 Good to have you back to our show big take for wise human humane architecture, and this is our 253rd episode and you are around our 13,500 viewer and our means us at the contrary ends or beginnings of the world ever since I guess The Enlightenment we know that the globe is round So we are with you the solo Brown in your Bishop Museum. Hi Good day, everyone and We are with me here in your Munich Germany, and if we can get the first slide up We're still operating in unprecedented we like to rightly so call it circumstances and This is a very special show because I caught something that is around which is COVID and don't worry it's not contagious to the internet and Thankfully, I believe to think that my second booster shot. So if you guys all get your shots that was still performed by the Wife of my German general console, then it's subtle Nadine up at Queen's Hospital That's why I'm thinking my symptoms are relatively okay But if you hear me sneezing or coughing then I apologize for that So what else do we have going on in the world? Obviously, we have wars going on one pretty close to me in the Ukraine and we have climate change and There's still some people who deny climate change here is your weekly German lesson the solo So what is this gentleman with the orange hair one to tell us? He is saying and I'm just quoting from what you told me beforehand because I can't really understand it or Real estate on the beach or on the shoreline And then he is denying climate change. Is that what that says the black guy? He's he's belittling it from needless ties belittling and very cynically what you said before He's saying oh we get more beachfront property, which you say is very it's not just cynical as stupid as he is Because he is now a Floridian by choice and he lives at Mar-a-Lago, which as the name indicates is beachfront And you might say well these rich people they have the money in the world and they can do something to bump up their building or whatever, right? But anyways, in all fairness, I have to say there isn't just stupid people In one or the other country or culture in my native culture. There is our former president Gerhard Schröder, who isn't any more smart because he was ever since and still is supporting Putin Cutting the corner to a positive angle and the female Is that also the final line our commission president of the european union is also from My home state and she is the daughter of the former governor And our foreign minister who we see in the middle and to the right here Annalena Baerbach is also from my hometown. So that makes up for it But again, we don't want to make it any discrimination certainly not reverse gender discrimination Because there's also good guys right who can lead us in in in a good way And one we will always remember well Let's stay with Annalena for a little bit and you share with me How you felt about the news that I was sharing with you that we see you here in the middle and on the right Where did she go and why? Well, she is being quoted here and shown As having as visiting palau And palau was formerly part of the german empire before world war one And this is as you told me she's the first high-ranking german official to revisit palau since the After world war one germany lost all of its overseas territories But she is here to hear the story from firsthand for people who are affected in the pacific ocean Living on coral atolls that are not much above The level of the ocean How the ocean is literally creeping up and swallowing their homes and you pointed out and I think this was her conscious choice That she is a member of the green party and in these photos You can see that she's wearing a green dress and I don't think that was just by chance I think that she is promoting her party in this particular situation because She's pulling a spotlight on to The effects of climate change on people who are going to feel it very quickly more so and more Permanently than people for example who live on continents Everybody's going to be affected by changing weather But people in germany for example are not going to find their homes underwater quite as soon as people in palau and other pacific places Yeah, I like Hawaii is one by the way as well just to remind us right That's exactly why we make that connection here and again while some not so smart people want to basically distract and Say why did she as the green party member fly all around the world and burning kerosene? She was by the way On the way to the g20 summit That was in Bali. So that was only a few flight hours away and in the in the centerpiece that Slogan there or that title there. I don't make you do more german than necessary. So you had yours your fair share But that means that she calls climate change The biggest security threat In the world and that everything gravitates around And the point is again while trump is on this sort of privileged position as a rich man To basically and as schroeder, you know, and they all were little we were all little as children, right? But they somehow their mindset is little and some things happened and their childhood that is in their way in both cases But we also have someone who is the opposite and that's all our favorite president jimmy carter show quoted at the top in the middle Who has always had and continues to have up into his 90s, which is now Hard for the little people because he was one as you told me He was the only president who ever lived in social housing And he also lived on the island in the barracks when he was serving, right? so he knows and that's why he goes for Habitat for humanity and builds houses for the little people and the poor people So along these lines, we're pointing out to someone who in 2020 show called top right Was offering to run for president and we would like to remind him of that And that is our island boy dwayne johnson with whom we concluded the show Next last week and go to the next slide. That's the one that we showed very briefly and that link up there That we wanted you to watch and if you haven't please do it after this show here Because it's fascinating because dwayne is Doing this selfie movie on on his phone And he says i'm sitting in this tinted window escalate Cadillac And looking like a creep and probably the police are gonna stop by and call me out on that And he says but the reason why i'm here is that i'm when i'm always back on the island my island that i grew up on I go to the place where I lived and and go and feel again how it was To be a little person with Parents with a little paycheck And that little that one day we got evicted We had an eviction note on the door and out we were and that basically had them Leave the island because they couldn't afford it anymore So that made us being the tech tech tips We sometimes need to be and here's our publicly investigating mobile that we Pull out for these reasons and we drove by because you Based upon that little glimpse of a of a of a moment here that you see uh under uh diagonally Below his his face there that little fraction of a Second uh was enough for you to identify the building right so tell us more about the building Well, the building is located in what's called the capillani business district And it is called the leona apartments because it's on leona street It was one of a series of buildings that were all built by the same developer designed by the same architect In the early 19 late fifties and early 1960s which ended with the pagoda hotel and restaurant Which is just down the street directly ahead uh in the picture where we are looking at the building And this building although it is very modest Does have very positive attributes that we really like and in the first place I have to point out that the owners have continued to keep it up Even though again, it is a modest building. It is not run down And I really admire that but also it's very easy breezy. It saw the walls of the apartments are composed of jealousies which could be opened and closed And it is not taking up a great deal of room It's not taking up a great deal of energy to keep it going And even though it is low cost It is actually a desirable place to live based on its condition and its design. And so that's admirable And as we have just said Dwayne Johnson the rock is now incredibly wealthy man Incredibly famous man. He's one of possibly the highest paid movie star in the world at the moment But he came from these very modest this very uh small inexpensive building And that's one of that's the that's the point of why he did this little video that we are referring to Saying I came from this we got evicted and yet I have become very successful If you are in similar situation don't feel down and out There is the possibility through hard work To get to a place where you are successful And even though he looks back on this and says this is uh again Some place that's mixed memories absolutely and he's gotten much beyond that But still from our standpoint from architect surely looking at things This is not a Shabby little building. It's something that's got very admirable treats It's exactly the point. It's it's his circumstances He was in that he couldn't see the the other dimension that we want to point out and probably should set this to him To talk to him about this and maybe get him on a show And we did our research about the The the price point of units you can still snap a studio bottom left from a realtors page For a little bit just under a thousand bucks. And that's a steal. You can hardly find that anywhere anywhere on the island and So we're now basically saying education is key, right? You should you should again what we're doing Is edutainment and the educational part in there Next slide is one of our best educators edutainers kurt sandburn had once been Featuring it in a civil beat article that he wrote here about the area that we're talking about and the building is in there And the architect you mentioned He's takashi anbi who has quite some robust body of work on the island. However, he's not recognized as much as he should and since we're Asked to write a book about Honolulu's architecture. We will try to make up for that. And we just started the list and It's it's pretty impressive. So these are the leona apartments by takashi anbi from 1961 And this picture he was taken by david franson. It was one of our best photographers about especially mid sentry architect here and next slide Um is pointing out top left again than dwayne parents' camera to This only for another fraction of a second and basically says well here. I was in this building where I felt little and poor because my parents income wasn't sufficient And I was looking to the other side of the street and I saw this gorgeous high rise. He calls it And he wished he Would have been there and then as you said, you know, he's The highest paid actor also for the women in the house. He is Jq elected sexiest man on earth He's all of that But what makes him special and we believe qualifies him to be president just like jimmy carter He kept his humbleness And he basically says well today. I'm doing okay, which is an understatement of course and um and he shares that with us and and this is really interesting because um here We took this picture where you see both you see the leona apartments Which is sort of the horizontal high rise and then he's this vertical high rise behind and next slide Is doing research on that building. That's by the architect norman laktaio And we thought that's why we put in this image of delis the delis tv series, which is the embodiment of the 80s of the ronal regan era of the fossil you pump it out What the heck and the buildings basically show that so this is a grandedly nicely sort of tailored and grooved Glass high rise, but it's still a glass high rise with little to no connection to the tropical exotic outdoors which basically Takashi anbi has been promoting through all his projects and a good end of this story here norman laktaio did as well in the next decade In the 90s, which we see at the bottom right with harbour court Which is lanai again, which is basically good news So next slide staying with takashi anbi a little bit more One of our favorite buildings of him of his is the contessa apartments And you always have nice background stories that only you know Please share that with us on what what's with a spot it stands on. Yeah, this is this is an interesting story Which would not be repeated today This is built on the site of what had been a small church Protestant church a chapel actually but with a graveyard as part of the grounds And the church was associated with kawaii how a church which is in downtown hornelulu and as its Members gradually moved away or died off it no longer was in use And so the property was sold For this development in the early 1970s Now the ironic thing or the thing which today people would be Not pleased about is that The remains of the people buried in the graveyard were exhumed And taken to kawaii how a church can be buried in their graveyard. Well today We wouldn't be able to do that legally people would object to it and Spiritually and socially people would find it very offensive and it wouldn't happen And in fact, there were rumors and they may still be around today That the area was haunted because the people had been exhumed for the construction of the building I don't know if any of that is ever actually been proven true But certainly that is the fact of where the building is It's also very prominent because even at the time, of course, there was nothing around it and even today There aren't any other high rises nearby to distract from it So you really can see it very clearly standing by itself even today many decades after it was constructed And ironically and interestingly in the photograph that we have of it There is a very tall skinny cook island pine or no fork pine next to it to emphasize that it too Is very tall skinny and prominent That's from my collection the soda because that's from my bicycle way to work along the golf course In Waikiki when a bicycle there and across the bridge where Yolani school then is when you take a left turn and this is when you have that And we always use it as an as an ancestor for our primitivas Because when Takashi Andi was really about louvering things and the Contessa is horizontally louvered There's Lanai's You know Of significant depth to sit on there But even all the other windows have a shallow Lanai in front of it that you can clean the window and even you know Take a breath there and hopefully not smoke a cigarette. I hope you don't do that Talking being haunted. There is a show quote of President Nixon who seemed have been haunted by Some devils and we once just want to point out that this is was built in that time and You know architects really with an attitude and with a heart at the right place didn't get themselves distracted by Intermediate in that case. Luckily, you know bad Leadership's on on again the presidential highest national kind of level they continue to do their things and show quotes at the right there show his different variations of Basically louver and screens That he was always about mitigating the intense sun and the heat and top right The the the red sticker on there is Unfortunately had to be delivered by our tropical computer bill Chapman From his insider news from UH that Kajkendal Hall that which is recently had some hopes back That it would be brought back to its original beauty with its louver That's not going to happen as he said they're going to demolish that and that's something we really have to boo And fight this really bad and we have a good proof of evidence why we think this is so wrong and that gets us to the next page Because there's a precedent for that, right? Well, yeah, there's That snider hall that was there Yeah, and that that's the problem too. Um, we're seeing architecturally distinguishes buildings being demolished And there may be a variety of reasons why buildings are being demolished. Of course, they could be because they are outdated it could be because they have become They're in poor condition, which doesn't mean very doesn't look well for the building not being maintained, but From the standpoint of somebody who's a historian that being me I always am disappointed to see architecturally distinguished buildings from particular time periods being removed and destroyed And this again is part of the mall that was that's located on the grounds of the UH Manawa campus And the buildings that lie in the mall were all built during this post-war period in the mid-century modern period And even though they were very diverse, they are uh, all of that same time period extending from the late 40s into the early 70s even So for that to have been lost with again the attributes that we like to favor the lack of air conditioning the la the Uh acknowledgement and use of the natural air movement in Manawa Valley from the Malka side to the Makai side These are things which are now lost and can't be brought back And as as we point out in the show if you're going to demolish something Replace it with something that's better. Well at the moment there isn't a replacement But is the what's going to come up actually going to be better or is it going to be using more fossil fuel? That's for sure. And strangely as so-called bottom left that sort of ghosty grave picture there is what they Told us what they showed us what's going to replace it. We rub their eyes and say doesn't that look like almost Like the existing building. Why don't you tear something down and replace it something that is not Similarly different, you know, it should be way better. And this is a uh, Takashi Anbi That was a Takashi Anbi building And it's gone. Next slide Um, this is uh saying hi to our friend oran lindgren who we miss because harbour uh square uh by his boss at what killingsworth uh was originally um commissioned to Takashi Anbi And we wish we would have these problems back these great problems to have that two of the best architects, you know And who do you choose? Right? This is a great problem. I want these problems back And next slide is concluding our alamona Area investigation um this situation here We won't see anymore never ever because it's smothered and and and obscured with all these hermetic inclusive High rises as show quote in the middle at the bottom all these green blue ones And to the right of that one the developer even on their website puts a big button Over the alamona building. Uh, that must be a bad accident. Hopefully not intention And you know, we were saying You know, you could say I don't care for blue hawai Show quote second to top right where elvis and miley strategically have their um picnic Up there on tantalus looking at the beacon of the alamona building But show quote top right. We have just been uh reviewing the new elvis movie and you know um the next elvis movie we encourage agarabrica and others to do about elvis's significant area in hawai So these these things they're vintage. They will never get out of style And we should treasure them. We should make them the the the centerpiece on the table The lazy susan with all the yummy stuff, you know, and you know, alamona building has a lazy susan saucer flying saucer susan on top of it Next slide and we got a rush bluest because we only have a couple minutes left here Uh giving uh bigging our hope back up. Uh, elfred ye was the engineer on all these marvelous projects And this is me at the very bottom right when I had the chance to meet uh el one only in his life Before he left us and uh, he gave me a crit for primitiva one And based upon that top right show quote We were as if we would have known that the mall owner is going for change of zoning We would put a primitiva up on the parking of the mall as the uh proletarian power tower For all the service people who live in the mall and since primitivas are natural And not architectural then uh, the people living for example in the alamona hotel on the On the thin end wouldn't feel Their view is obstructed because they're just looking at an architectural tree next slide Uh primitivas aren't that easy I'm just saying that with you know, also there is an analogy to bamboo as the structure of primitiva one top left In primitiva two top right we've been looking at another curtain wall replacing the invasive american bias curtain wall by a water curtain wall And the bottom ones are basically looking at uh, so far not tapped into technologies for primitiva three Which is tensegrity and bestowed cables and cores to use as a structure And this is what we believe what l Would do if we would still be with us and that's what he encouraged us to and last and final slide Here is uh the three primitivas in a row And the poster for the exhibit that bunded had put together Here with a slightly different uh inhabitant here from your mizia because this lady here Is one of your ancestors, you know just a hundred years ago, which isn't much On the big marathon of um the time frame of the earth And why wouldn't we want to live like her again? And this is the point we're making So we're at the end of not just the show but of our 17 volumes of mid-pound flunk And so we will see you next week again Because on the way here we discovered that there's a raw model for As it seems as far as high rise and skyline resulting out of high rises development And that is the city of chicago and that's why we had sent us there recently and we promised to investigate more About similarities and differences. So hopefully we see you for that Next week and until then, uh, hopefully you stay Peaceful and healthy at covet free Unlike you. Unlike you. I promise to get over it. You will All right. Bye. 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 linked in and donate to us at think.kawaii.com Mahalo