House on Maui

Klaus-Peter Gast

Description

The Legorreta&Legorreta practice designed an opulent accumulation of space on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The chief characteristics of this lavish family home right by the sea are the complex interweaving of interior and exterior spaces, which is typical of this practice, and also a very individual living loggia. A large reception courtyard serves both as a gesture of invitation and an outdoor salon. From here, visitors ‘filter’ into the function areas via a pathway using different levels. Legorreta’s world-famous grandiose linking of defined exterior and interior spaces has succeeded in virtuoso style in this design as well. Marked changes of level following the topography, switches from light to shade, the inclusion of existing nature and the way the occupants and visitors are led through dramatic spatial sequences are central to this villa, as a set of experiences leading up to the living area at the end.

The entrance courtyard, open patio and finally the living loggia with a swimming pool in front of it, opening on to the sea, enhance both the pathway and the architecture. Visual impressions are stimulated by intensive colours determined by daylight, from the cool, homogeneous blue associated with the pool and fountain to the muted red of the volcanic earth in the exterior living areas. Garage, ancillary rooms and kitchen with breakfast room and dining area flank the loggia on one side, and on the other side are a fitness room, playroom and a bedroom area that is extensively continued upstairs. The offices are placed over the garage, and run as far as the kitchen. The Legorreta approach is shaped by nature as a determining factor. The practice’s abstract and reduced formal language sees cubist composition as an ideal partner, and makes living in and with nature into a symbiotic experience.