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Assembly House a Fusion of Hawaiian and Chinese Architecture

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The Assembly House by Zak Architecture in Kona, Hawaii, would only be possible in a region where you can wander outdoors in sarongs and flip-flops all day and into the evening. There is no “indoors” in this “house.”

Unlike most houses, that put all the rooms under one roof, Zak Architects gives each room in a very spread-out “house” its own pavilion; assembling the house across a large site as a series of pavilions set in landscaped lawns.

“The sliding walls and intimate scale of each building allow them to open directly to the garden on all sides” say the architects.

This form of architecture is not without architectural precedent. Traditional Chinese architecture housed large extended families on compounds arrayed around courtyards and natural features, but also historically maintained considerable hegemony and privacy within each pavilion.

You would need to get up and walk across the lawn from the bedroom pavillion to the kitchen pavillion, just to make the morning’s coffee, so there is no avoiding going “outside.”

Moveable panels permit breezes, views, and light. Privacy is maintained because interior bathroom enclosures, for example, open to exterior shower gardens and all of the structures allow views to the exterior.

This completely unique approach to an architectural brief “to connect with nature” is a unique and refreshing way to force you into the contact with the natural world that we in our increasingly electronic age are losing contact with.

The clients wanted a house that encourages interaction among family members but one that maintains privacy when the occasion calls for it. So it was “designed as a residential village knit together by garden spaces and pathways,” as Zak says.

The public pavilions—which include such spaces as living room, kitchens, and media rooms—serve as gathering places, while the private areas become retreats. Winner of the Grand Award, Custom home, More than 6,000 square feet – the very large Assembly House, at 18,000 square feet is simultaneously very human scaled.