always remembering that, and there's certainly place for that to remember that, rightly so. But they didn't let this basically become the main memory of the game. The main memory remains that Germany really tried to get over its darkest days before that of the Third Reich, and present and represent itself as a new democratic culture that thanks to you Americans had learned the lessons, right? And how does the Valdi, which is the name of the sausage dog, Wiener dog, that dog play into that, so that that fascinated you? Well, this was the creation probably, I'm saying that with some little hesitation, but I think this was the first time that any Olympics had an official mascot. Now today, every Olympics, I think is required to do that. And there's a lot of discussion that goes into creating a cute cartoon character who then gets turned into plush toys and other things like that that people buy as souvenirs. Well, in 1972 in Germany, they created this striped multicolored oxen slash Wiener dog. And his name is Valdi, or Valdi. And he is a cute symbol of Germany, we were discussing what our other German symbols could there be. Well, a German shepherd dog is also a symbol, but that is a aggressive dog that fights and barks and is used by policemen and military. So we don't want by the way, by the way, Hitler had one. So by the way, Hitler had one too. So we're not going to you associate ourselves with that. We will associate ourselves with this cute Wiener dog, which actually was bred as a hunter to hunt badgers. We just discussed that before the show. Badgers being something that farmers wanted to fight against because they kill chickens. But nonetheless, Docsons today are purely cute and they're purely kept as pets. We also see to in this display that on the left side is a picture of the female uniforms which were created for hostesses at the Olympics, particularly in the Olympic Village. It's based on the dirndl outfit, which is actually part of native German culture, but it was redesigned to look more modern it isn't made of the same fabrics, and it's also this nice light blue color, which doesn't have any associations with anything militant militaristic with World War Two, sunny bright colors, striped doggy and light blue uniforms on pretty young girls are all part of a plan to make this more palatable, more attractive, more fun, and more appealing to people from around the world. And in that they succeeded. Yeah, that was all gestalted by this part of the old school of design odd life, who created the whole CI the corporate identity for the Olympics. The mascot was invented by a female employee of his. Again, as you said already, black and red and brown were no go colors, they were connotated by the darkest days of Hitler and the third right. Finally, these sort of still virgin and not basically already abused colors were used and you see here the head of Valde, and I had one at age of six, what I was and 72 I had a rubber Valde that you could take the individual rings color rings often reassemble them. I mean that when I look for it, I don't find it so maybe I gave it away to someone. So the head of Valde with that with that light sunny sky blue, basically matches the the interpreted journal again yeah that's something. That's not basically because we also talked that both your guys loin classes and and and grass skirts were very pragmatically utilitarianly derived right because it was like okay how can I survive hunt and farm and you know and and harvest fruits in a way that I don't lose more energy that I can afford. It was as simply as that because there was no button pushing or shipping and has avocados from Mexico, or things like that didn't weren't or or buying a healer had to allow a shirt out of polyester that is made in China. That all didn't exist right and so it was with a durnal the fabric of the durnal is loading which is a very tightly woven wool. And that basically in the predominantly cold times here which is not just in the winter brutally cold but also the summer and we have only maybe two handfuls of tropical nights that you have in Hawaii all the time maybe we have 10 of these otherwise the nights are pretty, pretty chilly so we need that, but you know we have we're not living in a basically you know on or just you know minimally heated buildings with wood fireplaces and stuff like that with the head way back. We're all having you know very very Western standards, which gets us in trouble because comes the next winter without tools gas and oil. We're not washing our heads, but at least in the past that was the case so things basically evolve. So that's one of our favorite topics to so do we talk about in one of your favorite talks that I always revisit. On the show, you were just watching what I sent you the link to your recent talk at the earlier strength foundation up there where you gave a talk, but the one I'm recalling is the, the evolution of the tradition of innovation. Which they tried here with the attributes around. But how about the architecture more particularly of course he here already at the bottom right the famous 10 structure by Frato and good to be on where the sports events were but next slide. One of our utmost challenges of these days is housing. And that's something, you know, we're talking about quite a bit and continue to have to talk about. So in this case here, until two weeks ago, I felt bad, but I was always saying, what you see at the top right show quoted, here's the Olympic Village, and this terrorist high density housing that still allowed to the clever way of having these killings worth, Larry Stricker and run Lindgren work known planted Bella straight troughs created lots of privacy while being very dense. I was saying well that's the best together with Frato's tent escape is the best we Germans have ever been able to accomplish which is quite shocking because that was a 50 years ago so have we not evolved. I'm very happy to now share with you and everyone else and we've been talking about that before the show that from now on I can say, again, the reconnecting to that has happened with this project here so let's share a little bit so what of the things we've been talking about and press you the most about it so. Okay, well there's a lot that's super interesting. First of all, it has a set the same stepped viewpoint of the same stepped facade that the Munich Olympic Village has that means that you are set back on the upper floors. When you look down, there are baffles that cover up the people below you, so you don't look down and invade their privacy, and I will say to that the Montague Beach hotel does have the same kind of facade so that that's not. But it also has so as you can see to there are these canvas strips or fabric strips that help to preserve privacy between each of the line eyes of this building, there are planters containing in this case, a type of bamboo. So that serves as a privacy screen without it actually being made of an inert material. This is a passive structure, it is self sufficient it has as you could see photovoltaic units all covered the entire roof. It also contains gardens for people who live there to grow their own food during admittedly the brief summer season that Germany has, and it's got a lot of other innovative features for the people who live there. Discussing how this was a piece of government property, the city sold it, they sold it to a or they had a competition for an architecture for architects to design something for the site that would be passive that would be innovative. So they successfully got a particular couple were the winners of that competition, and then the people who eventually bought into the building because this is all owner occupied structure. They put the money in to help actually construct it because they put their money in before it even existed. And then the individual members of this what we would say here was a hooey, meaning a group, a business group in this case, got together and they did the research themselves to find the features that they wanted for the installation in this building. They then stuck together through coven and they helped educate their kids who weren't in school, they helped each other for anybody who was sick or needed stuff. So what it turned into was a whole social thing, in addition to an innovative building, the inhabitants of the building turned into a successful social group as well. So to me, it isn't just the architecture, although that is outstanding. It is how it all came about and what the end result was for the people who live there. And I mean I'm amazed this is you know, yes you said this is, it's just as good as in fact better in the Olympic Village. It's it's evolved. It's just like what you know, then was then and now is now and things have moved on and we have more tools and more means and methods. And I found this out there's a logo in the bottom left image there at the middle talk to I could take to is the day of architecture that's what we have also in Hawaii and on a little which is architecture week or architecture month. And there were about each state has that and I selected one project to look at out of like almost 100 and bingo. What a jackpot. And, telling me the architect whose name is Valentine we caught at the bottom right picture at the top there is their website, which is that husband and wife team. They basically didn't even present, they had their very convinced owners and occupants basically present so convincingly it was, it was amazing. And if anyone is prepared for all the problems that we just we all know and we just reiterated right, they are prepared they're out of trouble, because they can really sit back and relax, because they're going to stay warm for the next winter without oil or gas. They're going to have food. They're going to be happy and helping each other. They're really really a good raw model. And you pointed out at the bottom right and architectural detail also looks very familiar to you right. Yes, because the railing has a mesh, rather than bars rather than glass which we do not like. And the mesh has a lot of positive attributes but one of the things that you have shown me earlier was a dormitory that inferred college in Germany, in which the was enwrapped in a mesh on which a vine was grown. So that was a method of shading it was a method of creating oxygen, creating a better environment for the people who lived in the building. And again we see mesh being used here and I've become to be a fan of mesh, which is also something that is actively used in the projects that you have used or helped your students design so I want to see more mesh. And it's also behind the mesh you see a good moment of social sustainability here. This is this is the kids on their Bobby cars and the sound insulation of this project is so superior that you know the one guiding us through said I hardly hear them on their on their catwalks and this is a this is single loaded corridor right. And we're in Hawaii we always hear that's not possible the developers say you know that's not feasible economically. Sorry, it is as you can tell this project is on budget. It's not more expensive than the regular way to build it's a hybrid construction the architect is known for wood construction so the timber but he out of cost they need to do a hybrid between concrete and would but but nevertheless, this is amazing this hits the spot. And once again, don't I make you jealous with that isn't that what we want in Hawaii, and then we can take it more easy right because that triple paying glass that it uses. And all this sort of her medicizing it so which are the four, you know rules of pacifist orientation yes this is facing south. Just as the Olympic village just less everything else should be in Hawaii but the other three parts we don't need in Hawaii, which is insulation we don't need, which is heat recovery and which is airtightness we don't need that. So, you know we can build way cheaper and we should. And next slide. That's what we're promoting to bring home to our islands top again is buildings like that. As the primitive at threes they're sprouting here. And we've been talking about, again, our politicians, Barack Obama, we need to lobby for this one. And I'm going to work Stanley Chang, who's our state senator for social housing had just sent me his, his, his newsletter, and he featured Obama speaking to architects in Chicago, and you know trying to get down to the root of, again, the social crisis so we need politicians and Stanley I will recommend this project to him because he takes delegates to Vienna, to learn their great practices of social housing I'll recommend this one here to make a stop on the way back or on the way there to check out this project here. But maybe we need other sort of celebrities or famous people to lobby for these ideas and one of them we already talked about a while ago show quote at the top right and who is he and why could he be a good advocate for Well, we, we have some famous people that we can claim as local boys who made good and one of them is Bruno Mars tremendously successful singer. He's from here, he started out as the world's youngest Elvis imitator, but the relevance that he has for this particular He has talked about how he grew up in a situation of economic poverty for a time, and his father was employed by Paradise Park, which was located in the back of Monoah Valley, which went, which went under it closed, they were living in a structure on the grounds without electricity without water. That structure today is in ruins, but he has gone back there and there's a video of him standing in the ruthless remnants of the home that he used to live in well, he knows what it's like to not have anything even though today of course extremely successful. And he is one person who could be an advocate for social housing from a standpoint of actually having experienced it and knowing what it's like. And there is a link to that interview that a local reporter did with him and they went to the park, the former park which is now jungle lies to extreme and she asked him. She said, was there anything you were missing and he was just like thinking for a little while and then he said no because we had us. And that's very much along the lines as we're calling the collectiveness of these of these projects they're not top down as it used to be right there's a demand there's developers who just jump on that. And they just do it good enough so that everyone who's desperate enough and everyone is desperate these days and increasingly lots of people at the lower end of the food chain are. They buy to into it literally and figuratively speaking the developer runs away with a big profit. This is the opposite. This is a this is the bottom up strategy it's like a bubble or like a co-op model, where as what you know what Patrick, which is his real name by the way Bruno Mars is his artist name is advocating for that he said you know if if you if you work together on something and if you love each other, that's basically the key. Okay, so we had politicians, we had musicians, how about movie stars. Yeah, find his advocates next slide. Well that's that's that is the biggest and most successful movie star in the world right now I would say, certainly in Hollywood. And that's Dwayne Johnson, the rock, and he is a product of the city of Honolulu as well. And we will see in just a second where he used to live and where he came from. But where he used to live was right around the corner literally just a stone's throw from this project that we're looking at here which is the Pagoda hotel and quote, floating unquote restaurant which doesn't actually float, but it does have waterways all around it. And it's no longer the Pagoda restaurant because one of the nearby businesses again right in the same neighborhood just literally down the block was displaced for the construction of a new high rise in our midtown area. And it has been successfully relocated to the Pagoda it's the Sora ball court Korean restaurant. So it's a reuse and you've actually been there you just went there with our publisher friend, Philip from Germany, and you got to see it for the first time. I got to see it way back in the 60s and 70s when I used to go there when it was brand new, but it is, as you said an exotic tropical gem that is not easy to see because it's walled off and not easy to see from the street, but it still has this wonderful setting it's a little world of a fish pond with beautiful Koi and these wonderful mid century structures, and the high rises are encroaching around it, it's still there right now. And since you mentioned Philip Moisa we see him at the top left there in the picture. That was him when we went there and had our final lunch before he went back and he invited me thank you. Philip, and yeah he charges to do the guide the architectural tour guide for Honolulu that we're working on with our team. Back to the show quote at the top right. Back then we're talking about presidents and architecture. And we see here that Dwayne was once offering to run for president in 2020, and we continue to basically take him up wanting to take him up on that offer, probably more urgently needing then than ever before next time. And yes, we're saying he grew up around the Pagoda restaurant but let's look more into that more specifically and let's go to the next slide. And this slide is showing us. Actually, we just give a slice of breeze block as the only thing we show you about the building, but the top row of slides of show quotes is lining up with a panoramic view of the picture below. And it starts with at the top left is the Azure the new blue towers. Next to it is the Alamoana building. Next to that is sort of this double collage of the new sky Alamoana being comprised of a hotel and an apartment excuse me condominiums and behind we see the central right. And to the to the to the very right is the new park buildings that are currently here going up they're just doing the foundation work. And when that is completed you will not be able to see what you see very prominent in the center of the picture below and the second to right show quote at the at the top which is Chris Smith is HMS a headquarter building, which goal was very biochromatic one very ambitious to say never should any sunlight hit any glass and that's what informed the design of that building. Let's have a minute we have left go to the next slide very quickly but we won't have time to talk much about it. But this is an appetizer for you joining us again next week because we will share with you how the rock Dwayne himself talks about where he lives there is a link up on YouTube if you're fast enough you can already you know snap that and watch it and then you're better prepared for us next week when we will reconvene with likely our last episode of the midtown flunk development area around the Alamoana or volume 17 final one. And until then please stay very inclusively tropical tropical inclusive bye bye. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at think tech Hawaii calm. Mahalo.