This home is built on the desert highlands of the Big Island, Hawaii. The owners are a multi-generational family of artists and chefs who use the spaces for life and work, client guests, dinner parties and arts events. On a dry hillside facing south with views of towering volcanoes, vast lava escarpments and the Pacific Ocean, the house parallels a wild episodic stream cascading through desert rocks whenever rain falls on cloud-capped cliffs towering high above the house to the north. From these cliffs, raging trade winds buffet the north face of the house, consequently bunkered low into this rising windward flank, its roof tipped up just enough to shelter indoor/outdoor courtyards. The modulating construction elements create a quiet place to live and work almost entirely outdoors, enjoying sunlight, views, pockets of stillness amidst environmental intensity.
The project intent is elemental—to make it possible to live comfortably indoors and out on this wild site with minimal landscape intervention and only the rawest material construction. Since limited materials and labor are available at this location, the palette of materials is selected to maximize off-site prefabrication and to incorporate natural topography in order to minimize grading and landscape reconstruction. All that comes from off-site is lightweight metal and glass, while that from the local ground consists of the rawest possible placement of concrete and local wood, lava stone and gravel. Few plants are added to this parched landscape with its scarce water resources, but care was taken to preserve all life currently surviving here, and to structure human life and experience to be satisfied with the subtle landscape that will wind back into the house naturally over time.
The house is conceived as a tune-able instrument to facilitate comfortable and highly variable living in this shape-shifting landscape. The majority of the house consists of a repeating series of lightweight pavilions, aligned in a row beneath a broad shade roof serving also as an air deflector and rain collector. The pavilions are each enclosed by sliding barn doors on all sides, allowing flexibility in spatial configuration and fine tuning of shared community space vs. privacy; enclosure vs. expansiveness; continuity between exterior and interior. These primary living pavilions are serviced by a row of heavy concrete bunkers providing contrasting mass, coolness, privacy and security for cooking, bathing and storage functions, while rooting the roof wing down into the sloping ground and shielding the pavilion space from howling trade winds. Nestled among the bunkers and sliding-door pavilions are a series of shaded and open courtyard spaces, transitioning between enclosure and full exterior on the site, creating a series of micro-climatically distinct spaces tucked among the repeating modular configuration of pavilions. The house is connected to the electrical grid, but entirely self-sufficient with a rooftop photovoltaic array. Energy use, light and sound intrusion are minimized with all-LED lighting, natural ventilation and cooling, with no mechanical air conditioning.
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View from southeast, across the river.
John Russell
South view, showing how the house is settled into the hill and the trees.
John Russell
View from the north, entry side. For privacy and protection from the wind, the house is more closed to the north.
John Russell
Late afternoon sun highlights the building's earth tones from weathered steel and raw concrete.
John Russell
With sliding wall/window panels open, the indoor spaces can be opened to the surrounding landscape.
John Russell
Guest bedroom area in the morning sun.
John Russell
At dusk, the indoor/outdoor bathing areas are private but open to views of the sea and volcanoes.
John Russell
A covered open-air passage is the spine of the house, with enclosable rooms accessed to each side.
John Russell
A limited materials palette of wood, steel, and concrete are used throughout the house and the custom furnishings.
John Russell
Living, dining and kitchen spaces can be fully opened to each other and the exterior, or individually closed off with the sliding window, door, and wall panels.
John Russell
The house is approached from a long gravel drive, unseen until over the crest of the hill. At night, the low, linear house welcomes visitors with warm glowing walls, and the sea and mountains in the distan
John Russell
In the glow of sunset, operable panels of weathered steel capture light and control views for privacy to the master bedroom wing.
John Russell
Site plan
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Floor plan
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Elevation, south side
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Sections through the house showing relationship to slope, trees, and river.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Sections through the house showing relationship to slope, trees, and river.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Exploded axonometric view from the southeast showing principle building components.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Exploded and assembled views of typical roof system module, with list of components.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and cardboard, view from southwest.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and cardboard, view from northwest showing detail of umbrella roof structure.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and cardboard, detail of umbrella roof structure.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and cardboard, detail of south side sun shade and solar panel structure.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and cardboard, detail of umbrella roof structure.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and 3d printed ABS plastic, showing detail of prefabricated structural steel roof system.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and 3d printed ABS plastic, showing detail of prefabricated structural steel roof system.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Design process model in wood and 3d printed ABS plastic, showing detail of primary structural steel beams and sliding wall/window panel tracks.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
1:1 scale design process model in cardboard showing typical structural steel connection of repeating module.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Early design process model in laser cut wood and cardboard to study integration of structure into the sloping site.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Early design process model in laser cut wood and cardboard. Aerial view from southeast to show entry courtyard area.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Early design process model in laser cut wood and cardboard to study integration of structure into the sloping site. View from southeast.
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Early design process model in laser cut wood and cardboard to study integration of structure into the sloping site. View from southwest.
Waimea
United States
John Russell
08/2019
698 sq. m
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Mark Anderson, Peter Anderson, John Russell, Alexis Wilson Russell, Christopher Campbell, Gennifer Muñoz, Brady Quinlan, Johnson Tang, Ziang Ao, Reem Makkawi, JJ Tan, Yafei Li, Ana Perez González
John Russell
Kevin Murar, structural engineer; Peter Dahlberg, civil engineer
Quinlan Reed Construction, Tom Sills, Legacy Fabricators, Roland Shackleford
John Russell (all images of completed house and house under construction; All drawings, models, renderings images by Anderson Anderson Architecture).
Curriculum
Anderson Anderson Architecture has built extensively in California and the American West, and in other parts of the United States, Asia and Europe. Best known for original, finely crafted buildings on unique sites, Mark and Peter Anderson and their small team of associates also has substantial experience in modular and prefabricated building systems. Their work has received numerous international design awards and been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Technology and Industry in Hamburg, and in publications such as Architecture, Architectural Record, Plan, The New York Times and many books including monographs by Princeton Architectural Press—Anderson Anderson, Architecture and Construction, and Prefab Prototypes, Site-specific Design for Off-site Fabrication.
