Architectural works of art in Puna

[Guest]

Really I couldn't agree more, words can in no way describe the beauty or architecture master piece those lava palaces truly are. Pictures whether in black and white, or color won't really tell you anything that resembles the truth about these rocks,and walls, all within the home and entire lot, or these ideal locations of the lots.
Although the work was very hard and rewarding, I am not sure I agree with the way we harvested the beautiful lava plates with these o'o bars. We would just go out over kalapana, lighthouse, and other places and just start breaking and essentially stealing. No it never seemed as though we would run into private owners, but once in awhile we would have a truck or two of some Hawaiians come tell us this was no good," those rocks go sing to you" kind of language. Well being young, dumb, and thinking that being from here in some way may have exempted me from this sort of talk. Well now I feel my karma may not be the best for some of the work I may have done for the mighty dollar. I know really far fetched for most of you to understand, I probably should not have disrupted Pele and her natural beauty as much as I did. At the time we felt we were showing some of Pele's art off and earning our keep here by providing food on our kids table.
Sorry to drag this thread so far off topic, yet some of engineering and architecture master pieces can disrupt or change the natural environment at times.

[shockwave rider]

Gypsy69: "...yet some of engineering and architecture master pieces can disrupt or change the natural environment at times."

In reality, most building disrupts or changes the natural environment, sometimes in terrible ways. Once upon a time, people built things to last centuries, even little peasant houses were built to last. At that time, people also carefully thought about how they should place things, and tried to work with the landscape instead of trashing it, because if you built a house or a barn that your great great great grandchildren and their peers were going to be using and looking at, you wanted to build something that would fit into the landscape. Now people throw up sheet metal boxes and stick built houses willy nilly expecting to get 50 years out of them at most, and do it with no appreciation for the landscape at all.

My favorite architects tend to build with the landscape, instead of remaking the landscape to fit their design. The guy who designed Bill Gates house did an earlier house that was a bridge across a ravine, it fit in with the surrounding landscape perfectly, barely disturbed the lanscape and used local materials as much as possible. I'll see if I can dig up a link to a picture of it.