Merit Award
Kua Bay Residence
Kona, HI
Lead Landscape Architect: Ron Lutsko
This residence on Hawaii's dry, volcanic Kona shore draws on the elemental forces that shaped the land to contextualize its material design and embed human aesthetic experience within the landscape. The site is on a transect from a mountain top to the ocean, two extremes of the Hawaiian landscape. The design teams worked closely to develop a series of indoor-outdoor living spaces that trace a narrative from the mountain to the ocean, taking cues from Hawaii's geological and cultural history. Materials were carefully chosen to serenely distill the colors and textures of this unique place. A sequence of spaces emerges from a cleft in lava bedrock, proceeds through a freshwater oasis-like interior courtyard, finally opening out to an expansive view of the ocean. The visitor's journey terminates at the pool deck with the merging of constructed pool and ocean. The pool's far edge seems to disappear, creating a seamless connection to the vast ocean.
