international
Issue No4 £6 US $12.99
B e ins pired to li ve the dream
cocotraie
luxury Tropical living & interior design
An architectural
masterclass with
Mark de Reus
Sculptor
Arthur Dennis Williams
The formula for success part 2
Four seasons resort
Hualalai
Zak Architecture
& Assembly house
an award winning
magazine
P lu s
the private island of
Cayo Espanto
Hawaiian
Design special
ISLAND LIFE. RESORTS. VILLAS. HOMES. ARCHITECTURE. properties & CULTURE
hawai’i design special
The Architect
shay zak
The Architect who exemplifies the art of
low slung, indoor-outdoor breezy tropical
living
hawai’i design special
Photo courtesy of Zak Architecture
zak architecture
Assembly house
Clean. Simple. Pure.
l
ocated on Kona Coast, this 18,000 square foot home is designed as variations on
a theme: “assembly”. The owners of this property wanted the house to encourage
interaction while maintaining privacy. This was accomplished by taking the
Hawaiian building vernacular of pavilions and dividing the program into public and
private spaces.
The public pavilions (living/dining/kitchen, media, outdoor dining, garage, guest
living/dining/kitchen, and tennis) are gathering places, while the private pavilions
(master, children’s, guest, offices, and spa) serve as retreats.
Assembly House is designed as a residential village knit together by garden spaces and
pathways. Rather than a house with a garden around it, this is a garden with a collection
of pavilions placed within it. The assemblage of pavilions on the site defines the garden
spaces, creating additional public gathering areas and secluded sanctuaries.
Each building is deliberately placed within the site to achieve a dialogue with the garden.
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We use natural materials that are beautiful to the
eye, pleasant to the touch and age with grace.
The interior bathroom enclosures open onto exterior shower gardens, blurring
the division between the indoor and outdoor space. Opening the buildings also
grounds them in their specific Hawaiian environment by allowing in breeze, view,
and light.
As with the site planning, the architecture of each building is designed to express
individual elements thus clarifying and celebrating the assembly. The sliding walls
and intimate scale of each building allow them to open directly to the garden
on all sides. One is guided sequentially through the entry courtyard into the main
pavilion. From here the long pool extends toward the ocean and draws it back
into the house.
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The interior bathroom enclosures open onto
exterior shower gardens, blurring the division
between the indoor and outdoor space.
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The assemblage of pavilions on the site defines
the garden spaces, creating additional public
gathering areas and secluded sanctuaries.
The layers of assembly continue with the individual
pavilions. While there is a repetitive structural
language, the buildings vary within the theme by type.
Creating a ‘kit of parts’ that can be arranged according to the owner’s specified needs of each space
unifies the pavilions into one home.
The major elements consist of structure and skin,
represented in two forms: stone and wood. The stone
walls combine the structure and skin into one.
The wood walls separate the structure from the skin,
with the supportive elements, columns, expressed on
the exterior. The wood skin is divided into fixed and
moveable panels. Each set of panels are a subsequent
kit of parts: temperature and moisture control (glass),
sunlight and privacy (wooden louvers), and pest control
(screen).
Each layer of assembly comes together to form and
strengthen the whole. As the pavilions assemble on the
site to form a house, the kit of parts assembles to form
pavilions, all giving the project its moniker:
Assembly House.
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Rather than a house with a garden around it,
this is a garden with a collection of pavilions
placed within it.
An interview with
Shay Zak
h
ow would you describe your style?, “Simple, clean, pure, but
I prefer to think more in terms of “character” rather than style.
I think we want to get beyond the word style, it has so many
negative associations, and use character. Each project is separate and
individual and needs to be discovered through the process.
When people walk through one of our projects I want them to feel, not just
see, that everything ties together. I want them to physically feel a sense of
personality or “character” coming out of the architecture. And I think when
we get it right they do”. Is there a particular characteristic of your’s favoured
by your diverse international clientele?. “They tend to like my deconstructed
site plans where the house is divided up into smaller more intimate structures
that are strategically placed on the site”.
Clarity of structure is probably one of the primary aspects of character.
What is structure?. With Assembly House, we expressed the structure as
separate from the skin of the building. There’s an external ring of columns
that holds up the roof. And set inside the columns is the wall system, which is
not a conventional stud wall, but sliding panels of glass, screen, and louvers.
So when you approach a particular building you can read it. You say, “Ah,
there is the structure. There is the wall. They have been separated for some
reason. I don’t know why.” As a result your mind is challenged and your senses are pleased. You’re thinking about it, and enjoying the poetic language
of the architecture.
How and where do you source your materials?, “The majority of our wood
comes from the Pacific Northwest. We use as much local Hawaiian stone as
we can and use a lot of hand-tooled stone out of China. We are building
a house now with an interlocking zinc roof where the zinc is from Germany,
the fabrication is done in Eastern United States and the final installation is in
Hawaii.
Fundamental to our work is the use of natural, durable, and timeless materials. The overall design is just the beginning. I like to think our work has a kind
of lushness to it. You want to touch it, and be embraced by it. Stone, wood,
copper-in general we like to use materials that get better with age. The fact
that we design homes is significant because we are looking for what makes
a ‘home.’ Therefore warmth, solidity, and durability are fundamental when
choosing materials”.
“I have always loved Architecture, just not
by that name.
I cannot remember a time when I was not
altering the space around me in some way.”
Property - cloister house. Hawai’i.
Hawai’i