Prototropic issue 0.1 Preview

November 2015
Prototropic
Editor and Publisher: Dimitri Damiel Kim
Produced by: XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L.
New Inc.
231 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
917-279-1931
DISCLAIMER
Publisher of this journal claims no responsibility for the opinion of its contributors. All Rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part without prior permission is strictly prohibited. Every care has been taken during the
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responsibility from any effects from error or omissions.
MISSION STATEMENT
To mitigate challenges and opportunities for emerging
tropical and subtropical cities in the 21st century
through open and provocative discourse and debate.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ® / COPYRIGHT © 2015 XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L.

KAZI K.
ASHRAF
METROPHILIA
ARCHITECT, DHAKA, BANGLADESH + HONOLULU HI USA
Ashraf is an architect, urbanist and architectural
historian. Currently teaching history and theory,
and urban design studios at the University of
Hawaii at Manoa, he has taught at the University of
Pennsylvania, Temple University and Pratt Institute.
With a selected practice based in Dhaka, Ashraf
has been engaged in an urban design activism for
Dhaka and the Bengal delta. Ashraf has published
widely. His publications include: The Hermit’s Hut:
Architecture and Asceticism in India (UH Press,
2013); Designing Dhaka: A Manifesto for a Better City
(LOKA, 2012); special issue of Architectural Design
“Made in India” (2007) that received the Pierre Vago
Journalism Award from the International Committee
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
of Architectural Critics; and, Louis Kahn’s National
Capital in Bangladesh (GA Edita, 1994). His articles
and essays have appeared in the Architectural
Review, Architectural Design, Journal of Architectural
Education, RES, MIMAR and Economic and Political
Weekly, and various publications. He is also
working on two new book projects: Architecture is a
Landscape Event and Metrophilia: Love and Loathing
in the City.
Ashraf is the coordinator of the Urban Design Action
Group (UDAG) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was a
member of editorial board, “Journal of Architectural
Education” (2008-10); editorial board, ARCC Journal
of the Architecture Research Center Consortiums;
and former advisory committee of The Doris Duke
House, Honolulu. He has organized conferences for
MIT, The Architectural League of New York, and the
Doris Duke House.
Ashraf received his Masters degree from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD
from the University of Pennsylvania.
METROPHILIA BY KAZI K. ASHRAF

DIMITRI D.
KIM
XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L.
ARCHITECT, HNL, LA, NYC, MUC
Dimitri Damiel Kim is a founding member and
principal of an independent and collaborativebased
design studio, XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L. (Applied
Design Research Laboratory) LA, NYC, HNL, MUC,
a cross-disciplinary design and research initiative
dedicated to speculative and curatorial practice in
built environment, urbanism, and design. His most
recent work includes authoring for the studio’s
first monograph, “S.E.A.L. (Sea, Earth, Aether, and
Landscape)”, design work for the 2011 Taiwan
Tower Competition, curatorial work for architecture
exhibition, “Revenant: the Undeath of Ideas in
Architecture” (Honolulu 2013), and editorial and
publishing work for biannual journal on tropical
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
architecture and urbanism, ‘Prototropic’ (NYC,
November 2015). Prior to running an independent
practice, Dimitri has previously worked with Greg
Lynn, Elena Manferdini, Eric Owen Moss, Testa/
Weiser, LAR/Fernando Romero in Los Angeles, KY
International and Inform Design in Honolulu, MD Lab
and Schmidhuber & Partners in Germany, and with
MAD Architects, JPDA, Desbrisay & Smith in New
York, on various speculative and built projects in
architecture, design, and art installations. Dimitri’s
work have been exhibited at the Pacific Design
Center, Merchant Street Gallery, SCI-Arc Gallery
in Los Angeles and in CoXist Gallery in Honolulu.
Dimitri’s writings have been published in ‘PLAT’
Journal for Architecture (Rice University), ‘Space
Collective’, and ‘Abstract’ (Columbia University).
Dimitri has previously taught and lectured in Los
Angeles and Hawaii and have been an invited juror at
Woodbury University School of Architecture, the New
School in Parsons, Cooper Union, Pratt and Columbia
University GSAPP in New York. He is currently an
adjunct faculty of architectural technology at CUNY
College of Technology.
Dimitri Kim received a Master of Architecture
(M.Arch) from SCI-Arc, Master of Science in
Advanced Architectural Design (M.Sc) from Columbia
University, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
in Design from University of Hawaii.
HOUSE IS A DECORATED SHACK BY DIMITRI DAMIEL KIM

DAVID
ROCKWOOD
ROCKWOOD ARCHITECTS
ARCHITECT, HONOLULU HI USA
Rockwood established David Rockwood Architect in
1984. His professional work includes architecture,
urban, industrial, interior, furniture, and invention
projects, has been exhibited at venues including
the Buenos Aires Biennial, Princeton University, The
Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, and
The Smithsonian Institution’s Archives for American
Art in Washington, D.C., and has been published in
journals including The Architect – R.I.B.A Journal,
Architectural Design, Civil Engineering, Concrete
International, Domus, Engineering News Record,
GA Houses, GA Houses - Project, Ottagono, and
Progressive Architecture.
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
Rockwood’s research is focused on building and
transport materials, systems, and methods. He is
currently developing inventions for a continuously
variable transmission, an accelerating moving
walkway, and a method of permanent composite
fabric forming for concrete. Other recent research
included design of an intelligent adaptive building
skin done in collaboration electrical, mechanical
and computer science faculty. Rockwood served as
the Principal Investigator for University of Hawaii’s
U.S. Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon
competition. He was recently named a Fulbright
Specialist by the Fulbright International Institute of
Education, U.S. Department of State.
David Rockwood was educated at the University of
Oregon and Princeton University. He is currently Full
Professor and Director of the Construction Process
Innovations Lab at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
School of Architecture.
TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE BY DAVID ROCKWOOD

STEVEN
SANCHEZ
EMERGING VOICE
ARCHITECT, SAN FRANCISCO USA
Steven Sanchez is an architectural designer living
and working in San Francisco. He previously worked
for Perkins+Will, EFGH, Trachtenberg Architects, and
currently a project designer for Stanley Saitowitz |
Natoma Architects, Inc.
Steven co-authored “6 Months After Graduation:
Employment Status Report”, an attempt to capture
the state of Columbia University’s 2012 Master of
Architecture class in the first year of post-grad
school life.
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
Steven obtained his Master of Architecture from
Columbia University where he received the Lucille
Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize and holds a
Bachelors of Art in Architecture from the University
of California, Berkeley where he graduated with High
Honors and received the Rosanna Luis Scholarship.
AAA FORRÓ (FOR ALL!) BY STEVEN SANCHEZ

RAUL C.
SMITH
FAÍSCAS
ARCHITECT, RIO, BRAZIL + NYC USA
Raul Corrêa-Smith is a Carioca who was born in
New York, coordinator of Studio-X Rio, Studio Critic
of Architecture and Urbanism at PUC-Rio and cofounder
of Faíscas (www.faiscas.org).
Raul worked for six years at Studio Daniel Libeskind
(2005-11) in various projects in Asia, Europe and
more recently in the development and coordination
of the Vitra project, residential building in São Paulo
to be opened in 2014 and that came as a consultant.
Since 2009 serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor
at GSAPP through a series of workshops focused on
design visions for the city of Rio and is based on the
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
fundamental exchange of ideas through exhibitions
and debates with people invested in the future of the
city. He is coordinator of Studio-X Rio since 2011, a
research lab, debates and exhibitions in downtown
Rio, an initiative of Columbia University. In 2009 he
founded the ‘Faíscas’, an initiative that works on the
intersection between art and architecture seeking
new forms of collaboration and interaction with the
public. The exhibitions and installations ‘Supernova’
in the 2nd Digital Culture Festival in ‘Circo Voador’
(June 2012), ‘Central Futuros’ in 1st Digital Culture
Festival in ‘Circo Voador’ (August 2011), ‘Central
Futuros’ at Studio-X Rio (June 2011), ´Feito Pro Rio’
at MAM-Rio (2010), ‘Imagination Vessels’ at Studio-X
New York (2010), and ‘Faíscas Rio’ at the Cultural
Center Maria Teresa Vieira, Rio (2009) to facilitate
new imaginary space to the city.
Raul Correa-Smith graduated in Architecture from
the University of Michigan, and holds a Master
of Architecture from the School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia
University with Honors for Excellence in Design.
FLUID CITY BY RAUL CORREA-SMITH

LINDSEA K.
WILBUR
PLANETARY COLLECTIVE
FUTURIST, HONOLULU HI USA
Lindsea K. Wilbur, born and raised in the countryside
of Hawai’i, is in training to be a philosopher-inouter
space. Currently working on Earth as a social
investigator, she is professionally curious about
storytelling, culture creation, the lived experience of
governance, and emerging technology.
Following her inquiries into alternative governance
systems, she’s gone from a network of underground
tunnels beneath Paris to New York City’s MacArthur
and Knight Foundation-funded Governance Lab to
the deep playa at the Burning Man Art and Music
Festival.
CONTRIBUTORS BIO

BIO CONTINUED
In August 2013, sponsored by Institute for the
Future, she took Governance Futures Lab’s Social
Inventors Toolkit across America with the Millennial
Trains Project. Exploring what it means to do
human-centered political design, she used this
hands-on tool to explore citizen systems and futures
thinking in 7 cities and regions: the Bay Area, Salt
Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and
Washington, D.C.
In 2014, she was invited to talk at TEDx event in
Maui, where she presented her research on social
invention and human-centered political design.
She’s now a research affiliate at the Institute for the
Future and the Hawaii Research Center for Futures
Studies, in addition to serving as Resident Futurist at
the Planetary Collective.
HOT TROPICS BY LINDSEA K. WILBUR

IMAGE: Manhattan near Chrysler building, circa 1930s, NYC

Dimitri Damiel Kim | Honolulu + New York
NEW EPICENTER(S)
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

New Epicenter(s) | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim 20
Old Epicenter, a prologue
As globalization becomes normalized, the physical epicenters 1 of the old world: Rome, New York, London, Paris,
and Tokyo, will wane its dominance and influence; like the end of an era, from empire to colonialism, from
socialism to globalism; the mystique and glamorized fascinations of the wealthy, industrial, first-world will
be homogenized across a new boundaries and find new hosts. Rapidly shifting economy, uneasy geopolitical
landscape, and superfluous public consent and perception (of the old first-world), will give rise to a new, global
civilizations under the fray of digital media, social currency, and ubiquitous technology.
The Roman empire relied on shipments of grains from Egypt to feed the capitol; the empire of tea (Great Britain)
would not have its treasured past time without the import of Earl Grey from China; the resource stricken
epicenter depended on resource-rich serfdom nation to feed, fuel, and maintain their hegemony. But in the era of
intellectual-capitol based economy, emerging nations compete with their former imperial and colonial rulers,
now rivals. With relative control of their own natural resources and seeking fair share of other resources such
as oil and steel, the newly industrialized nations like Brazil and China are demanding their independence,
autonomy, and self-determination.
After the physical foundations and facades of the old epicenters: roads, towers, and ports are firmly transplanted,
the next evolution for these new cities will be the towards the establishment of their own contemporary or
comparable, global culture and identity of their own. Therefore, art, fashion, design, consumerism, and etc, will
become the new status quo, an initiation ritual, baptizing the new, first world.
New Epicenter(s)
Old cities are perpetually in the state of flux (decay and growth), with boom and bust economics, mass migration,
and inevitable conflicts, the physically landlocked cities can only divide and re-develop. New cities are exploding
and multiplying; like a teenager, kicking and screaming for their place at the table, the 21st century will be the age
of emerging cities; the resource rich cities; the global, tropical, and sub-tropical cities.
1. Indicated here as a common usage and term for center of human activity as
opposed to the literal term for center of seismic activity on the earth’s crust

IMAGE: Remains of the capitol of Roman Empire, Roma, Italy

IMAGE: The new Shenzhen Stock Exchange Building, Guangdong Province, PRC

New Epicenter(s) | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim
23
Rapidly shifting economy, uneasy geopolitics,
and superfluous public consent and perception,
will give rise to a new, global civilization under
the fray of digital media, social currency, and
ubiquitous technology.
From Island Kingdom To Metropolitan Islands
From loose tribe of sea-faring mariners to unified island kingdom to colonial subject and statehood, the tiny
archipelagos in the middle of the pacific ocean has gone through its share of trials and tribulations with all the
spectacles and drama that included bloody naval battles to dynastic feud and political coup.
Until recently, the island held a limited, global position and identity: an island tourist destination for
honeymooners/vacationers and Hollywood’s tropical back lot for movies and TV shows.
Then, little noticed and mostly ignored, industrial district known as Kakaako, located between downtown Honolulu
and Waikiki, the center of tourism in Hawaii, began stowing in street artists, hedge entrepreneurs, and hipsters,
kick starting the way for new urbanization and start-up boom (100% grass-roots). Soon, the buzz finally reached
the owners (of Kakaako) and inner sanctums of Hawaii’s echelons of power, including Kamehameha Estate and
Howard Hughes Corp. to take notes on the big ‘luaus’ 1 that was happening at where was essentially their scrap
yard, prompting the inevitable real-estate boom in the island, the likes of which never seen before.
Fast forward a few years later, the news of tech moguls, Larry Ellison and Mark Zukerberg buying major pieces
of real estate around Hawaii, made it to New York Times and Wall Street journal, making it official, the advent new
change in economic, social, and cultural ventures in Hawaii that began in Kakaako.
1. Traditional native Hawaiian term for a feast with music and hula dancing. The
term dates back to reign of King Kamehameha II, when he ended the religious
taboo of separating the women from enjoying the feast with men. Luau is now a
common term for backyard party

New Epicenter(s) | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim 24
Prototropic, the journey
Perhaps it was my experience on the slopes of favelas in ‘Zona Norte’ and in the new strip malls of Barra da Tijuca
in Rio de Janeiro that struck a lasting impression, exposing me to the complexity, progress, and universal beauty
of tropical cities around the world; this journal or the “journey”, began 3 years ago, while I was sojourning in
Hawaii. During this visit, I met, friended, and worked with local artists and movers & shakers of the island’s protocultural
movement centered around Kakaako, including architect and entrepreneur Jason Selley, food truck and
pop-up event start-up, Poni and Brandon Askew, Jasper Wong, the founder and organizer of the highly popular,
global street-art event “Pow Wow”, local art and cultural patrons Larry and Matt Heim, and many others.
Prototropic, started as an aftermath of these unforgettable travels and encounters; to highlight pivotal ecology,
potent players, stories, and creative output and diversity of the local population throughout emerging, tropical and
subtropical cities around the globe.
Mahalo and obrigato, from Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY, D.K., November 2015
the 21st century will be the age of emerging cities;
the resource rich cities; the global, tropical, and
sub-tropical cities
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ® / COPYRIGHT © 2015 XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L.

IMAGE: ‘Hang Loose’ with the children of favela in Tijucina, Rio de Janeiro.

Lindsea Kemp Wilbur | Honolulu
HOT TROPICS
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 28
DON’T SPEAK
HAWAIIAN TO ME
LINDSEA WILBUR
“You read about the
Hawaiian Dream on
an in-flight magazine.
Immediately you were
overcome, clutching
at the glossy rag of a
publication while longing
to stand on the fertile
land with bare feet...”
...watch the sun undress behind the rolling hills
extending into the sea, and wait for the moon to
rise over the cliffs. You could sense the sand that
feels only slightly warmer than the moist air, which,
incidentally, smells like plumeria blossoms 1 . You
felt you were destined to play in the Royal Coconut
Grove 2 and drink the nectar of the gods. You yearned
to get high on immortality, wake up alone at dawn
to swim in a crystalline bay all to yourself and go to
bed sandy, smoky, as if in a dream. A seduction took
place a warm, fresh glow, making you hunger to
know the secret of how this place exists.
1. Common flower used in Lei making; wearing Hawaiian Plumeria under the ear
is popular accessory for women in Hawaii.
2. A picturesque courtyard on the front lawn of the ‘Royal Hawaiian Hotel’.

IMAGE: Illustrations from Hawaii’s tourism brochure, 50’s era

‘OLELO
MOE’
UHANE
*Hawaiian Dream

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
This dream is for romantics and lovers.
Certainly the dream isn’t the sum of the colorful
patterns of Hawaiian shirts, coconut bras and grass
skirts alone. It’s not in the Pina Colada, or the Surfer
on Acid. The boutiques of Waikiki teeming with
Japanese tourists, those we can ignore all together,
laugh at their circumstance. The accoutrements
of hustle and bustle such as these have all been
and will continue to be part of the Great Marketing
image of a Paradise, and everyday life grows like
fruit bearing vines in the cracks of the pavement; an
American, homogenized culture sitting heavy like
cheap fried food in the belly. But the dream-selling
developers and real estate agents can sense it. The
Hawaiian Dream is here (In the 80s, mostly, so was
the real estate money).
It overwhelms you, and you’re left to ask, how did
this place come to be? How is it that some volcano in
the middle of the Pacific ocean exploded in this exact
spot? How did the birds survive, how did the soil
get ground down from the spiky lava? How did the
plants grow? This is paradise on Earth. This is the
Hawaiian Dream.
Hot damn, talk about freak volcanic eruptions and
even freakier ornithological survival rates.
Sitting on a jet plane to Waikiki, you read about
Cook’s first impressions of Hawai’i, discovered—

IMAGE:“Visitors from Another World” by Herb Kawainui Kane

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 33
goddess of love while working as a surveyor for the Royal Navy: “On the first day of December [1778] ... he
recognized that he was raising the greatest of all the islands he had discovered: what the natives appeared to call,
and Cook wrote, “Owhyhee.”
By the next morning they were close in to the spectacular shore of massive cliffs, spines of land piercing into
headlands, white streaks of great waterfalls tumbling into the white surf, more rivers emerging from deep valleys.
Once inland, they saw ravines with thundering torrents, a landscape of mixed barrenness and fruitfulness, a
pocked landscape rising slowly and then higher and higher to the summits that were snow-capped.
Snow in the tropics!
Another new discovery, another new paradox. Here, it seemed, was another rich land, and far greater in extent
than even Tahiti. Through a telescope, thousands of natives could be seen pouring from their dwellings and their
places of work, and streaming towards the cliff tops to stare out and hold aloft white strips of cloth as if greeting a
new messiah 1 .
Let me tell you a little something. When the ancient Hawaiians saw James Cook on the HMS Endeavor pulling into
Kealakekua Bay, they hailed him as the lost god of war and wordplay, Lono. This god, according to legend, sailed
away from Hawai’i into the blue Pacific, a horizon as distant as the cosmos, wracked by self hatred for killing his
wife. The comparison to the god probably rang true to Captain Cook, a man high as a damn kite off his own thrusts
into the wild unknown.
Tales tell of opportunistic sailors spreading venereal diseases and feasting on pig until one of them died. The
Hawaiians, realizing the mortality of the white man, knew the jig was up. History neglects to tell us of the mystical,
perhaps Cook, channeling powers stronger than himself, had kava-induced visions of the future he was creating,
of Waikiki’s high rises and luxury hotels, of the Hawaiian Dream and where exactly it would go. Of your ass on a jet
plane cushion. We’ll never know. The spear entered his pearly flesh, and writ in history it appears as just another
embarrassing mistake made by an ego-tripping business man. Meanwhile, driven by trade and economy,
1. Richard Hough, ‘The Last Voyage of Captain Cook’

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur
34
WHEN THE ANCIENT
HAWAIIANS SAW JAMES
COOK ON THE HMS
ENDEAVOR PULLING
INTO KEALAKEKUA BAY,
THEY HAILED HIM AS THE
LOST GOD OF WAR AND
WORDPLAY, LONO... THIS
GOD, THE COMPARISON
TO THE GOD PROBABLY
RANG TRUE TO CAPTAIN
COOK, A MAN HIGH AS A
DAMN KITE OFF HIS OWN
THRUSTS INTO THE WILD
UNKNOWN...
RIGHT: “Death of Captain James Cook” by Johann Zoffany

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 37
England methodically industrialized herself, and the New World colonies were in heated rebellion. Following Cook,
came Captain Simon Metcalfe. He was an Englishman turned American, a mercenary willing to work for whoever
or whatever would give him the highest profit. After taking the Eleanora and the more tender Fair American from
the Pacific Northwest to China, a the while turning a decent profit on furs and exploring the fairness between
Chinese thighs, he took a planned detour through the Pacific to stop in Hawai’i.
Hawai’i was only beginning to take her first tastes of the West, forging the path that would cart missionaries,
explorers, writers on giant treacherous ships, then cruise liners, and finally on jet planes. Half way over the
Pacific, it’s a path you were well on your way to continue.
To the Hawaiian tribe of Olowalu becoming acquainted with Metcalfe’s pale European skin, it tasted like canon
balls. In this day it tastes more like high fructose corn syrup.
Do you believe in paradise? What if Captains James Cook and Simon Metcalfe contracted a nasty case of
dysentery and while they were shitting over the edge of the boat missed the pristine beaches and naked hula
girls? Would you still be sipping Mai Tais next to an overweight couple from Texas, on your way to Waikiki, a
foreigner seduced yet again by musk of the Hawaiian dream?
Once a sleepy village on the dry plains near perfect surf break, Honolulu is what it is today because it possessed the
only bay in the island chain that could bare entry to those deep hulled merchant ships. Thus was born Honolulu the City.
Early Chinese immigrants built Chinatown soon after. Eventually you could buy a Hawaiian hooker there for a single nail
Pay a visit to the Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu, you’ll find the only royal palace in America where monarchs
lived and ruled, a humble structure that Marie Antoinette’s would’ve loved to play “peasant girl” in.
You can gaze at the office of the last ruling monarch of Hawai’i, King Kalakaua, known as the Merry Monarch.
It’s equipped with one of the first telephones, overflowing with books. The king spoke fluent English and was
the first ruling monarch in the world’s history to travel around the world personally, discovering continents,
convening with philosophers and kings alike. He was received with honor in the courts of England and met—
LEFT: Crowned Princess Victoria Kaiulani, 1891

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur
38
ABOVE: King Kalakaua and his staff on the footsteps of Iolani Palace
with the president of America often. A practical visionary, Iolani Palace was the first to boast electric lights
and indoor plumbing. Six ancient kings ruled over a united Hawaiian people before the time of Kalakaua and his
electric lights and Western philosophers. Long ago, when Hawaii was governed by many separate chiefs, it was
written in the early Hawaiian legends a great warrior would unite the islands, and a light in the sky would indicate
his birth. The prophecy was fulfilled: Hailey’s commit soared over the quiet beaches and coconut groves in 1758
and, coincidence or not, King Kamehameha (meaning “the lonely one”) was born.
By the time both Cook and Metcalfe had arrived, 20 year old Kamehameha was in the process of conquering the 9
islands to replace the 9 separate warring chieftains. Thanks to western weapons, Kamehameha, in 1810, was able
to conquer the islands. Was it a mistake now to have greeted Cook as the god of war?
John Young and Isaac Davis, kidnapees from Metcalfe’s ship, joined Kamehameha as official advisors. Both from
a small village outside of Leeds in the south of England, these advisors to the king were born worse than working

class. With nothing better to do, they jumped on a ship leaving home without a look back, worked their way up
to managerial positions, only to find themselves curiously kidnapped and made chief advisor by a leader of nation
only known to exist in the Western world a few years before. The going got weird.
After the several generations of the Kamehameha dynasty, King Lunalilo, Kalakaua, and, finally, his sister, Queen
Liliuokalani (meaning “flower of heaven”) ruled.
The last princess of Hawaii set to take over the thrown from Queen Liliuokalani was Kaiulani (meaning “last
hope”). The first monarch given European education, she not only knew the customs and history of Hawaii, but
read literature and philosophy in several languages and was familiar with social graces of foreign courts. She was
heralded for her exotic beauty. Her gentle spirit and cool grace won her Hawaiian and European admirers alike.
Robert Louis Stevenson, during his many visits to Waikiki, would often sit wit her under their favorite banyon tree,
talking long into the night light while Kalakaua’s electric lights illuminated the palace grounds.

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 41
THE AMERICAN
PERPETRATED
HAWAIIAN CULTURAL
GENOCIDE. YOU COULD
FIND GENERATIONS
OLD STONE A POI
POUNDERS IN PAWN
SHOPS. HULA WAS
OUTLAWED, AND
SIGNS HUNG AROUND
CHILDREN’S NECK
READING “DON’T SPEAK
HAWAIIAN TO ME.”
LEFT: Traditional Hawaiian Hula dancers, early 20th century

Hot Tropics | Prototropic 0.1 / Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 42
Princess Kaiulani’s title taken, and Queen Liliuokalani’s reign cut short, the Hawaiian leaders were
imprisoned in their own palace room by the American troops in the last years of the 19th century. Sugar
cane plantation owners needed lower tariffs and guaranteed stability.
So the annexation of Hawaii began and to this day, you can find the quilt Liliuokalani sewed while
American guards stood with bayonets by the door.
The Hawaiian monarchs lost their people’s land but saved their nation from the violence that surely would
have occurred if they were to resist. The American military base was well established. Hawai’i was an
asset America needed. The same year Hawai’i became a territory, a province in the American empire,
Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City, voting machines were instituted in US federal
elections, students at the UC Berkeley stole the Stanford Axe from Stanford University at the Big Game,
the first woman was executed in an electric chair, Dreyfus got pardoned in Paris, and the paper clip was
patented. Cue the American perpetrated Hawaiian cultural genocide. You could find generations old stone
poi pounders in pawn shops. Hula was outlawed, and signs hung around children’s neck reading:
“Don’t speak Hawaiian to me.”
In 1959, 60 years after the death of the Princess “Last Hope”, Hawai’i became a state of America. In 1964,
the U.S. business men cum politicians decided to pump up tourism in Hawai’i after the collapse of the
sugar industry.
Where is the Hawaiian dream now? You got off the plane and stepped out of the cab into Waikiki. The sun
set behind perfectly curling swells. There are high rises with glass balconies, homeless men and women
sleeping on their backs, bloated stomachs, tourists with plastic leis, mai tais, banyon trees housing
chattering birds, lions roaring in the zoo... A potent energy concentrated in the land yields high real
estate prices and a spiritual inebriation. Half drunk on mystical revelations weaving through the mature
landscaping, a prostitute approached you:
IMAGE: Lobby of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel

“Hey baby.”
You stopped to ask, “How long you been here?”
“Born and raised,” she responded, twirling her bleach blond hair in her long nailed fingers.
“Where you staying?”
“The Royal Hawaiian.”
“Great choice. Believe me. I know every hotel like the back of my hand.”
You left her to attend to business and entered the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian. You lose your breath. High ceilings.
Pink columns. Ocean view. Light fixtures that dropped your jaw. Upstairs in the bathroom you took a hot shower
and gazed out at the royal coconut grove, visions of King Kamehameha sitting with advisors John Young and Isaac
Davis in deep discussion as trade booms in Honolulu. Faded in the elegance of the atmosphere for a second you
felt, truly, just like a Royal Hawaiian. LKW
Do you believe in paradise?… Would you still be
sipping Mai Tais next to an overweight couple from
Texas, on your way to Waikiki, a foreigner seduced
yet again by musk of the Hawaiian dream?
†. Hot Tropics, Lindsea Kemp Wilbur 2015

Kazi Ashraf | Honolulu
METROPHILIA
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 46
LOVE OF THE
HORIZON LINE
KAZI ASHRAF
“It is the year 2015. There
is an unprecedented
building boom in Hawaii.
The construction of the
new rail has just begun.
The district of Kaka’ako †
in Honolulu is brimming
with youth, arts, new
business, and chaos...”
D. What is your perspective on all the changes that
are taking place in Hawaii? 1
K. I think this is a very interesting time. Some
architects now describe it as a new Renaissance.
The first time I came here some 12 years ago, I saw
different things. I read a piece in the weekly “City
Paper” that was titled “10 most ugly buildings in
Honolulu”
D. I think I do recall that article.
†. In Hawaiian, means “dull or slow”; once heavily industrial and relatively
unpopulated waterfront city, located between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki
beach. The land is owned by various power players in Hawaii, including
Kamehameha School, Office of Hawiian Affairs, and the state,
1.As of 2015, 30 new high rise buildings are planned for Kakaako (with more on
the horizon), including residential, commercial, and office towers according to
Hawaii Community Development Authority, the agency in charge of planning and
zoning in the area.

High-rise construction in Kakaako, Honolulu HI

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 48
K. I was kind of stunned, after having lived in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. I haven’t encountered media
really taking a hard look at ugly buildings. The piece in the weekly made me think, is that the core of the
conversation here? It was not a discourse, the conversation was about the ugliest building. And that was kind of a
dark thing to think about.
So I think the conversation is shifting with all the new things that are possibly happening right now, Kaka’ako
especially, and other developments in town and with the rail projects slowly lumbering on. Whether it is a
“Renaissance” and all that, I am not sure. But certainly, there is a new building momentum, but also along with it a
conversation around it. I think interesting conversations are happening.
I haven’t encountered media really taking a hard
look at “ugly buildings”. Because that made me think,
is that the center of the conversation here in Hawaii?
Queen st., Kakaako, Honolulu HI

K. I am going to add something else. On the one hand, there is this conversation around the new developments,
and as you know the rail projects have heated debates either way. Whatever the point of view is, it is a good
debate, about the nature of the city, about the form of the rail projects and the stations, and the stations will be
the new epicenter of developments and new loci of energy for the city. But before we cite Kaka’ako, or similar
developments in town, especially the two towers of the Design Center that was completed 6-7 years ago… before
claiming them as new Renaissance of sorts, we need to talk about them a bit more. Because these sorts of tall
buildings as representatives of a building boom, as a new urban energy, I have a little question about these. Unless
we are careful, just tall buildings by themselves, no matter how stunning they are, I am not sure how deeply
effective they will be in the urban environment. At the end, they might look like a lot of ‘Titanics’ drifting around
aimlessly in a sea of unremarkable-ness.
D. Yes, despite all the boom and what it has created (sea of tall buildings), they are more or less unremarkable and
doesn’t necessarily add value to the city. Time will tell if much of these additional buildings would have any lasting,
positive effect on the island.
I suspect negative.

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 50
‘Artwalk’, a popular monthly community event, Chinatown, Honolulu HI

Unless we are careful, just tall buildings by
themselves, no matter how stunning they are, I am
not sure how deeply effective they will be in the
urban environment. At the end, they might look like
a lot of ‘Titanics’ drifting around aimlessly in a sea of
unremarkable-ness...
K. Well by themselves there may be something. What I am saying is that the tall buildings by themselves, however
stunning they are, cannot claim to be a measure of contribution to the urban environment. I will say this in a
different way. The city is a relentless battle between private profit making and civic obligations. We know that.
It’s not news. And tall buildings are clearly the type where the profit making manifest. Formally, it is a visible
representation of profit making and I am not against that. That is how the economy operates.
The tall building versus the city. It has come down to that. I see this as a conflict that has not really been resolved,
not only in Honolulu, not even anywhere in the world. Maybe in some degree Hong Kong was able to deal with it in
a more resolved way, maybe Manhattan in its own way has dealt better with the conflict between what I would call
“Metrophilia”, my term, a love of a city, a horizontal experience of the city, how I walk the city, how I engage with
civic and urban offering, versus what I called “Phallophilia”! Yes, the love of things erect and a stands alone. So
Metrophilia versus Phallophilia, and that is how modern city has come down to and that is an old debate and has
not been resolved.

K. In Honolulu, as you walk by these huge parking garages, they are totally
dissociated from street life. The Metrophilia involves the street. Tall buildings,
in its kind of most basic way, doesn’t care about street, you drive into your
parking garage and you go to your unit. Unless this is resolved via design,
we are going to see this as a conflict.
So that is how modern city has come down to and that is an old debate and
has not been resolved.
D. I think much of the intensities going towards the real estate
developments in high rises are driven by financial speculations and short
term profit and immediate discussion is needed to determine the long term
impacts of these developments.
K. Well first of all, I am not quite sure the total ramifications of new
developments, centered around high-rises, I don’t know any complex
being built, or any integrated as a district have been built, I think the whole
thing is about high rises, so its impacts haven’t been discussed much. So
are high rises are going to be the only discussion regarding economy and
urban development?
Are there other models that doesn’t include high-rises right away and
that is something we need to discuss and that leads us to another topic
which you have laid out that as the tilt of your journal itself, the tropic, the
“tropical city.” I think the whole question of tropical city is key… because
the kind of model of the city being reproduced in Honolulu, have been built
elsewhere, like Dubai or Shanghai, so that’s one kind of model and that
mode is generated by economy, and not quite driven by civic obligations.
So going back, what kind of city Honolulu is, that is the question.

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 53
“METROPHILIA”, MY
TERM, A LOVE OF A
CITY, A HORIZONTAL
EXPERIENCE OF
THE CITY; HOW I
WALK THE CITY;
HOW I ENGAGE
WITH CIVIC AND
URBAN OFFERING,
VS, WHAT I CALLED
“PHALLOPHILIA”!,
THE LOVE OF
THINGS ERECT AND
A STANDS ALONE.
Kakaako Skyline, Honolulu HI

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 54
Commissioned graffiti art in Cook St., Kakaako, Honolulu HI
D. Vladimir Ossipoff’s legacy played a significant role in the establishment of modern architecture authorship
in Hawaii, do you feel that he’s work was an exception or has his influence crated a distinct imprint that is still
relevant?
K. Well definitely we have not encountered anyone of the stature of Ossipoff after Ossipoff. Although Ossipoff has
designed mostly residences, and few civic and institutional buildings, he has produced a fantastic language in
combining modern Hawaiian tropical and Asian traditions that have not been surpassed. So after Ossipoff, shall
we say we have little to show? Well, there has been decent architecture, but they are not significant in the sense of
Ossipoff nor have they taken on the challenges of our times.
D. Its interesting because one of the project in this issue is David Rockwood’s tropical case study house. The TCSH
Program (by Rockwood) challenges architects to build within limitation and opportunities of a tropical environment.
It has always been my view that only real requirements for the design of a house in Hawaii is a roof and a floor. Yet

D. the vast majority of architecture in Hawaii are built with the same tradition and construction techniques used in
cities with seasonal weather conditions
Yet, despite his sensitivity to regionalism, Ossipoff did not embraced environment heartedly.
K. Well Honolulu is not a small city. And it has many districts and neighborhoods and building types. I am sitting
here in the neighborhood of Makiki, in a much older house, with a porch, lawn, lot of vegetation, lot like living in a
pavilion. Which is what you want -- the pavilion type, as a building model for hot, humid, tropical places, because
in a pavilion, you allow breezes to pass through, you have views, green vegetation. But that does not mean you can
build a pavilion in all urban situations because of tighter lot sizes, parcels, and what have you, and therefore, its a
challenge, which is what David is trying, which Ossipoff in a more sort of generous site and land was able to do in
a beautiful way.

CAPTION
HAWAII 1
INSERT IMAGE OF A HULA
GIRL IN GRASS SKIRT

CAPTION
HAWAII 2
INSERT IMAGE OF A SANDY
BEACH WITH PALM TREES

Metrophilia | Prototropic 0.1 / Kazi Ashraf 58
The challenge is when you are working on a tighter urban condition, how do you translate a pavilion in such
situations, which has been the challenge and I don’t see any examples really that has taken that up.
D. In regards to Honolulu within a global context, do you think that the perception of Hawaii gives an unrealistic or
negative expectation about the city?
K. Well that is an interesting question that could take different direction.
D. Well the most common generalization about Hawaii is that it is an isolated island, beautiful, but devoid of any
real city and lacks contemporary and modern conveniences.
And these are some of the more milder speculations I have heard throughout the years.
There was a recent, Chicago Tribune article, stating a similar view about Hawaii’s bid for Obama’s presidential
library:
“With no insult to Hawaii’s respect for the life of the mind, it’s fair to say that very few people go there in fierce
pursuit of book learning.”
K. Well that opens up a big question, whether it is geopolitical if you will or geographic location of Hawaii, we
are one of the most isolated spots on the planet, but does that matter in our present day nature of mobility and
connectivity, why does it matter?
I don’t know if that is a problem of isolation, but I wouldn’t call it a negative connotation of Hawaii, but how
Hawaii has been imagined, invented, connected, and circulated for the last hundred years or so, the present
perception of Hawaii falls into that pattern, and that is the view of a landscape of paradise, and paradise is
translated immediately, architecturally speaking, with a coconut and palm trees, and all that stuff, you know the,
‘exoticization’ of the primitive.
Homeless man in Kalakaua ave, one of the most heavily populated st. in Hawaii
and favorite tourist spot*
*Coinciding with the rise in real estate development and subsequent rise in cost
of housing, homelessness is a critical problem in Hawaii. According to the State
Department of Human Services, homelessness in Hawaii increased by 43% since
year 2014.

the present perception of Hawaii falls into
that pattern, and that is the view of society of
paradise, and paradise is translated immediately,
architecturally speaking, with a coconut and palm
trees, and all that stuff, you know the, ‘exoticization’
of the primitive.

†. Metrophilia, Kazi Ashraf 2015

K. That is a challenge.
If you want Hawaii to be claiming a distinctive position in the community of cities, it is a dichotomy. Meaning that
you want to be considered as another kind of a city, say like Singapore, that we are a major economic destination,
etc. Whoever wants to deal with that city, whether planners, architects, or policy makers… how to make Honolulu
distinctive and contemporary, and really understand city form, social equality, all that, no, that is missing in the
conversation… not only missing in the conversation, but missing in the production.
D. I think Hawaii should have a different PR then the one used for tourism.
Thank you for your time and for interesting discussion.
K. Mahalo (Thank you).
I think the whole question of tropical city is
key… because the kind of model of the city being
reproduced in Honolulu, have been built elsewhere...
IBM building designed by Vladmir Ossipoff, Kakaako, Honolulu HI

David Rockwood | Honolulu / Dimitri Damiel Kim | Honolulu + New York
REFLECTIONS:
CASE STUDY
HOUSE PROGRAM
TROPICAL CASE
STUDY HOUSE
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Reflection: Case Study House Program | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim
64
HOUSE IS A
DECORATED SHACK
DIMITRI DAMIEL KIM
“Agreeing that the whole
matter is surrounded by
conditions over which
few of us have any
control, certainly we can
develop a point of view
and do some organized
thinking, which might
come to a practical end † .”
The original program for the ‘Case Study House’
(1945-1966) 1 , organized by the Art and Architecture
magazine, was perhaps a single most important
intervention that attributed to experimentation and
realization of some of the 20th century’s treasured
modernist architecture and architecture of housing.
While this event/phenomenon is considered an
exception within the history of modern and American
architecture, CSH program has never-the-less,
became a highly influential, educational model for
design and research of contemporary architecture.
†. Case Study House Program, John Entenza, Art & Architecture 1949
1. Out of 36 deigns that were proposed from the program, 26 were built,
including Stahl House (pictured right), Eame’s House, and Chuey House

Case Study House No. XXII | Stahl House | PIERRE KOENIG, 1960

Reflection: Case Study House Program | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim 66
Case Study House No. IX / Entenza House / EERO SAARINEN & CHARLES EAMES, 1949

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48
“…Perhaps we will
cling the longest to
the symbol of house
as we have know it, or
perhaps we will realize
that in accommodating
ourselves to a new world
the most important step
in avoiding retrogression
into the old”
After nearly 65 years later, legacy of the Case Study
House has become a mere fable; a history lesson
told to the younger generation of architects of how
good the Woodstock really was and that there will
never be another one like it. However unprecedented
and idealized the CSH appears to be today, the
original program, the vision and execution was
rather practical 1
The program outlined a set of rules for handful of
select architects (friend and contemporaries of the
editor John Entenza) to produce series of houses to
be built in southern California for select
CONTINUED ON PAGE 52
1. The program espoused the “measurement of the average man’s living standards”,
hence, practicality was one of the main requisite for all designs

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51
include sites beyond southern California to Arizona
before finally ending in 1964.
The project, whether built or not, was to be
documented and published with full plans and
details with the purpose of being built later or to be
used as a model towards the design of other houses.
The program also included the requirement for the
housing to be affordable and the construction of
the houses to be relatively easy and duplicable. At
the end of the program, 36 prototype houses were
created, with astounding 26 of them being built 2 .
Whether it was the spirit of its time or perhaps it
was mostly about collective expression of modernity,
The CSH program did not include any specific
consideration for climate as a requirement. At the
time (or perhaps still is), the consensus among
modernists’ and their proponent’s attitude toward
climate and natural environment was primarily
indifferent and if not, cold.
However, did climate have any influence in the
design of the case study houses? Was the moderate
climate of Southern California a factor in the success
(or ease) of the design?
It is hard to argue that
CONTINUED ON PAGE 55
1. Foregoing of past traditions and embrace of “contemporary ideas”, including
new building materials and styles were part of the program’s prescription
2. Number of Houses in the series, including CSH No.17, 18, 20, 21 were followed
by second variation of the previous house; the last 2 CSH houses were Apts.

Reflection: Case Study House Program | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim
69
AFTER NEARLY 65
YEARS LATER, LEGACY
OF THE CASE STUDY
HOUSE HAS BECOME
A FABLE; A HISTORY
LESSON TOLD TO THE
YOUNGER GENERATION
OF ARCHITECTS OF HOW
GOOD THE WOODSTOCK
REALLY WAS AND THAT
THERE WILL NEVER BE
ANOTHER ONE LIKE IT
Case Study House No. VIII / Eames House / RAY AND CHARLES EAMES, 1949

MOD
ERNITY
TROPI
CANA
LEFT: Downtown Honolulu HI | RIGHT: Hawaii Kai HI

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 52
significance of the CSH program belongs to the
modern discourse and history of modernity, but the
bold attempt and sheer inventiveness of the program
and its output, namely, the collectivization of design
efforts and creation of projects as prototypes,
crosses any traditions or pedagogy and deserves a
further study and execution toward future discourse.
Tropical Case Study House program and the design
for Tropical Case Study House I (TCSH No. 1) by
Rockwood, seeks a re-appraisal of the original CSH
program, with expanded consideration towards local
environment, culture, and climate.
While the original CSH program focused on
modernity as the determining factor for producing
ideal architecture for the masses, Tropical Case
Study House program is centered around unique
living conditions of tropical residents. Accordingly,
the TCSH No.I design seeks to adopt the design of
indigenous tropical house 1 as a model for directly
addressing the issue of tropical climate.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 57
1. The indigenous house by native Hawaiian people was built around sensitivity to
local climate, environment, and culture, which included the use of open outdoor/
indoor space (wall-less) and use of native plants and wild life for building materials

Reflection: Case Study House Program | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim
72
Tropical Case Study House No. 1 / Elevation / DAVID ROCKWOOD, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55
Whether it was the spirit
of its time or perhaps
it was mostly about
collective expression
of modernity, The
CSH program did not
include any specific
consideration for
climate as a requirement
Case Study House No. 1 is driven by the need to
minimize necessary elements in the design of a
typical housing that requires insulation, barrier for
heat/cold, and mechanical systems for heating and
cooling in the summer and winter 1 .
TCSH No.1 is a prototype for ideal built environment
in tropical setting and TCSH program is more
then just a different flavor of the original Case
Study House program, but an impetus for further
collectivization of avant-garde ideas in architecture
of housing and its practical application towards the
masses.
1. Without the need for space and placement of additional elements for cold weather,
the design of TCSH No.1 is built around open interior with removable/operable and
louvered partition walls to maximize passive cooling for all year warm weather

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood 75
TROPICAL
CASE STUDY HOUSE
DAVID ROCKWOOD
The Tropical Case Study House Program is inspired by the Arts + Architecture magazine model. Houses will be
designed by invited top architects, with each built by a client on a site of their choice. The indigenous tropical
house provides a close fit with climate, culture, and environmentally friendly building practices. Unfortunately
few indigenous houses remain, and most have been replaced by modern houses that use inappropriate
materials, have high energy consumption, and do not fit cultural patterns. A properly designed tropical house
can protect the occupants from the extremes of wind, sun, and rain, but at the same time connect them to
the environment. One of the joys of tropical living are sitting in the shade, feeling the trade wind breeze, and
contemplating the natural setting.
The Tropical Case Study House Program seeks to provide the impetus for reinventing the tropical house, using
lessons of indigenous architecture, and updating the designs to best fit the needs of contemporary life. Many
desire some modern conveniences, and yet simultaneously to live more simply and with a closer connection
to nature. This then is the challenge to the invited architects, to propose innovative design solutions best fitting
contemporary cultural needs, exemplary building practices, and fit with the tropical climate. For the initial phase
of the program, houses are proposed for construction in Hawaii. This will allow a tour program of the houses.
Later houses may be built in other tropical locations.
TCSH 1 Program

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood
76
The Tropical Case Study House program seeks to reinvent the tropical house, extending the pioneering work
elaborated by Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry in their book Tropical Architecture of 1964. The authors cite specific
strategies to provide comfort in dry and humid tropical zones, such as siting, typology, shading, and ventilation.
Little research has since been conducted to extend these basic principles and finding solutions matching current
needs for appropriate ways of living in relation to the tropical natural environment. Most contemporary tropical
housing adapts designs used in other climate zones, resulting in the need to use mechanical space conditioning to
provide basic comfort, thus isolating occupants from their surroundings. (continued)
TCSH Sketch Study 2 / DAVID ROCKWOOD, 2015

Boettcher-estate’ residence by Vladimir Ossipoff, 1937; the house became a typical model for single family residence in Hawaii.

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
In contrast, the indigenous tropical house provides a
close fit with climate, culture, and ecologically sound
building practices. A typical indigenous house uses
a large overhanging roof to protect the occupants
from the extremes of sun and rain, a narrow floor
plate, unrestricted plan, and open frame structure
to maximize ventilation, and a raised floor to protect
the building and occupants from ground moisture
and flooding 1 . At the same time, indigenous houses
open up to the environment and bring about a closer
connection to nature.
The design of Tropical Case Study House No. I sought
to incorporate and evolve key features identified by
Drew and Frey and as seen in indigenous houses.
The floor of the house is raised above the ground to
protect from groundwater and increase ventilation.
Concrete piers act as an extension of the terra
firma, and reduce to linear elements adjustable to
varying topography.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 68
Indigenous Native Hawaiian Shack
1. Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew,
Batsford 1956

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood
79
TCSH Sketch Study 2 / DAVID ROCKWOOD, 2015

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood
80
Little research has since
been conducted to extend
these basic principles
and finding solutions
matching current needs for
appropriate ways of living
in relation to the tropical
natural environment.

TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE I
David Rockwood | 2015
Exploded axo (Left) | Axonometric (Right)

Cross Section
1 Steel Tension Rod
2 Central Mast
3 Suspended Canopy Roof
4 Steel Brace
5 Movable/Removable Exterior Walls

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 62
The archetypal tropical house frame structure was
minimized to erase the vertical boundary condition
of the house, opening it to view, breezes, and nature.
The structure is an “umbrella” form with a central
mast and suspended canopy roof. Such a structure
reduces the mass of vertical elements, and places
the columns toward the center of the building.
Stainless steel tension rod diagonal braces provide
needed lateral load resistance while maintaining
maximum transparency.
Most contemporary
tropical housing
adapts designs used
in other climate zones,
resulting in the need to
use mechanical space
conditioning to provide
basic comfort, thus
isolating occupants from
their surroundings.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 77

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood
85
TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE I
David Rockwood | 2015
Elevation Render 1

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood 86
TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE I
David Rockwood | 2015
Exterior Render 1

Floor Plan
1 Master Bedroom
2 Closet
3 Master Bathroom
4 Bedroom
5 Bathroom
6 Kitchen
7 Dining Room
8 Living Room

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood
90
The Tropical Case Study
House Program seeks to
provide the impetus for
reinventing the tropical
house, using lessons of
indigenous architecture,
and updating the designs
to best fit the needs of
contemporary life

TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE I
David Rockwood | 2015
Interior Render

Tropical Case Study House | Prototropic 0.1 / David Rockwood 92
TROPICAL CASE STUDY HOUSE I
David Rockwood | 2015
Exterior Render 2

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 68
The house is conceived as a modified pavilion type
using a “porous” central core. Siding louvered doors
allow the house to open for light and ventilation or be
closed for security or during inclement weather.
While many people desire some modern
conveniences in their house, they will often wish to
return to living modestly and simply. As a response,
the house is made relatively small, and contains
a limited number of spaces and technological
devices. Overall, the design seeks to provide for a
rich and connected, unfolding of life in the tropics
using a minimum of means. Indeed, less may still
be more.
“A properly designed
tropical house can
connect occupants to
the environment”
END OF ARTICLE
†. Tropical Case Study House, David Rockwood 2014

Raul Correa-Smith | Rio de Janeiro
FLUID CITY
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Fluid City | Prototropic 0.1 / Raul Correa-Smith 96
CONTRAST &
CONTRADICTIONS
RAUL CORREA-SMITH
From an outsider’s
perspective, Rio de Janeiro
is a city of contrast
and contradiction: the
picturesque paradise of
sandy beaches, natural
landscapes, and beautiful
women, inscribed in
songs of Bossa Nova and
samba...
...set against the backdrop of endemic poverty,
violence, rising metropolis, and future home of
summer Olympic 2016, inseparably nestled between
growing favelas † .
D. How accurate or inaccurate is this view of Rio?
R. An accurate view of Rio cannot be properly
described within a sentence or two. It is undoubtedly
one the most beautiful cities in the world, home
to three of the largest urban forests 1 in the planet.
I would also agree that Rio is indeed a city of
incredible contrasts, both positive and–
†. Favela, also spelled favella, a slum or shantytown located within or on the
outskirts of the country’s large cities, especially Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. A
favela typically comes into being when squatters occupy vacant land at the edge
of a city and construct shanties of salvaged or stolen materials.
1.The Tijuca Forest (“Floresta da Tijuca” in Portuguese) is a tropical rainforest
in the city of Rio de Janeiro, claimed to be the world’s largest urban forest. It
is located in a mountainous region, which encompasses the Tijuca Massif. The
word Tijuca from the Tupi language means “marsh”.

Affluent, gated neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca in South Zones, Rio de Janeiro

What has been happening in the past decade or
so in Brazil is exactly a great shift towards more
equality, while in the US it is going in the opposite
direction, the gap between rich and poor is
increasing

Fluid City | Prototropic 0.1 / Raul Correa-Smith 99
negative, but the positive outweigh greatly the negative. What always perseveres despite the hardships is people’s
generosity.
Rio suffered for decades with the loss of its status as capital and its economic importance to São Paulo, all of this
while the military dictatorship’s greatest repression was in Rio, its cultural capital. It has only been a decade or so
that Rio re-emerged from its slump. There is a lot of catching up to do, with major improvements to the city fabric
and the need for a robust infrastructural system which can account for all residents equally, a nearly impossible
task given the rate of growth the city has experienced during these stagnant decades, but that should be the goal
ultimately.
There are projects currently underway and mostly fueled by the upcoming Olympics that will greatly increase
capillarity in our mass transportation system and will alleviate the commute times for the millions who live beyond
the South Zone. The city should become more democratic as a result, more fluid. This fluidity of movement through
the city is already happening in many of the favelas in the south zone, which have become destinations and
have opened up new forms of exchange and dialog. So the city is moving in the right direction, becoming more
accessible and healthy as a result. Of course the challenges are immense but it is a good start.
D. Qualities such as apathy, indifference, and cynicism are boasted as trademarks of New Yorkers. You mentioned
that in Rio, the people persevere through “generosity”. Is this the ideal, people’s trademark of Rio? And like New
York, do you think the quality of the city of Rio (natural/built form, politics, opportunities, and etc) reflects directly
to the qualities the people value?
R. I don´t think there is a direct relationship to the qualities of the city, but surely there is a significant influence. I
think the connection is more social and cultural. When people think of Rio de Janeiro the association which comes
to mind is that of the postcard neighborhoods of the South Zone. But the population that lives in the South Zone is
a small percentage of the total population who live in areas that are far from the beaches, nature and amenities of
the South Zone, yet are kind and generous.
Favela in North Zone, Rio de Janeiro

BARRA DA TIJUCA
SOUTH ZONE
RIO DE JANEIRO

Fluid City | Prototropic 0.1 / Raul Correa-Smith 102
D. What are some of the biggest challenges facing Rio today?
R. Providing all residents the same rights to the city, proper infrastructure to allow for a healthy urban life. From
quality of education and health care to generous public spaces and quality of infrastructure which can attend to all
equally, independent of location (be it the suburbs, the city center, the post-card neighborhoods of the South Zone
and the more than one thousand favelas spread throughout the city).
D. I think the growing income inequality which often directly translates to inequality in many outlets of the city you
mentioned, is the epitome of our age. Do you think these challenges can ever be resolved?
R. Certainly. What has been happening in the past decade or so in Brazil is exactly a great shift towards more
equality, while in the US it is going in the opposite direction, the gap between rich and poor is increasing.
D. I remember hearing about a colleague who was working in Mexico and she mentioned that she would do most
of her work at local Starbucks because it was the only place near her apartment that had access to the internet.
That brought up an interesting instance of how large scale infrastructural need such as access to the internet is
met through globalization. Do you see this effect of globalization happening in Rio and is it mitigating/effecting the
challenges of infrastructure in any way?
R. In Brazil, internet access is not associated with global chains such as Starbucks. Internet access is wide spread
here (even though services are expensive and not that reliable) and the use of smart phones is a fast growing
market with more and more people having internet access through their cellphone.
Shores of Ipanema in the South Zone, Rio de Janeiro

I WOULD ALSO AGREE
THAT RIO IS INDEED A
CITY OF INCREDIBLE
CONTRASTS, BOTH
POSITIVE AND
NEGATIVE, BUT
THE POSITIVE
OUTWEIGH GREATLY
THE NEGATIVE.
WHAT ALWAYS
PERSEVERES DESPITE
THE HARDSHIPS
IS PEOPLE’S
GENEROSITY

TIJUCINA
NORTH ZONE
RIO DE JANEIRO

D. Will Rio ever be rid of favelas?
R. Definitely and thankfully not. The mentality and attitude towards favelas has shifted positively towards an
understanding that favelas are not bad in themselves. On the contrary, the social relations present in a favela are much
more tightly knit than in the formal city. People know and help each other, their ties to the place are much more rooted.
Favelas are places of rich cultural potency despite the organic and unplanned character of its urban infrastructure.
D. So the word favelas, should really be used as term for type of community, rather than type of condition the
people live in?
R. That´s right.
Favelas are places of rich cultural potency despite
the organic and unplanned character of its urban
infrastructure... word favelas, should really be used
as term for type of community, rather then type of
condition the people live in

Fluid City | Prototropic 0.1 / Raul Correa-Smith 107
D. Niemeyer played a role in establishment of architectural authorship in Rio. Do you feel that he’s work was an
exception or has his -work had any lasting impact?
R. Niemeyer did not help establish architectural authorship, other than his own. I think his influence is incredibly
relevant and present but it does not translate into a formal language that has evolved out of it. He opened up a
range of possibilities through his work as he is indeed one of Brazil’s most important architects, but his legacy to
the profession has not been one to spring out of it new talents. Niemeyer never taught architecture and as such did
not have a significant impact on the generations which followed him.
I don´t think there is a specific thread of architectural authorship which can describe architecture in Rio. The
issues at hand and their responses vary greatly.
Street level view of Tijucina favela, Rio de Janeiro

Fluid City | Prototropic 0.1 / Raul Correa-Smith 108
D. How would you describe the state of contemporary architecture in Rio in relations to your own work?
R. We have been conducting a series of lectures called Nova Arquitetura Carioca (New Carioca Architecture) in an
effort to map out some of the offices that are actively engaged and doing all kinds of projects throughout the city.
These lectures help us to understand the diversity of work currently under way in the city, many projects which
have not yet been completed but that will add a new layer to the urban character of the city.
D. Columbia University have established their global ‘Studio-X’ program in Rio where you are an active member.
Briefly describe their contribution to the discourse?
When people think of Rio de Janeiro the association
which comes to mind is that of the postcard
neighborhoods of the South Zone. But the population
that lives in the South Zone is a small percentage of
the total population
R. With spaces in Beijing, Istanbul, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Amman, São Paulo, Rio, and Tokyo, Studio-X’s main
mission is to think about the future of cities. In Rio, it provides a progressive platform for collaboration and
research through dialog between professionals, academics, students, citizens, entrepreneurs and decision
makers from all over the world. A neutral and open space for exchanges and debates through an intense
program of lectures, workshops and exhibitions, it has been located in the heart of the city center, at Praça
Tiradentes, since 2011.
Gondola view of Tijucina favela, Rio de Janeiro

†. Fluid City, Raul Correa-Smith 2015

D. What are some recent, notable activities at the Studio?
R. Last year Studio-X Rio collaborated with ITDP Brazil (The Institute for Transportation and Development) and
Transporte Ativo (a local NGO focused on non-motorized transportation) to develop a bicycle path network for
downtown Rio, called Ciclorotas. We conducted several workshops with bicycle riders, and surveys counting
the number and type of users on several streets in the downtown area, and measured street widths and vehicle
speeds to determine the most appropriate implementation for this network of 33 kilometers. This is project became
and exhibition and a booklet which was presented and embraced by the mayor, and it is being implemented by the
city. This is a crucial project to ensure more capillarity and safety for riders to commute to the city without having
to resort to a congested vehicle network. Mobility and mass-transportation are still among the most problematic
issues in cities and I think it will continue to be a critical issue for Rio as it gears toward the future.
D. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
R. Obrigato
This fluidity of movement through the city is
already happening in many of the favelas in the
south zone, which have become destinations and
have opened up new forms of exchange and dialog
Lapa, a popular district in North Zone, Rio de Janeiro

Dimitri Damiel Kim | Rio de Janeiro
FAVELA QUE
SAUDADE
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Favela que Saudade | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim
114
OURS IS THE
NEIGHBORHOOD
Popular culture and mainstream media has not been kind to favelas; films such as ‘City of God’ and ‘Elite Troops’ have
consistently portrayed the Brazilian slum as a place of perpetual poverty, crime, and violence. To combat this limited,
but dominant portrayal, the government of Brazil has increased police raids and drug crack downs in slums, as well as
making efforts to potentially demolish and raze favelas. Without questioning the political, social, and economic needs
to fix the slum, including stopping of violence and raising the standard of living for the poor, one should not dismiss
the organic and highly social edifice of favelas that is almost never seen from the outside; shops, businesses, children,
pets, and even tourists… there is life and vibrant communities in favelas, filled with dignity, creativity, and stout spirit
of the people.
Legal and illegal wires and cables connecting favelas with electricity and cable TV

Storefront shops in favela, Tijucina

Favela que Saudade | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim 119
OPPOSITE: Barber shop in favela, Tijucina, Rio / Trampoline parklet, Tijucina

Interior view of a typical domicile in favela, Tijucina

Favela que Saudade | Prototropic 0.1 / Dimitri Damiel Kim 123
OPPOSITE: People of favela, Tijucina, Rio / Children of favela, Tijucina

Corridors and street levels of favelas, Tijucina

†. Favela Que Saudade, Dimitri Damiel Kim 2015

Steven Sanchez | Rio de Janeiro
AAA FORRÓ
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

AAA Forró | Prototropic 0.1 / Steven Sanchez
128
TRIPLE A SPACE
FOR ALL
STEVEN SANCHEZ
Currently in Rio, there is a large demand for AAA office spaces1 for new and relocating companies moving to the city.
Consequentially, Rio De Janeiro’s office space has become the most expensive in Americas and the fourth highest in
the world. Access to AAA spaces has become a privileged mechanism for the few and limits accessibility and mobility
for the rest of local inhabitants. But what would it mean to give access to AAA spaces for everyone? What forms
would it take and how would it increase accessibility, effect culture, and seed an environment that provides mutual
infrastructure and amenities. This project seeks to use the current real-estate boom as a point of departure to reclassify
AAA space and allow their amenities to be accessible to the full population.
Programmatic scale and amplitudes with informal strategy map

PRE
MIUM
SPACE
LEFT: Site charge plan | RIGHT: Organically intermixed programs in favelas

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
But in a city where space is always at a premium,
what modes can we take and learn from within the
existing culture. Looking at some of Rio’s existing
spaces of business, leisure, and production, space
is typically occupied to the max with overlapping
program, infrastructure, and informal activity.
The diversity of these overlapping conditions and
relevant adjacency form an incredible cross section
for vibrant communities, social interactions, and
unique spatial conditions.
Seeking to re-appropriate this phenomenon for the
project site in Barra, AAA Forró implemented an
algorithm to test and maximize program and density.
New spatial hierarchies and diverse ideas for
program emerged, using variables of access, work,
and play.
How would AAA space
increase accessibility,
effect culture, and
seed an environment
that provides mutual
infrastructure and
amenities?
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
1. Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) rating system for
buildings that have high quality standard finishes, state of the art systems,
exceptional accessibility and a definite market presence.

AAA Forró | Prototropic 0.1 / Steven Sanchez 132
001

001
AAA FORRÓ
Steven Sanchez | 2015
Programmatic scale and amplitudes with informal strategy maps

AAA Forró | Prototropic 0.1 / Steven Sanchez
134
AAA FORRÓ
Steven Sanchez | 2015
Informal architectural solution for section model

...diversity of these
overlapping conditions and
relevant adjacency form an
incredible cross section for
vibrant communities, social
interactions, and unique
spatial conditions.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
The conditions, therefore emergent and diverse; at
one point small and isolated and at another a mixture
and range of working types, spatial orientations
and secondary relationships form a complex
arrangement of program and open space.
The project seeks to take advantage of these spatial
ranges to provided equal access and infrastructure
for Rio and to create a new condition of use, scale,
and interaction not typically found in current
business typologies.
The goal of the project is to provide infrastructure
and amenities to all types of businesses, including
corporations, small companies, restaurants, bars,
and small farms; to informally mix all aspects of
daily life to provide emergent, spatial conditions and
micro-cultural situations; to foster an environment
of mutual gain and development for all the
inhabitants of Barra 2 .
2. Barra is short for Barra da Tijuca, a newly affluent, southern region that
shares its borders with existing favelas or slum.

AAA Forró | Prototropic 0.1 / Steven Sanchez
137
AAA FORRÓ
Steven Sanchez | 2015
Site Charge Plan (Left) | Abstract spatial models showing overlap and connection conditions (Above)

AAA Forró | Prototropic 0.1 / Steven Sanchez
138
AAA FORRÓ
Steven Sanchez | 2015
Informal architectural solution for section model

†. AAA Forró, Steven Sanchez 2015

Acknowledgments
Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | NOVEMBER 2015

Prototropic † ISSUE 0.1 | Tales and Speculations under the Sun | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ® / COPYRIGHT © 2015 XMANIFOLD A.D.R.L.