Site diagram

The site diagram of Honolulu specifically focusing on Downtown and Waikiki areas. They are the center of business.

Downtown - Local
Waikiki - Tourist

The streets follows the water, which shows historical influences where people inhabited along water and harbor.
The two areas are connected by the major streets in Honolulu.

Thesis idea...getting focused

Living with nature

I went back to my original idea about doing a thesis in Honolulu, HI. The aim is to allow people to live with nature while learning/appreciating about environment…it seems like it’s been done in the past… But I’m merging two different programs as the main programs (more programs will be added later).

The first program is residential complex for people living in Hawaii as their home. This case, architecture will remind them of the privilege of living in such beautiful and rich nature of Hawaii. The second program will be a hotel for visitors to Hawaii who will “stay,” not live, there for short period of time. Here, architecture becomes an aid for them to experience and learn about Hawaiian nature. This merging of two programs is interesting because one group is living there permanently or for long period of time as their home, the other group is only staying there for few nights. While the residential occupants stay the same, the other occupant (tourists) will be constantly changing. There will always be a new meeting, and new discoveries in this program.

This project will be a center for tourists and locals thus more programs must be introduced….

Notes on the Adaptive Re-use of Program

McMorrough addresses the importance of program in the design phase of architecture today in “Notes on the Adaptive Re-use of Program” “Form follows function” is a phrase we’ve been hearing in the school and I agree with this idea as I believe that program is the content in architecture. He also addresses the idea of programmatic failure. Architecture must consider the users, context, and time (+future) when defining the program, and let building adapt with the program.

McMorrough says, “You begin with a program.” It’s been true all the time for my past studio projects as he states “it is the first thing you are given to start a project in school and the thing you wait on from a client in practice.” I think program is very important as it directly relates to the users/occupants of the building. Because of its relationship to users, we must consider program into design phase as early as possible. Now with thesis, we can choose a program, site, etc..and I think its’ the only opportunity to be able to do this, so I have to be very careful when choosing an appropriate program to fit my thesis and I think everyone needs to consider it profoundly as well.

concept sketch 3

Elevators.......it's very convenient.....but we never realize how high we are actually occupying when using elevators.
Today, increasing number of people are living above "ground." They are living high in the air than what people could have imagined before. Traditionally, people are living on the ground...ground level, but less people are doing that. One who lives in a house has the privilege of living on the ground. It is nice to have your own entry, porch, backyard,etc. These privileges of living on the ground is lost for many people today, because buildings are getting taller, and people are living in the higher elevation.

But what is ground level? If there is a house on a hill...is it on or above ground??? The recent technology has led to the use of roof as a green space: green roof. Grass could only grow on the ground before, and now it can be planted on the roof. So building's roof become a ground......potentially...

I'm not sure where I'm going with this yet...

Reading Response 2 - The Muses are not Amused by Jorge Silvetti

Silvetti describes four cases that affect form-making, “a creative process,” of architecture today: Programism, Thematization, Blobs, and Literalism. When I think of form-making, things such as context, program, and sustainability come to my mind as I was taught to use these influences to assist the process of form-making. The first case is programism, using program, “a protocol of complex linear conglomerates of information“ as a generator of form as opposed to function. I feel that this is what we have been doing in every studio, since we are all given a specific program on a specific site. Sometimes I wonder if 20 students are working on the same exact site and program to produce architectural project, why would our forms be different? We all have the same information about the site, program, and those analysis, but we always end up having different forms. I think THIS IS what makes me like architecture so much. There are many more factors involved in form making…intuition, aesthetics, emotion, backgrounds, experience….because we all are different our projects turn out to be different. It’s deep….


Blobs is a new possibility in the form-making of architecture, the use of 3D digital technology to generate complex forms. This is an advancement in architecture, but also is a threat in architecture. I feel that using these 3D digital technologies to generate form can produce aesthetically beautiful, complex, and flawless forms, and people will appreciate that. Not everyone is an architect, in fact most people are non-architect who don’t consider buildings as we do. These people will look at these new buildings and say it’s a great architecture piece simply because the buildings look nice. These people will not pay attention to the buildings’ relationship to context, program, history, and sustainability because they don’t care about those!! I feel that my goal as an architect is to make people consider architecture more profoundly and look at it in various ways not just appearance.

sketch #2

2nd Try

1 Architecture as attraction

3 Architecture causes changes to its surroundings and it should be a driver thriving the community. A new destination for tourists will enable meetings of the two groups: local people and tourists. It is a destination leading to a new beginning where they meet new people and learn to perceive nature in a new way.

9 Hawaii is a destination for many visitors for its natural beauty, and tourism is the biggest business for people working there. Hence its economy is heavily affected and relied on tourism. Number of tourists is decreasing annually which causes people to lose their jobs. If Hawaii could recover its attraction of tourists as they had once before, the community will prosper again. Architecture will become a great attraction for tourists, but also it should be shared by local people. This would allow for their encountering which is often limited in today’s tourism. The building will be a multifunctional including a hotel which allows the visitors to experience “living in Hawaii,” thus hotel rooms will be 24/7 experiencing space for them. In most cases, hotels are run by big corporations with their standard designs which neglect contextual characteristics and each hotel rooms have controlled air-conditioning. Hotel will provide a huge opportunity for the tourists to experience how it’s like to live and to learn about the unique environment in Hawaii.