All language subtitles for The.Cabin.Chronicles.S03E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[eztv.re]

[music playing]

GRAHAM HART: I kind of became
a little bit obsessed about,

like, where is this thing?

As an architect and a nerd
about Ossipoff's work,

it became this mythological
beast that I was hunting

for, you know, maybe a decade.

So we came up here and
went to the hiking trail,

and then on the way
down, we're like,

is that-- is that the
cabin, by the way?

Like, oh, yeah, we've got
a bunch of cabins up here.

Yeah, but is that
the Ossipoff cabin?

[music playing]

LIZA RYAN GILL:
Whether, you know,

it's the drive up here
and the anticipation

or the surprise of the view,
the moment that you get up here,

kind of doesn't matter
what else is going on.

It just makes you stop.

[music playing]

Vladimir Ossipoff
is probably our most

famous architect out of Hawaii.

He's Russian-born but actually
grew up mostly in Japan.

He's created a lot of
buildings that are really

iconic on the island of Oahu.

And so this place is
unique because most

of all of those other
homes are places

that he built for
people, but this

is what he built for himself.

In Hawaiian, we
would say kuleana.

It means your role or
your responsibility.

And so my kuleana is to
take care of this place,

to enjoy it, to manage
it, to make sure

that it is properly maintained.

We've been here since
2019, and during that time,

uncle Gary was slowly
bringing the outside

and the tougher bits of
this place back to life

and restoring them.

I'm Gary Gill, a member of
the Gill Ewa Lands' ownership

of 1,600 acres on
this mountain, which

includes the land around this
cabin and the cabin itself.

[music playing]

GRAHAM HART: When you look
at tropical modernists

and architecture from around
the world, Ossipoff is probably,

you know, in the top dozen.

At the time, they hadn't
started restoration work yet

or anything.

I wanted to help out in
any way that I could.

As an architect and
academic, I could help them

by digging in the
archives and connecting

them with any
drawings that there

was in Ossipoff's collection.

[music playing]

LIZA RYAN GILL:
We're technically

the most isolated part of Oahu.

GRAHAM HART: You could think
about Ossipoff's architecture

responding to the natural
world and the site

and the ecology and
the climate to Hawaii.

[music playing]

There's these spaces that
he takes from his childhood

in Japan and reinterprets them
and kind of makes them his own,

and makes them more unique
and more practical for Hawaii.

GARY GILL: This was
a labor of love.

Ossipoff personally did
a lot of the construction

with family members or
some of his coworkers.

And so they built it
by hand on their own.

LIZA RYAN GILL:
A couple of years

after this one
was finished, they

decided to build a little
guest cabin right next to it.

So we consider it all
one kind of entity,

but technically,
there are two cabins.

It's so well-designed
and organized

that every space feels really
intentional and flows nicely,

and there's always
a great breeze.

[music playing]

And you walk in and then you
just have this expansive view

of giant glass windows and doors
and a little L-shaped low couch

and our seagrass mats.

I love this punee.

In Hawaii, it's,
like, just a day bed.

So it's kind of
like a low couch.

It's kind of like having a
bed that is in a common space.

[music playing]

GRAHAM HART: I love the
levels and simple change

from the living room
to the bedroom space.

LIZA RYAN GILL: Something very
quintessential about Ossipoff

is that there are, like,
12 doors for every door.

And so you open the outside
whether shutters, and then

the shoji, and then the screens.

So you gotta open all
the doors in layers.

They kind of look
like little dominoes,

and the door pulls
on the shoji screens,

you actually know which
one is supposed to go where

because it goes one, two, three.

GRAHAM HART: So there's multiple
iterations of how it was built

and how long it took.

LIZA RYAN GILL: During
the restoration,

we were working with Vladimir's
children and grandchildren

and their close family friends
that spent a lot of time here.

GARY GILL: We basically
had photographs

from a 1960s of what this
place looked like then,

and that was our template to try
and restore it to that period.

We tried to basically
empty it out,

just scrub it out
to the bones, all

the furniture, all the stuff
that was packed everywhere.

GRAHAM HART: Everything on the
inside has been sanded down

and refinished, and, you
know, beeswax put on the walls

to reclaim it.

Shoji panels had to be remade.

Doors and windows
had to be reframed.

All the interior furnishings and
materials had to be found again

and, you know, are made new.

[music playing]

GARY GILL: This structure
harks back to a simpler time.

How this thing
stands is a testament

to innovative architecture
and minimalism.

How much can you get
away with not putting in?

And it's stood here and
withstood the elements

for half a century.

[music playing]

GRAHAM HART: Good
architecture, you hear,

does the least amount.

This cabin, it's very
open to the environment.

LIZA RYAN GILL: So you walk into
the kind of center courtyard,

and we have a little
kitchen area outside,

and then the little
deck, we would say

a little lanai, on the front.

GRAHAM HART: This walkway
on the outside of the cabin

is a Japanese space called the
engawa, which basically means,

like, the space in between.

It's in between indoors
and in between outdoors.

And it's great to have this
overhang and this kind of way

to blend and blur the
boundary between in and out.

But practically, it also helps
protect the facade, right?

So the rain doesn't get in.

The sunshine doesn't
come in as much.

And you can leave the whole
space open in a rainstorm,

and it's a protected space.

LIZA RYAN GILL: It's kind of
Japan meets Hawaii in the '60s

on top of a mountain.

[music playing]

Who needs walls?

You don't really need walls.

Like, you just need a roof.

That's what you
really need in Hawaii.

[music playing]

Right now, we're sitting here,
and, well, 3/4 of the cabin

is open.

And it feels great.

[music playing]

You only really need
them if there's,

like, bad weather coming in.

And so for the whole
back side of the cabin,

the entrance area, they can just
go away if you don't want them.

There's also this incorporation
of reclaimed lumber.

You know, things
that look like they

were just cut
directly from outside,

and it's because they were.

[music playing]

This cabin was kind of built
oriented towards the sunset.

The light from, like, 4:30 to
6:30, that makes everything

look like it was dipped in
honey, and that kind of just

requires you to stop whatever
you are doing and enjoy it.

[music playing]

Our daughter, she's been
up here every three or four

days of her short 18 months.

To basically, like, learn
to walk in this cabin.

Because we were up
here all the time as we

were finishing the
restoration and spending

time with our friends.

I get to look out on
these beautiful mountains

and just feel blessed
by this space.

You know, that twin lightness
of being awed by some things

beauty, but also the gentle
heaviness of knowing that it's

your job to care for it.

There can be a temptation
to preserve something

and cover it in clear plastic.

And these places need to be
living, or else they die.

And so it needs
that constant touch

and needs regular
love and attention.

[music playing]

GARY GILL: When you recognize
how special Hawaii is, and you

have it in your heart,
you want to protect it,

and so that is our mission.

Not everything is exactly
how it used to be,

but it's really close.

And it's reflective, as close
as we could get, to the way

that Ossipoff himself
wanted it to be.

[music playing]

Even if it weren't designed by
Ossipoff, just the location,

proximity to the
view, and the sunset,

there is no place
like it on the planet.

Right?

There's no place like
Hawaii on the planet,

and within Hawaii, there's
no place like this.

[music playing]