In this portfolio: Is a journal of selected works dating from 2013 to the end of 2018. Both professional, academic and personal projects.
to contact the author: Send emails to ghart@hawaii.edu or follow us on Instagram @grmhrt
GRAHAM HART
O‘ahu Architect
short bio
Graham Hart is an O‘ahu architect currently employed as a lecturer the University of Hawai‘i School of Architecture, and Kokomo Studio, a practice he co-founded in 2018. He currently serves as Docomomo US Hawai‘i Chapter President and the 2019 National Docomomo Symposium co-chair. Graham graduated from UH Mānoa in 2015 with his Doctorate of Architecture. His dissertation was entitled
Tropical Modern Residential Architecture: Elements, Vocabulary and Language, where he
catalogued and researched modernism from around the tropics in over 300 pages of text and diagrams. His professional work varies in smallscale commercial and residential projects. His personal and academic research work focuses on mid-century architecture in Hawai‘i, where Graham has documented forgotten modern gems and lead restoration and education efforts for buildings of this period. His extracurricular endeavors range from electric motorcycles to film production, in which his short film, Mixed Plate Hawai‘i, won national acclaim with screenings country wide. Graham has studied in Kobe, Japan and travels regularly documenting midcentury architecture from around the world. Currently, between working his two jobs and running two nonprofit organizations, Graham is working on renovating his 1958 open-air apartment in Waikīkī.
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résumé ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS University of Hawai‘i 2008-2015 - Doctorate of Architecture D.Arch Tropical Modern Residential Architecture: Elements, Vocabulary, and Language PROFESSIONAL EXPIERENCE Kokomo Studio LLC 2018-present - Founding Partner Lowney Architecture 2019 - Architect WCIT Architecture 2014-2019 - Project Architect Dean Sakamoto Architects 2014 - Architectural Intern Peter Vincent Architects 2014 - Architectural Intern Architects Hawaii Limited 2010 - Architectural Intern The Architecture Studio 2003-2008 - Architectural Intern TEACHING EXPIERENCE
PERSONAL DETAILS 425 Ena Rd Apt 802-B Honolulu, Hawai‘i, 96815 808.343.7913 ghart@hawaii.edu License number: AR-17935 AREAS OF EXPERTISE Tropical Modernism Hawai‘i & Hawaiian Architectural History Mid-Century Modern Architecture in the Tropics Japanese Metabolist and Mid-Century Architecture Japanese Traditional Architecture
ARCH 341 - Intermediate Design Studio A ARCH 100 - Introduction to the Built Environment ARCH 731 - Advanced Design Communication I ARCH 740 - Architecture Studio I: Intro to Design ARCH 200 - Collaboration in Environmental Design - with WCIT Architecture ARCH 101 - Basic Design Studio - under Prof. Kris Palagi - under Prof. Maria Simon ARCH 132 - Design Communication - under Prof. Janine Clifford - under Prof. Maria Simon ARCH 533 - Advanced Design Communication II - under Prof. Hyung-June Park
Fall 2018, 2019 Fall 2019 Spring 2019 Spring 2019 Spring 2018, 2019 Fall 2011 Fall 2012 Spring 2012 Spring 2014 Fall 2013
RESEARCH ASSISTANT CTARH 2014 Design Optimization Laboratory 2013 AFFILIATIONS DOCOMOMO_US Hawai‘i Chapter - National Symposium Co-Chair 2019 - President 2018-Present - Vice-President (President Elect) 2017-2018 - Director of Events 2016-2017 The Kalia Board of Directors - Vice-President 2017-Present AIA Member 2015-present AIAS Hawai‘i Chapter - President 2013-2014 - West Quad Conference Chair 2013
résumé - Director of Events 2012-2013 HAF Ex-Officio Board Member 2013-2014 - Ossipoff Document Restoration Project Director 2013 AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS ThinkTech Hawai‘i Host 7 / 2019 - Edwin Bauer Vol 4 SHADE Institute Guest Juror 2 / 2019 ThinkTech Hawai‘i Host 1 / 2019 - Edwin Bauer Vol 3 AIA Honolulu 2018 Design Awards 11 / 2018 - Award of Merit given to MBC Kihei Restaurant AIA Honolulu Film Event Panelist 10 / 2018 ThinkTech Hawai‘i Host 8 / 2018 - Sid Snyder SHADE Institute Speaker 7 / 2018 ThinkTech Hawai‘i Guest 5 / 2018 - Edwin Bauer Vol 2 Licensed Architect in Hawai‘i 3 / 2018 Pechakucha Hawaii Presenter 2017 AIA Film Challenge (Albezia) 2016 - Finalist AIA Film Challenge (Mixed Plate) 2015 - People’s Choice Winner - Third Place Winner - Diversity and Inclusion Award - presented at the 2016 Chicago Architecture Biennial - presented at the 2016 AIA Convention in Philadelphia Hawai‘i Architecture Foundation 2015 - Award of Distinction in Architectural Research Gamma Mu Chapter of Tau Sigma Delta 2015 - (top 20% of class) AIA Honolulu Panelist 2014 UHM Outstanding Employee Award 2014 HONBLUE Scholarship 2014 Paper Architecture Night Presenter 2013 National Conference on the Beginning Design 2013 Student at Temple University - presented paper titled: Sogetsu Ikebana: an Eastern Influence on Beginning Design Kauhale Charette UH SOA 2012 - Award of Excellence UH SOA Student Recognition 2011
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contents
2 front pages Short bio Résumé Contents
8 personal projects At Dawn. O‘AHU Bauer revival 12 kokomo projects Pupukea residence
14 wcit projects Maui brewing company, kīhei Maui brewing company, waikīkī Leilani’s on the beach
contents
20 academic research Tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language M-tea: the place between wabi-sabi and metabolism architecture
34 personal research Documentation of mid-century hawaii residentail architecture Documentation of the snyder residence
38 academic projects Site design analysis of mid-century hawaii architecture A master plan of mokauea island for the year 2020
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personal projects
at Dawn. O‘AHU project team: location: completed: graham hart (architect) ward village, honolulu, o’ahu november, 2018 danalli ignacio (project designer)
at dawn.
personal projects
At Dawn. was founded in 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Oahu boutique aims to be a reflection of confident women who exude a quiet confidence and a sophisticated femininity. The island surroundings lend constant inspiration, seeping into the designs from the store’s original lines, which mingle with other curated brands of simple, yet modern womenswear sourced from around the world. Their new showroom seeks to embody this same quiet sophistication. Taking cues from tropical and Balinese resort architecture, but expressed in an all-white pallet, the store is a balance of light and purity. There is a calmness and homeliness to the space. Materials and refrained, but honest – concrete is concrete, plaster is plaster, and wood is wood. The idea was to evoke a feeling but let the natural fabrics of the clothing line do the talking.
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personal projects
bauer revival project team: location: status: graham hart (architect) kālia, waikīkī, o’ahu on-going
bauer revival
personal projects
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In 1958, architect Edwin Bauer constructed The Kalia at the edge of Waikiki. At the time, it was the tallest building in the area. Now, sixty years later, this thirteen-story, open-air apartment building is one of the shortest. Originally designed for visitors to the islands, the accommodations are modest but fully embrace the quality of living that Hawaii affords. After years of different owners and renovations, this unit’s new design looks to restore the mid-century tropical quality to the space. But the intent was to pull it back to utilitarian pallet for everyday contemporary use. Higher quality millwork hides everyday appliances and electronics, built in mahogany with mid-century lines and stained to match the existing woodwork of the unit. The concrete floor and ceiling are left exposed, while the stacked CMU walls make a uniform grid across the walls. graham hart
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kokomo projects
pupukea residence
pupukea residence project team: location: status: graham hart (project designer) pupukea, northshore, o’ahu schematic design brandon large (project designer)
pupukea residence 1 carport 2 entry stair 3 garden 4 kitchen 5 living room 6 lanai 7 deck 8 pool 9 bridge 10 bedroom 11 master bedroom 12 basketball court 13 workout room
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This house was designed for a professional basketball player and his family. Perched on a steep site, the main challenge of the project was where to hide a full-sized, conditioned basketball court. If it were to be above ground, it would block views to the surrounding forest – the idea was then to hide the structure underground and build the new house on top of it. Terracing down the hill, the house changes from singlestory bungalow, to four-story treehouse. There is a constant play between being in the trees or on the ground. Most of the house is left open to the breezes, taking advantage of the Tradewinds and the tropical sun to cool and light the space. But the house can also be closed and sealed off for the half the year when the owner is on the mainland playing basketball. Inspired by tropical architecture of Hawaii, and the owner’s home, the Torres Strait, the house is a rambling village of huts and caves perched on a hillside. graham hart
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WCIT projects
maui brewing company, kÄŤhei
maui brewing company restaurant project team: location: completed: graham hart (project architect) kÄŤhei, maui january, 2018 wcit architecture
*winner of the 2018 AIA Honolulu Design Awards, Award of Merrit for Interior Architecture
maui brewing company restaurant area of project 1 lobby 2 restrooms 3 kitchen / boh 4 bar area 5 dining area 6 lanai 7 tasting room 8 brewery
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Maui Brewing Company is the largest brewery in Hawaii and is fiercely proud of their island roots. The owners wanted to bring their love of the craft brewery lifestyle to their Kihei home through local food and a design that represented their story. The dining space is in a large warehouse space connected to the brewery. One side of the space completely opens to the outside through a series of garage doors. The opposite side of the space has large windows that peer into the brewery itself. Parallel to this wall of windows is a sixty-foot-long bar orientated so guests get see right where their beers are coming from. The plan of the space is rather simple and straight forward. Because of the vertical volume of the space, it was important to break down the scale and find ways to delineate between different seating types. To help with this, dividing the space between bar and dining is a half-height concrete wall fitted with a built-in-bench on the dining side, and counter-height tables on the bar side. On top of this wall are a series of sculptural elements undulating vertically through the space. These sculptural forms are referential of rows of wheat or barley, the main ingredients in beer, and relate to the rural landscape of Maui. Their geometry is referential to Hawaiian kapa beaters, and the primitive forms found in Hawaiian textiles. Both the undulation of the wheat sculptures, and a
AIA HONOLULU
2018 AWARD OF MERIT INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
series of pendant lights over the bar, match a cross-sectional elevation of Maui island, with Haleakala and Mauna Kahalawai being the two highest peaks. Flanking either side of the dining area are floor-to-ceiling keg racks, holding
old and new kegs, bringing the brewery and canning facility into the restaurant experience. The restaurant design continues the brand identity of MBC, through its craft-industrial architecture, pops of flavor and island lifestyle. graham hart
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WCIT projects
maui brewing company restaurant project team: location: completed: graham hart (project designer) waikīkī, o’ahu january, 2017 wcit architecture
maui brewing company, waikīkī
WCIT projects
Maui Brewing Company’s first restaurant, and their flagship, is in a former restaurant space faced with many challenges. The clients wanted not only a resurfacing of the restaurant, but a complete gutting and expansion of the Kalākaua entrance. The whole interior was reconfigured to meet their programmatic needs; a new kitchen, integrated indoor-outdoor dining, and the largest bar in the state. There was also the desire to tell the brand story, connect with the local culture, and be an ambassador of aloha to visitors and locals alike. A new facade of fluttering metal tiles moves in the wind, reflecting the light around it, ever changing with the weather, environment, and street life of Kalākaua Avenue. The ali‘i of Waikīkī and Maui wore intricate feather capes. This ahu‘ula adorns the façade of MBC and references the many stories of the two locations. The patterns reference the fish scales of Pımoe, the kapa of Hina, the feathers of an ‘alae, it moves in the winds of ‘Ainahau, and has the swirl of a koru to ground its center. graham hart
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WCIT projects
leilani’s on the beach
leilani’s on the beach project team: location: completed: graham hart (project architect) ka’anapali, maui may, 2018 wcit architecture
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area of project entry restrooms kitchen / boh kapalua lanai makai lanai lahaina lanai family dining lahaina deck
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TS Restaurants has operated Leilani’s On the Beach for the past thirty six years in its Ka‘anapali location. Originally, when the building was built in the 1970’s, it operated as a Chuck’s Steak House. Built from heavy timbers, the post-andbeam structure had been added onto many times over the years to increase seating and enlarge their back of house operations. By 2017, the once simple beach side restaurant, was now split among five different levels, two different kitchens, a bar at the beach level, fine dining on the top floor, and a myriad of different private dining rooms. The real shame was that the restaurant’s biggest attraction point, the view out to the ocean, could only be seen from a few of the seats in the house. The extensive renovation sought to not only clean up the layout but open the restaurant to the view. The levels were consolidated to three main elevations – the beach bar, the entry level, and the dining level. The beach bar was left mostly untouched, but the entry level, which contained the main kitchen, was enlarged internally to consolidate backof-house spaces and create better circulation. The entrance was also extensively reworked, as previous additions had made it cramped and uninviting. The new entry opens the building with three sets of double doors and veranda space
covered by a trellis that plays off the structure of the original building. The dining spaces were all raised to the same elevation and a wrap around lanai was created that opened the restaurant to the ocean view on three sides. Internal demising walls were removed, and the post-and-beam structure was expressed. What was unclear before, now a clear division between back-ofhouse and front-of-house was created. Along this division line, the one wall remaining in the dining area, an extensive mural was installed. As the character of the original building was that of a “tropical mountain house on the beach,” finished in Mahogany and Koa, the new alterations were fabricated in a similar manner. The mural wall is a pixelated depiction of the West Maui mountains, rendered in teak tiles. The idea behind this renovation was to not only pay homage to the existing structure, and the physical character of the restaurant, but also to tie the story back to the land. Local patrons saw this as Aunty Leilani’s home, and that it had been here for generations. Aunty Leilani then became a character that represented Hawaiian femininity and a cultural practitioner. She could tie this beach house to the mountains and all the land between. It would make sense then that Ka’anapali, Maui was represented in her home. graham hart
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academic research
tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language
Tropical Modern Residential Architecture Elements, Vocabulary, and Language a doctorate of architecture disertation TEXT AND IMAGES BY: Graham Hart PUBLISHED: May, 2015 DISERTATION COMMITTEE: Marja Sarvimaki, Chairperson Mālia Ka‘aihue Reuben Chock
ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to document and explore the design language of Tropical Modern residential architecture through its history and many built manifestations. Tropical, here, refers loosely to architecture built in the climatic zones of the tropics and sub-tropics around the world including other areas of the Pacific region. Modern refers to architecture designed with methodologies that stem from the Modernist architectural idiom but are not limited to work built in that era. In specific, precedents were researched from Tropical Modern architects such as Vladimir Ossipoff from Hawai‘i, Paul Rudolph
in Florida, Richard Neutra in California, Oscar Niemeyer from Brazil, and Glenn Murcutt in Australia. Their work is analyzed by comparing it to factors for regional design put forth by Harry Seckel in his book Hawaiian Residential Architecture (1954). This body of work and analysis is then used as the foundation for a discussion and cataloging of the design language of Tropical Modern residential architecture. The design language is broken into three parts and an overview, including vocabulary, syntax, and meaning. The argument is that by considering the factors for regional design in Modern architecture for the tropics – isolation, materials, economic conditions, climate, setting, cultural
background, and environmental living – sensitive, personal and responsive architecture can be designed. This concept of the Tropical Modern design language is then tested with two design projects on O’ahu. Each design has unique clients and sites, meaning unique regional factors, which resulted in two different designs built from the same design language methodology. This process is documented and broken down into the same three parts – vocabulary, syntax, and meaning. The end result is an understanding and documentation of the Tropical Modern residential design language, and a methodology for how to perpetuate a type of architecture that speaks about the poetics of place.
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tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language
be “the poi.” Through the language itself, you can already see the change in the importance in the culture. In English the subject and the importance is on the person, man, and the individual. In Austronesian culture, the subject and the importance is on the task, the object, and the place – the individual isn’t even necessarily needed.
Language of the Tropics Excerpt from D.Arch dissertation (2015), pages 120-127 Origins The areas researched when referring to Tropical Modern residential design do not just refer to all areas around the globe that lie within the tropical latitudes – there is another factor for filtration. This is the relationship between man and nature. It is hard to articulate briefly, but in the regions covered – Hawai’i, California, Florida, Brazil, Australia – and those areas also included but not covered as in depth – Japan, New Zealand, India, Vietnam, Mexico, Peru, Oceania, and the rest of Polynesia – there is a certain way in which man relates to nature. And when one looks at the languages spoken in these areas it can be seen. I am not attempting to turn the research into a linguistic analysis of the tropical regions, but in this metaphor for a regional design language it is interesting to also note the indigenous spoken language. The majority of these areas speak languages of the Austronesian family. Austronesian is one of the largest language families, both in terms of languages included in it – which there are over a thousand – but also in terms of area of the globe covered, and population of speakers. It includes not only Polynesia – including Hawai’i, New Zealand, Samoa, and the islands of Oceania – but also Taiwan, the Philippines, as far west as Madagascar, and as far east as Easter Island. It went north to influence Japanese language, and went south to influence Aborigine language in Australia. It has origins in Vietnamese and languages of Southeast China, but its birthplace was in Taiwan. There are several interesting points about the Austronesian language as it
relates to tropical design language, one was the migration patterns. The word Austronesian comes from the Latin word for southern and Greek word for island – literally meaning southern islands. It originated in Taiwan but then migrated to different areas of the Pacific in different waves of migrations over thousands of years (Fig. 120). The people of Austronesia are all coastal dwellers with a strong relationship to the ocean. They were sea faring people who navigated the Pacific and moved across an area of nearly half the globe. This fact of their migration history is interesting as it relates to the relationship between man and nature in the tropics. There is a strong bond between man and the water, due to the fact that their main mode of transportation was the ocean. Language can be seen as one of the fixed manifestations of a culture – along with art, dance, music, religion, and architecture. The history of Austronesian language is that of one based around the water – already the language is defined by its place – meaning that the culture is based around the water and its location. The other interesting fact about Austronesian languages, for this metaphor of design language, is the sentence structure. In English, for example, a non-Austronesian language, one says “the boy pounded poi,” putting the emphasis on the boy. In English, the boy is the subject and the task describes what he did. In Austronesian languages, the same sentence is structured as “the poi was pounded by the boy.” In Austronesian languages, the task is the subject, who did it helps describe it. In effect, in both language families, the subject is all that is really important, and you could drop the second half of the sentence. In English, whose cultures are very much about the individual, one could have the sentence, “the boy.” In Austronesian languages, where the subject is either the task or the place, the sentence could
In essence then it is the context and place that is important in this region, not man. Cultures in the tropics then have this relationship between man and nature, where nature is the thing of subject, not man. That isn’t to say that humans are subservient to nature in these cultures, or not important – there is great importance in genealogy and history of the individual. This is to say that in comparison to western or English-speaking cultures, there is a great emphasis on nature, and the natural world and cultures are solely based around the individual. Meaning If you go to the tropics, you can see why. Austronesia is a region defined mostly by water and islands. Vast oceans for thousands of miles and lush vegetated islands, each one a paradise of flora and fauna. Indigenous cultures to the tropics understood this and therefore cultures whose genesis are of this region are very much place-based. There is a better understanding of the varieties to their environment than can be translated into English. Hawaiian language, for example, a member of the Austronesian language family, has many different words for the types of rain, currents, geography of a mountain, and varieties of wind. Having names for all of these different aspects of their environment were essential not only in describing the place, but were essential in navigation, agriculture, and survival. The Austronesian languages therefore are manifestations of the place based cultures that live there. Tropical design language then reflects this aspect of the culture. Tropical Modern architecture is place-based design, where the subject is nature, not man. That is the overall arching theme that helps to define the regions termed “tropical” in this paper. Tropical not only refers to a climatic region of the globe, but also a cultural region where expressed in cultural manifestations, nature and place are the subject. It is interesting to see then how the different cultures of these regions, be them Austronesian or not, all have that commonality between them – a deep appreciation and understanding of the nature
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around them. By tracking how Austronesian language migrated throughout the Pacific, Asia, and Oceania, you can see how this influenced new cultures take on this understanding of nature as well. Then thousands of years later when these cultures come back to these areas, this common cultural trait is still translatable through all languages. For example, it was theorized that though the origin of Austronesian language is in Taiwan and migrated south, but that part of it might have migrated north and might have influenced Japanese language to some degree. Fast forward thousands of years after all of the Pacific has been inhabited and each distinct type of language in the Austronesian family has appeared, and aspects of Japanese culture are still cross applicable to aspects of Austronesian cultures. Despite Japanese language growing into its own language, separate from Austronesian language, they still have cultural simulates. Both are island cultures with a deep understanding of nature and the ocean. In Hawai‘i, during the plantation days, many immigrant workers were brought over from the Philippines, China, and Japan. Their languages mixed with Hawaiian, Portuguese, and English created Pidgin – a language who shares the same sentence structure as Austronesian languages. It is apparent then when you see much later when architects use influences from Japanese architecture in their work in the tropics that it almost seems better placed in this climate, than in Japan. But over the thousands of years that this language migration took place, each culture developed its own individuality and character, as well as language. So this makes it easier to distinguish what is Japanese, what is Maori, what is Hawaiian, what is Filipino, what is Australian and so forth. Because of this, there is now another layer of culture that goes beyond the common trait. If the common trait is the relationship between man and nature, it is the nuances of that relationship that gives the culture deeper individuality. How this relates to Tropical Modern design language is in this way – the commonality throughout tropical design language is the relationship between man and nature, where nature is the subject, but the expression of this relationship is unique to each culture. Like how Hawaiian language has a different way of describing its environment or the nature around it than Japanese. Though these are both island cultures with deep understandings of their nature, they have different natures, different climates, and therefore
The engawa of the Liljestrand House (1952) and the Goodsill House (1953) by Vladimir Ossipoff. have different ways of describing them. The way the design language is used then is first with the common trait – the relationship between man and nature – then with the expression of this trait as pertaining to its location. Because tropical refers to such a large area of the globe and many different cultures, it is important for tropical design language to not be based around just one of the cultures, but an understanding of each and when and where to use it appropriately. Vocabulary To start explaining why this study is important, I will use the following example. A common element of Tropical Modern residential architecture is the indoor/outdoor space – the outdoor room. Due to the benign climate of the tropics and the abundance of natural splendor, it is quite common for people in this part of the world to enjoy spending their time in semi-enclosed spaces that are open to the elements. The tropics, despite its cooling breezes and warm temperature, is also a place of frequent rain storms and harsh sun exposure, it is necessary to shelter people of this area from both sun and rain while still allowing a connection to the outdoors and cool breezes. This element has many different names found throughout the different cultures and climates of the tropics. In English, this outdoor
space is called a porch, veranda, or terrace. In Hawai‘i, this space is called the lanai. In Japan, this type of space is called the engawa. But, a Californian porch is different than the Hawaiian lanai or the Japanese engawa, but architecturally and physically they are quite similar. Usually they are extensions to the main house and are sheltered by low pitched roofs protruding off the side of the main roof. They represent the threshold space between indoors and out and are used both as a means of circulation between in and out, but also as a place of rest to observe outward from a covered area. This is the common trait for the tropics – the relationship between man and nature. But their cultural implications or meanings are deeper than this. The Californian porch tends to let in more sunlight and is used almost as a solarium. In other parts of the continental United States, the porch is a front-of-house space and is vital to the security and sanctuary of a neighborhood. In Japan, the engawa space is functional for many reasons – namely to protect the shoji rice paper panels from the rain. A room in traditional Japanese houses is enclosed by sliding rice paper doors that can be opened up for a connection to the outdoors. The engawa wraps around the exterior of the room and provides circulation but also serves as a buffer from the graham hart
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tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language
elements. Another set of rain doors called amado protect the engawa space from the rain. Some water gets past the amado, but doesn’t come in so far as to damage the shoji. The engawa then becomes the space between – which is an important element in Japanese architecture – in which during the dry months, people can sit at to look out at the manicured Japanese gardens. During the wet months, it is a protective space from the interior and the weather outside. The engawa is described as ‘grey space’ – not quite indoors and not quite outdoors.1 The traditional Hawaiian lanai, however, in its geneses was a building on its own. It was a simple post and beam structure with a thatched roof open on all four sides. As almost all activities of daily life happened outdoors in Hawai‘i, the lanai structure offered temporary refuge from the sun and light rain. It differs from the Hawaiian hale in that the hale was typically a completely thatched structure on all sides including roof and walls. The lanai as a typology changed with colonization as westerners brought their own architecture and lifestyles and the lanai grew closer in relation to the American porch, attached to the main house. It wasn’t until the time of Hawai‘i modernist architect Vladimir Ossipoff that there was resurgence in the study of the lanai as a building typology in itself. Classified as a “non-building” it was an outdoor space that was suitable to the easygoing lifestyle of the islands. 2 Syntax This example goes to show that a single element of Tropical Modern residential architecture can have different implications culturally, climatically, and functionally based on place and user, but the common trait throughout is the relationship between man and nature. These elements are the words of the design language metaphor. There is also the order or structure for communication. In tropical design language, this relates the regional factors for design and essentially rely on what the message intended on conveying is. The regional factors for design were context, material, economy, climate, setting, culture, and environmental living. These factors translate into meanings and therefor sentence structures, or the syntax. For example, if one were to design a residence in the Tropical Modern design language and wanted to communicate the climate, one would need to first know the climate of the site, then which words can be used to describe
that climate, then know which order to put them in, in order to communicate the climate. An example could be extracted from the work of Glenn Murcutt for communicating climate. For his houses he first sets out to understand the microclimate of the site. Depending on the annual wind speeds and temperatures of the site, he can determine if he needs to make the house able to open up to the wind or brace itself to it. In some houses, he chooses to communicate that the summer heat is too unbearable so the house needs to be able to take in natural ventilation. That is his sentence meaning. The words he uses are elements like a curved roof with a ridge vent, louvered walls, and sliding doors. Those words all have meanings to them too. The curved roof works like an airfoil so wind doesn’t break against it and moves freely over the house decreasing eddies. The ridge vent allows the wind to pull out the hot interior air that has collected at the highest point of the roof during the day time. The louvered walls mean that the amount of wind and daylight let into the interior can be modulated depending on the comfort of the users. Sliding doors mean that there can be an uninterrupted connection with the outdoors, letting wind in when wanted, but also not letting wind in while still leaving an unobscured view of the environment around. The sentence structure for how to order these words comes from his meaning. If his meaning is to make this house speak to the wind and the sun and natural ventilation, then it needs to accurately convey this. Murcutt does this by siting his houses longitudinally perpendicular to the wind flow. Because of his long pavilion type of residences, ventilation can easily flow from one side to the other. The curved roof is perpendicular to the wind, allowing the air to flow over with ease, while pulling out hot air from the ridge vent. Louvered walls are place on the windward
side and sliding glass doors on the leeward side. This creates a venturi effect by breaking down the wind on the windward side and increasing its velocity through the house. In this example from Murcutt’s work, it can be said that he uses the Tropical Modern design language appropriately as he not only uses the words of the language, but also orders them in the correct manner as to convey that this house, in this site, needs to passively cool itself with natural ventilation from this direction. This breakdown of the design language can be applied to other factors using other examples as well. It is also interesting how some words have more than one meaning as well. For example, in the work of Vladimir Ossipoff and the factor of culture, some of his words not only work for culture, but work well for climate as well. In some of Ossipoff’s residences he might use a wood lattice motif on the façade that has references to Chinese architecture and culture. Behind this he places sliding shoji panels which are from Japanese architecture and culture. Beneath this, he places sill louvers, which reference the Hawaiian vernacular architecture. All these three elements together work harmoniously in conveying a house with Asian and Hawai’i cultural references. It also works well climatically. The wood lattice works as a brise solei, shading the façade from too much sunlight. The shoji panels work to filter the sun light as well as modulate the wind flow into the house. The sill louvers do similar, where even if the shoji panels are closed for privacy at some times, the interior can still be ventilated through the louvers. These elements then have two meanings both culture and climate. The way that Ossipoff ordered them makes them also convey two meanings, both culture and climate. Could he have made a more ridged wood lattice and sliding window combination without the cultural connotations? Of course, but his point was to convey both
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meanings with the same sentence. That is the goal then from this research and analysis of the Tropical Modern design language for residential architecture. From the research stand point, first understand the vocabulary, then the syntax, then the language. In terms of ‘speaking’ the language, first you understand what you are trying to say, find the corresponding vocabulary, match the syntax to the meaning, and then create the sentence. If one were to deeply understand the language, and have a more complex meaning that needed to be conveyed, one could create poetry to convey that. Poetry Poetry is also an interesting topic to look at in terms of languages and cultures in the tropics. When you think about it, each language has its own form of poetry. Language is a fixed structure of culture like dance, religion, and architecture, and poetry is the art form of language. There are different ways to structure poems in different cultures, and historically these poems usually have different topics. For an example, the English sonnet is differently structured than the Japanese haiku. This is due to difference in language, yes, but also the difference in culture. If you look at the haiku, it is structured quite rigorously limited to three lines consisting of seventeen syllables in total. Historically, and typically, haiku are about nature, the changing of the seasons, and the passing of time. Look to Japanese culture then and to other fixed forms. Their architecture for example, is quite rigorous, minimal, and has a limited palate, a precise sense of restraint and control, and is based on the module of the tatami. Japanese architecture is also designed with similar meanings to haiku. Their houses are centered around a manicured garden in a way to view nature – special yukimi shoji are designed to view the snow as it falls on the ground representing the changing of the seasons – and the materials are chosen to show their age, use and decay, representing the passing of time. Both Japanese poetry and architecture represent aspects of their culture. When looking to create poetry from the design language of the tropics, a good starting place is to look at the poetry of the indigenous culture of the place. In Hawai‘i, for example, poetry is in the form of a mele. Mele are sung and danced to in hula. Hawaiian language is an oral language, it wasn’t until westerns came that they had a written language. The way to pass
The Umbrella House by Paul Rudolph for developer Philip Hiss in Sarasota, Florida (1953) on knowledge, pass on history, was through the use of mele. In mele were the tales of a place, the history of their people, and the stories of their gods – mele was a way to remember. It was and is an important aspect of Hawaiian culture and language. The structures of mele were rhythmic and paired with music as to make it easier to remember, but also to elevate it to an artistic form, a celebration of culture. The meanings of the mele were lessons about Hawai’i – they told of the changing of the seasons, the nature of a place, the history of a site, and the relations of their gods. If then you look to Hawaiian indigenous architecture, you can see similar structure and meaning. The construction of Hawaiian hale was also very ritual, there were precise steps and orders for which they were built. These steps are akin to the steps of a dance, ritualistically passed on from generation to generation. The meaning imbedded into their architecture was also the same. Heiau platforms were orientated to angles of the sun, corresponding to the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter equinoxes, representing the changing of the seasons. The
nature of the place came through in the material of the architecture, the type of structure built, and the functions for the site which were associated with natural resources and nature. Lo‘i, wetland agriculture, was placed by the mountain streams, fishponds were constructed were these streams met the ocean, and hale halau were built to shelter canoes by the ocean used by fishermen. The history of a site was represented in heiau construction and the place-names associated with ahupua’a. The relations of the gods were seen in the very layout of the kauhale, or Hawaiian homestead. The separation of men and women and eating and sleeping relate to stories of the relationships of Hawaiian gods and the kapu system. Each culture has its own form of poetry, and through understanding its priorities and structure, one can understand more about the poetics of their architecture.
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tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language
woodlawn residence project team: location: client: graham hart mÄ noa, o’ahu kamran samimi
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R1 Wind Scoop Gable R2 Corrugated Metal R3 Wood Ceiling Exposed Rafter Overhang R4 Rain Chain and Extended Gutter S1 Wood Structure with Tension Cables S2 Cast-in-Place Concrete S3 Wood Post to Stone Foundation S4 Wood Post to Stone Walls W1 PaPōhaku W2 Large Aggregate Board Formed Concrete W3 Wood Paneling W4 Stone Vertical Fin Wall WI1 Glass Jalousies WI2 Pivot Windows WI3 Picture Windows WI4 Japanese Sliding Windows WI5 Sill and Head Vents D1 Folding Glass Doors D2 Sliding Mashrabiyas D3 Industrial Swinging Door F1 Elevated Wood F2 Stone Platform F3 At-Grade Concrete Slab F4 Stairs to Loft F5 Stone Step O1 Lanai O2 Courtyard O3 Sculpture Garden O4 Engawa FR1 Noguchi + Eames
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Designed for a sculptor, this house brings client, site, and architect together in residential form of artistic-expression. The client’s main media is stone, carving and cutting lava rock and rearranging them in an almost ikebana like manor. His work evokes Zen and Japanese rock sculpture, but it is grounded quite literally in the geology and geography of Hawaii. This Mānoa residence seeks to give him a sanctuary to not only work on his art, but also embody his philosophies. Set in a suburban residential valley, the house is blocked out to hide the immediate surroundings but open views to the high ridges surrounding it. In indigenous architecture where the climate is typically rainy, like Mānoa Valley, houses are raised up on dry platforms or rocks. Both the Hawaiian rock platform, or Kahua, and the Japanese rock foundations use this artist’s main medium to keep the building dry. Here too then the building embraces the material, marrying it with wood and other materials that will age gracefully in the rain. The house also embraces the artists Big Island upbringing at Lapahoehoe and pulls in influences of Vladimir Ossipoff’s campus he designed there. graham hart
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tropical modern residential architecture: elements, vocabulary and language
hauoli apartments project team: location: client: graham hart moili‘ili, o’ahu wei fang
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R1 Concrete Flat S1 Cast-in-Place Board-Formed Concrete S2 Wood Framing In-Fill W1 Board-Formed Concrete W2 Wood Paneling W3 Vertical Wood Louvers W4 Wood Fence W5 Glass Railings D1 Folding Glass Doors D2 Horizontal Pivot Garage Door F1 Elevated Concrete F2 Concrete Stairs F3 Wood Stairs O1 Lanai O2 Wall-less Rooms N1 Rooftop Gardens N2 Pond N3 Vegetated Courtyard N4 Gardens FR1 Industrial Kitchen
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Set in a dense urban area of mid-rises, singlefamily homes, and saimin factories, this multifamily, multi-generational structure embraces the pallet and the ecology of the site. The client requested a home for themselves, their family, and their community of friends – set to be a single home, a village of units, or an urban apartment building. The best way to describe it is a kauhale, or Hawaiian housing compound, where a village of people have places to be together and places for privacy. Moili‘ili, the neighborhood this building is located in, historically was known for its lush tropical gardens and lo‘i. But due to development in the area, the ecology of the area drastically changed overnight after there was a cave-in on the underground waterways that fed the area with spring water from the mountains above. Now, it is densely packed and full of odd gems of buildings dating from the thirties through to the nineties. This building looked to accommodate the multiple families while embrace the urban living. Built from castin-place concrete and screened in wood slats, the structure is a series of stacked bars that circle around a central courtyard and embrace urban farming on their rooftops. It speaks the language of the built environment around it, while giving reference to the client’s heritage and the Asian immigrant population that have made Moili‘ili their home for generations. graham hart
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m-tea: the place between metabolism and wabi-sabi architecture representation is the tea ceremony and the built environment that surrounds it. There is another uniquely Japanese philosophy that stems from these same Buddhist philosophies, but it didn’t manifest until hundreds of years after wabi-sabi was established as an idiom. The Metabolist Movement in architecture started in Japan in the 1960’s by a generation of designers who grew up with Modernism. It was architecture in response to many things – industrialization, nationalism, urbanism, technology, and the social responsibility of architects in Japan during that time. Metabolism is the process by which things become anew. The proposal of Metabolist architects was that buildings should be able to renew themselves, adapt to changing uses, environments, and technologies. Metabolism is then about change, but not change through natural phenomena, like that of wabi-sabi, but the change of the built world through human intervention. Metabolism in its basic forms can be described as the opposite of wabi-sabi; sleek, mass produced, new, modularized, and accessible by all. It then can be said that these two design philosophies are about change, but where wabi-sabi is the lens in which to view change, Metabolism is the tool in which to make change happen. One interesting overlap between these to opposing, but similar, philosophies can be found in tea house architecture. The foundations of tea house architecture were deeply rooted in wabi-sabi philosophies hundreds of years ago. Since then though, in order to control all aspects of the tea house and the tea ceremony, it has become standardized and modularized. In order to maintain it’s wabi-sabi uniqueness, it has become ubiquitous and mass-produced. This embrace of standardization is a dive into Metabolist structures.
M-Tea: The Place between Metabolism and Wabi-Sabi Architecture originally written 5.2013 photo of Capsule House K, Kishio Kurokawa, 1973 Metabolist and wabi-sabi architecture are two uniquely Japanese philosophies whose built manifestations are seemingly completely different. But at their root, they come from the same Buddhist philosophies. Is there a place that these two design philosophies exist in opposing harmony? Wabi-sabi is a Japanese design aesthetic philosophy centered around three truths – nothing is permanent, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. It is the appreciation of
the cycle of life and death, of things that are humble, aged, flawed, unique and beautiful because of their imperfections. Wabi-sabi has long been associated with much of traditional Japanese arts and crafts, from the tea ceremony to ikebana, pottery, architecture, landscaping, painting, and art. These physical manifestations of wabi-sabi are considered beautiful because of their raw, imperfect nature. Wabi-sabi is a uniquely Japanese philosophy, steaming from Zen Buddhism, and its greatest physical
Wabi-sabi: Leonard Koren, a philosophical architect from the 1970s who based most of his work on Japanese philosophies, explains wabi-sabi as “a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” “It is a beauty of things modest and humble.” “It is a beauty of things unconventional.”3 Wabisabi’s base philosophies were laid out by the tea ceremony master Sen no Rikyu in the sixteenthcentury where he began experimenting with the proportions, movements, aesthetics, and ritual of tea. He placed, in almost rebellion to the art from China and Korea that was flooding into Japan, things that were “crude, anonymous, (and)
academic research indigenous”4 to Japan in higher artistic value. Tea utensils and tea houses themselves were stripped down of everything unnecessary. Unfinished, raw materials were chosen over refined, glossy finishes. Koren explains it as “wabi-sabi could be called the ‘Zen of things,’”5 “At the core both wabisabi and Zen is the importance of transcending conventional ways of looking and thinking about things/existence. Nothingness occupies the central position in wabi-sabi metaphysics, just as it does in Zen.”6 It is interesting to learn that Koren wrote his book in opposition to the 1992 Contemporary Architects’ Tearooms exhibition put on by, the Sogetsu Ikebana Master and avant-garde filmmaker, Hiroshi Teshigahara. Teshigahara commissioned tea houses by Tadao Ando, Arata Isozaki, and Kiyonori Kikutake that were displayed to the public for a one-day event. Koren went to this exhibition and was angered by the fact that wabi-sabi, the very base aesthetic of the tea ceremony, was not apparent in any of the designs. He was then immediately worried about the loss of such a tradition. Wabi-sabi, philosophically, is the appreciation that all “things are either devolving toward, or evolving from, nothingness.”7 It is the appreciation that things do die, decay, and life and death are linked, not separated like in the Western perspective. It is through the ritual of the tea ceremony and the space of a tea room that a person is humbled down and made to see the beauty around them. Wabi-sabi things aren’t necessarily the most practical, the most gorgeous, or of the highest quality in craftsmanship, but it is through the interaction with wabi-sabi things that a person can see their beauty. Therefore, wabisabi is hard to display in a museum, it must be something experienced.
‘metabolism; was chosen for the movement to express the conviction that a work of architecture should not be frozen and unchanging once it is completed but should be apprehended instead as a thing – or as a process – that evolves from past to present and from present to future. Another way to express this process of evolution from past to present to future is to call it a symbiosis of the three time periods.8 Metabolism is then architecture that can renew itself, regenerate, or change – but at the same time it is more than that. Within Metabolist thought, the problem arose how to reconstruct articulated space and time. It was not simply a matter of assembling prefabricated parts, as one might of an automobile or other machine, for architecture, while possessing a material unity on the one hand, must also have a nonmaterial unity of space and information, a unity that can only be achieved by an intellectual or creative synthesis.9 The book Beyond Metabolism, by Michael Ross, has a great overview on Metabolism:
Kisho Kurokawa was one of the leaders of the Metabolist Movement and one of its most prolific writers about the philosophies behind it.
Changeability and flexibility were the key elements that the Metabolist group seized upon and explored. Metabolism, as we know it, is the biological process by which life is maintained through the continuous cycle of producing and destroying plasma. To the Japanese architect who adopted the name, it meant creating a dynamic environment that could live and grow by discarding its outdated parts and regenerating newer, more viable elements. The idea, according to Noboru Kawazoe, was to develop a building system that ‘could cope with the problems of our rapidly changing society, and at the same time maintain stabilized human lives.’10
To put it in its simplest form, the theory of Metabolism was based on two principles. The first was the symbiosis of different time periods, or diachronicity. The term ‘metabolism’ was borrowed from the science of biology, where it refers to the processes and changes that a creature undergoes as it lives. The first principle of the Metabolist movement was to introduce this regenerating, metabolizing process into architecture and city planning. The name
Metabolist structures were primarily large megastructures that hoped to solve the problems of entire cities. The Metabolist manifesto entitled Metabolism 1960, was a collection of work by architects Kisho Kurokawa, Masato Otaka, Fumihiko Maki, Kiyonori Kikutake, graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu, industrial designer Kenji Ekuan, and photographer Shomei Tono. Their works were largely influenced by Kenzo Tange’s Plan for Tokyo (1960), which stretched Tokyo across the bay with large infrastructural, looping
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arteries bridging the gap. Arata Isozaki was a later leader of the Metabolist movement who came in after its founders. Tea House Design: The Contemporary Architects’ Tearooms exhibition that inspired Koren to write Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers, was well documented by the architects participating in the expo in a book called The Contemporary Tea House: Japan’s Top Architects Redefine a Tradition. The book first starts of giving the elaborate history of the tea ceremony from the days when it was part of a gambling called Tocha to when it was institutionalized and ritualized under the influence of Sen no Rikyu. Rikyu was said be the one, “who in one stroke transformed tea into a form of avant-garde expression and a political act completely shorn of established convention.” “…He plunged tea into uncharted territory and a state of constant experimentation.”11 He was the art adviser to Japanese leader Hideyoshi for whom he built many tea houses for, each a further experiment into his refined wabi-sabi aesthetic. “Rikyu also created a new type of tea room based on the prototype of a farmer’s hut of rough mud walls, thatched roof, and misshapen exposed wood structural elements. Rikyu then compressed this room down to an astonishing two tatami mats, a mere thirty-nine square feet.”12 This established the strong connection between the tea room and wabi-sabi: “Wabi-sabi tea rooms, for example, may have fewer than a hundred square feet of floor space. They have low ceilings, small windows, tiny entrances, and very subdued lighting. They are tranquil and calming, enveloping and womb-like. They are a world apart: nowhere, anywhere, everywhere. Within the tea room, as within all places wabisabi, every single object seems to expand in importance in inverse proportion to its actual size.”13 Tea Houses Designed by Metabolists: Many of the Metabolist architects in their time designed tea houses, and as they talk about them, you can understand that they were beginning to grapple with this idea of wabi-sabi and Metabolism. First with Kisho Kurokawa, where he starts off by talking of his childhood, living at his grandfather’s house in the country during the war: It was Sogo Matsuo” a tea master, “who designed the tearoom on the property, Mushin’an, which means Hut of Nograham hart
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m-tea: the place between metabolism and wabi-sabi architecture generation to generation. Izumo Shrine is not rebuilt at such regular intervals, but in its 1000-year history is has been rebuilt several times. Katsura Detached Palace was completed over a 150-year period, starting in the seventeenth century, and had been added to twice since then. This reflects the Buddhist concept of impermanence. Architecture and cities area always changing, so likewise, their structures should be open, and the relationship between architecture and nature valued. We should not be preoccupied with matter, with substance. This special characteristic of Japanese culture penetrates every aspect of society. The Japanese don’t see life as absolute: life and death are seen as related. The Japanese aesthetic cherishes the scattering cherry blossoms. Its human relations are free and open, not restricted to any one community, class or religious sect.17
The tea room from Capsule House K, 1973 (left), compared to the habitation module of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, 1972 (right), by Kishio Kurokawa. Mind. In addition, Yoshitsuan, the Hut of Accommodating Knees, an especially fine example of a mid-Edo-period tearoom, was built directly onto the main house. Yoshitsuan became my study and bedroom from middle school on, thanks to which every architectural detail, the very scale of tearoom space, is ingrained into my being.14 He later then designed a tea room that embodied both principles of wabi-sabi and Metabolism in his Capsule Summer House K. …whereas the tea-ceremony capsule is copied directly from the famous Tea Master, Masakazu Kobori usually known as Enshu Kobori (1579-1647). Kurokawa is an ardent student of Enshu Kobori, who is perhaps best known or the elegant Tea House at Katsura Detached Palace, outside Kyoto. The interior of the capsule tea house accordingly includes the required fourand-one-half tatami (straw mats) floor; the shoji screens; the chigaidana, or uneven shelves, and the tokonoma (alcove). The use of a prefabricated, rust-red, Corten steel capsule to house a tea-ceremony room, true in every respect to its seventeenthcentury counterpart, may strike adherents of Bauhaus principles as lacking integrity, but it exemplifies beautifully the unique Japanese ability to use contrary elements together to
create what we call Both/And architecture. It is prevalent throughout the country and represents the generating principle behind the rapidly developing mixed-systems industrialized architecture of Japan.15 Kurokawa was also a prominent writer about his own philosophies of Metabolism and how it tied to Buddhism and other key concepts that link it back to wabi-sabi, even if not explicitly pointed out. One bold statement that Kurokawa wrote was “The architecture of metabolism is the architecture of temporariness. A dynamic balance expressed by Buddhism’s concept of impermanence as an alternative to the Western aesthetic ideals of the universal and the eternal.”16 Kurokawa also talks about how other traditional Japanese buildings like the Ise Shrine, Katsura Detached Palace, and the Izumo Shrine all embodied elements of Metabolism. Ise Shrine has two distinct sites adjacent to each other. It is a unique structure that has been built anew in exactly the same way every twenty years for the past 1,300 years, this being the life of the wood used. It is also a suitable interval for transmitting the techniques of rebuild the shrine from
Metabolist architect Arata Isozaki also built tea houses with the dichotomy of wabisabi and Metabolism. In The Contemporary Tea House, Arata writes about his knowledge of the history behind the tea house. He talks about how even though its aesthetics are tied in wabisabi, its expression is in Metabolist thought. “For example, in Hojoki (‘An Account of My Hut’), Kamo no Chomei describes dismantling the frame of ten foot square hut, transporting it by cart deep into the mountains, and reassembling it there.”18 This is an example showing that the structure itself was made of prefabricated parts that could be disassembled and reassembled – a Metabolist idea. Isozaki designed several modern tea houses, made from modern materials and with modern techniques however, he does add elements that tie back to wabi-sabi aesthetics. In his Kobo-an Tea Room (1974), “The tokonoma, or alcove and temaeza walls of the 4.5-mat tea room are mud plaster, while the remaining two walls are shoji with wainscoting.”19 Also in his Ujian (1992), he explains why he has taken liberties with this typical Japanese typology: “I regret that nowadays the tea ceremony has lost the creative flexibility on which it was founded, and remains only an empty formality. There are, nonetheless, still many lovers of the tea ceremony, and if some of them understand its initial spirit, the meaning of my folly will be perceived.”20 The tea room itself is a 2.5 mat room of traditional design; it is the outside and the entrance that are strictly modern. There are material choices that hint to the “rustic” quality Isozaki speaks of that play on wabi-sabi aesthetic but are modern in choice. For example,
academic research rough finished limestone, a lead covered tokonoma (possibly paying homage to the cave tokonoma: Horadoko by Rikyu), burnt-finish cast aluminum entrance door and other elements. Isozaki also writes about some of his other Metabolist works and talks about his influences of traditional Japanese building methods – something that Kurokawa had said earlier where Metabolism revives cultural elements overlooked by Modernism. In Isozaki’s City in the Air, 196063, he talks about the “…system was also inspired by the traditional wood architecture of Japan, particularly the bracketing system (incorporating elements such as the sashihijiki and the tokyo) for the Great South Gate of Todaiji in Nara.”21
Kurokawa designed the tea room in the Capsule House K (1973), to be a reconstruction of a 17th century style tea room (right). In Kurokawa’s own home, he designed another tradional tea room, called Yuishikian (hut of Consciousness-Only) (bellow).
One of the founders of the Metabolist Group, Kiyonori Kikutake also talks about the relationship between wabi-sabi and the Metabolist Movement. Particularly he points out how Metabolist architecture sprouted from traditional Japanese architecture and how he implemented this on his projects. For example, the parts of temple buildings that are most easily damaged such as the rafters on the edge of eaves are designed as easily replaceable systems…. I called it the ‘replacement theory’ or ‘making flexibility’ – it’s a question of thinking about things such as what to replace, what to keep, when and how replacement ought to take place, and incorporating those ideas in a system. When I adopted such a viewpoint and looked at contemporary materials, I saw that steelframe construction closely resembled wood construction, and that renewal of the kind possible with those types of construction was somewhat more difficult with concrete buildings. Nevertheless, in works such as Shimane Prefectural Museum and Izumo Shrine administrative building, I tried to see if ‘assembly and disassembly’ could be done with concrete. The point is, I tried to endow architecture with the capacity to change freely in response to demands of use or of the times. The same can be said of cities. One of the themes of Marine City was the capacity for renewal on an urban level. I did not create new projects for ‘Metabolism/1960’ at the World Design Conference in 1960 but merely consolidated ideas of metabolism and renewal that I had already been considering.22 Kurokawa also spoke of a project he did with Kikutake on the eventual anonymity of Metabolist
architecture, where eventually it becomes something that the user creates, and the role of the designer or architect becomes obsolete. “Our design objective was to produce a self-aid system by applying the principles of Metabolism. Of course, architecture everywhere changes, grows, regenerates, and reproduces itself due to changes in the society or economy that supports it. But we were seeking a kind of architecture that would grow, change, and regenerate by stimulating the people living in it to participate, to create a self-aid system. This led us to pursue new technological possibilities. Kikutake’s Movement Kitchenette and Sky House were great stimuli to the Metabolist group. Louis Kahn’s concept of master space/ servant space was another.”23
M-tea, the link between Metabolism and wabi-sabi: Perhaps these two opposing philosophies have found common ground in tea house architecture. Perhaps this common space has created a way for the expression of change, the full cycle of life, the appreciation of old and the celebration of new, all to be observed and experienced by those that inhabit it. It is no longer about opposing forces, but about seeing the beauty in all stages of change. There is beauty in the uniquely crafted tea cup by the humble ceramicist – and there is beauty in the mass-produced module that rehabilitates an old structure for a changing environment. Craft and production, unique and ubiquitous, all the same when viewed from the perspective of change. All things are either in an evolution from, or to, nothingness. In all this evolution, beauty can be seen in stillness and shelter of the tea house. graham hart
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documentation of mid-century hawaii residentail architecture
clockwise from top left: The red painted ceiling makes a bold statement in this view of the front approach and back lanai of the Wimberly Residence by George “Pete� Wimberly (1956). A simple, understated house on Woodlawn Terrace by Harry Seckel (1965) hides in the foliage. A wrap around lanai cantilevers off of the Choy Residence, originally designed by Vladimir Ossipoff with Taliesin inspired additions by Stephen Oyakawa, (194750).
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clockwise from top left: A built-in desk overlooks Honolulu from this perch in the Loo Residence, designed by Vladimir Ossipoff (1953). Upper cabinets float above this kitchen in Pahoa, designed by Daniel Chun (1955). The seating area in the Liljestrand House, designed by Vladimir Ossipoff (1952) will always be my favorite spot. This living room is in a house designed by Alfred Pries on Melemele Place (1955). The engawa of the Goodsill House by Ossipoff (1953) represents Hawaii’s indoor-outdoor living so well.
Since 2015, inspired by my thesis work on Tropical Modern residential architecture, I have been on a constant search for O’ahu’s overlooked mid-century residential gems. Starting with widely recognized houses with relatively easy access, and expanding to historic homes opened up for special tours to Docomomo board members, and down to scouring the open house listings for rare opportunities, I have made it my mission to see and document these houses before they change. There are many lessons to be learned from these homes. Not only are they beautiful masterworks in craft and form, but they are typically designed before the advent of air-conditioning, making them all models for sustainability and site design. Most of the homes that I see, their futures are uncertain. They are unlisted on the historic register and the cost of the land exceed their small programs. I have tried to spread awareness of these works, and hopefully not only educate the public on what makes good-design in Hawaii, but also, hopefully inspire new owners to maintain their easy-going lifestyle. See more on instagram: @grmhrt graham hart
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documentation of the snyder residence
snyder residence project team: location: completed: sid snyder kalani-iki, o’ahu 1969
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Architect Sid Snyder was Hawaii Modern Master Vladimir Ossipoff’s former partner and long-time employee. In the 1960’s, Snyder bought a piece of land, high up on Kalani-iki ridge overlooking the ocean below it. Over the next decade he slowly designed and redesigned his future residence and then built it himself, using low-cost, humble materials. Every square inch of this house has a story to it from its construction, and it is a mastery of quiet sophistication and honesty in material. The sand-blasted CMU walls exposing their local aggregate and freeing themselves of the gray cement turn to a sandstone like quality. The exterior plaster walls are washed with Waimanalo sand. The Spanish tile roof reappears as interior screens, bringing cool breezes through the space. The house is on a steep site, but through clever massing, creates a flat interior courtyard, protected from the strong winds. The courtyard steps with the site and an interior short wall by the entry becomes a bench to sit down at while taking off your shoes. The house embraces the outdoors, and every room is its own mass, grouped together like a Tuscan village. I had the opportunity to research this house and Sid’s work in an interview documented on Think Tech Hawaii, a local access channel show. graham hart
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site design analysis of mid-century hawai‘i architecture
st stephen catholic church project team: location: completed: lee, tagawa and robertson nu‘uanu, o’ahu 1969
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Background: Architecture is a language, made up of elements, vocabulary and syntax. This language can be used to communicate aspects about the program, inform people about their environment, express a culture, or reflect conditions of a site. In 1954, Hawaii architect Harry Seckle wrote a manifesto describing the environmental influences that create an architectural language. He explained that a project’s isolation, materials, economic conditions, climate, setting, and cultural background all contribute to the creation of a building’s language. Seckle thought that the way people lived - environmental living, as he called it - was what united all good design in Hawaii. Understand that architecture is a language, and that all buildings communicate their influencing factors from which they were built. Some focus
academic projects Site Design Analysis of Mid-Century Hawai‘i Architecture ARCH 341 - intermediate design studio (site design focus) instructor: Graham Hart FALL 2018 assignment period: 3 weeks student work: Levi Albano
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more on material, some on culture - students have studied buildings that communicate their site. But in order to figure out what those buildings say about their site, the students must first deconstruct their sentences into comprehensible words. Once the vocabulary has been identified, and then it is put back into the correct order, they can understand what story has been built. Assignment Description: Students selected a building built in Hawaii during mid-century, before the advent of airconditioning, and did a through site and architectural analysis of the of the project. They then were asked to do further analysis and diagramming of it. to understand the building elements that relate to the site features they mapped. They were to correlate If a word was
used properly. If it was, then it should be a diagram in itself of that site feature. Students were then asked to use these words to create a tool that articulates the site features. This tool, was built with two models. First, they made a macro model. This model showed terrain and the massing of the FLOOR PLAN building. Students were asked, atDIAGRAM this scale, what WIND is the primary relationship between architecture and site? Is it the relationship to the terrain, is it FL relationship to the built context, or is it the the OO relationship to the wind? R PL AThe N second model was at a larger scale, called an elements model. Students extracted the “words”, or elements, that pertain to the building’s relationship to the site. The model doesn’t show programming or other elements that don’t have any relationship to site. The elements model represented the idea of these words, or
the root of these words, in detail, and the rest of the model could be just massing or omitted. Student Learning Objectives: Students learned site mapping and analysis (and the difference between the two). Architectural case studies. Critical thinking0 and analysis. 25 50 Students learned about passive strategies to site design, or reactionary ways to make a building work best to a site’s unique parameters. Students learned about topography and 3D representation in model making. The student shown on these pages best represented this project showed an understanding of the building and it’s site design strategies. His main analysis was that the building most responded to the wind of the area, and it’s shape and facade were designed to scoop and modulate it. 0 50 100
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academic projects
a master plan of mokauea island for the year 2020
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existing structures existing fishpond new ‘auwai community pier cultural center science center education center hale wa’a overnight cabin resource management bird habitat
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academic projects A Master Plan of Mokauea Island for the Year 2020 ARCH 341 - intermediate design studio (site design focus) instructor: Graham Hart FALL 2018 assignment period: 4 weeks student work: Levi Albano, Sharla Batocal, Josephine Briones, Amanda Garcia, Anthony Michael Gayap, Celeste Guarin, Kenneth Guillen, Krysell Lam, Jaewoo Lee, Cecilia Otero, Marc Pader, and Anthony Tuiolosega
Background: Mokauea Island lies in Ke‘ehi Lagoon between Mauli Ola (Sand Island) and the Daniel K. Inoye International Airport in Honolulu. It is the last historic fishing village on O‘ahu and is a place of great cultural significance. The Mokauea Fisherman’s Organization help maintain and restore the island back to it’s original productive native landscape. It has gone through a long series of site manipulations, changing the ecology of the island. Starting as high point in a reef outcropping that covered Ke‘ehi, to being cut into pieces, dredged for seaplane runways. The island’s loko’ia, or fishpond, was expanded from 300sf to over an acre in size. These years of degradation play out over a heated political backdrop of the state versus the Hawaiian natives with rights to the island. But it is on it’s way to recovering and once again being a center for Hawaiian culture and marine knowledge. In 2020, Hawai‘i will be hosting the Festival of the Pacific Arts. FestPac, as it is called, is hosted every four years since 1972, and is a way for island nations to showcase their culture through displays of art, dance, and storytelling. Part of this includes traditional voyaging canoes
sailing from their home countries to the host nation. Mokauea will be one of the resting places for these voyaging canoes, as well as Mauli Ola. In 2016, twenty-seven countries participated in FestPac hosted in Guam. As many countries are expected to participate in 2020. In preparation for hosting, Mokauea not only needs to be continuously restored, but also improved with additional facilites and resources. This deadline and event is also a way to build in other capitol improvements that will make Mokauea a greater outdoor class room for the community. Assignment Description: Students first started with an extensive site analysis of Mokauea, mapping out every physical and experiential feature. This included a site visit to the island, where students paddled out on a double-hull canoe. As a class, students designed a master plan for Mokauea with the following program additions: - Fishpond restoration (including new ‘auwai) - Community pier (for four wa’a) - Cultural Center - Science Center
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Education Center (outdoor classroom) Hale wa’a (for multiple outrigger canoes) - Overnight cabin or hale (large enough for student groups) - Resource generation and management Students completed the designs for the program components in small groups, but coordinated the overall plan together. They incorporated passive and active site design strategies into their designs. Students also completed a 1/16” = 1’0” architectural model of the island, documenting the existing conditions and their proposed master plan. The whole project, students interacted with a real client, Kēhaulani Kupihea, who runs the outreach programs for Mokauea. Student Learning Objectives: Students learned about master planning, site planning, and architectural design at a conceptual level, and how the features of a site can contribute to the design process.
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The Kalia, by Edwin Bauer (1958), was recently restored back to it’s original paint scheme thanks to an effort led by Graham Hart as Kalia HOA President.
endnotes
1 Edward S. Morse, Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1961), 241-243. 2 Sakamoto, Hawaiian Modern: The Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff, 93 3 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 7. 4 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 33. 5 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 16. 6 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 76. 7 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 40. 8 Kurokawa, Kisho„. Rediscovering Japanese Space, 13. 9 Ross, Michael Franklin. Beyond metabolism: the new Japanese architecture, 7. 10 Ross, Michael Franklin. Beyond metabolism: the new Japanese architecture, 7. 11 Terunobu Fujimori. The contemporary tea house: Japan’s top architects redefine a tradition, 13. 12 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 33. 13 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 67. 14 Kurokawa, Kisho„. Rediscovering Japanese Space, 4. 15 Ross, Michael Franklin. Beyond metabolism: the new Japanese architecture, 80. 16 Kurokawa, Kisho„. Kisho Kurokawa: from metabolism to symbiosis, 8. 17 Kurokawa, Kisho„. Kisho Kurokawa: from metabolism to symbiosis, 16. 18 Isozaki, Arata. The contemporary tea house: Japan’s top architects redefine a tradition, 26. 19 Isozaki, Arata. The contemporary tea house: Japan’s top architects redefine a tradition, 30. 20 Isozaki, Arata. The contemporary tea house: Japan’s top architects redefine a tradition, 37. 21 Isozaki, Arata, Kenneth Frampton, and Yukio Futagawa. Arata Isozaki Isozaki Arata, 24. 22 Koren, Leonard. Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers, 7. 23 Kurokawa, Kisho„. Rediscovering Japanese Space, 15.
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ALOHA