Jury Comments on the Nabeshima/Kahle house

East/Bay AIA 1996 Architectural Design Awards
Jurors:   Susan Boyle, AIA
               James Cutler, FAIA
               Mark L. Hinshaw, FAIA
               David Wright, FAIA

"We want to give this house an honor award Magna Cum Laude."

"This is the only firestorm house that we saw that was truly a rebirth of the site"

"All of us immediately saw this as a potential honor award winner. We didn't know at that time that this is an earth friendly house. It initially made the cut because we loved it as a piece of design, not knowing the other subtleties."

"The level of care and attention, and the crafting of every part is so impressive and fascinating."

"Fronds of wild grasses and leaves and flowers are woven into rice paper as part of the lighting system."

"A typical example of the details we kept discovering is a boulder from the site that is used as a step into the bathtub, cast into the slab on the floor, just taken off the site and used in that fashion."

"Its hard to tell when you're standing inside or where the house even ends."

"A fairly remarkable thing is that the architect of this house is also the builder. You can imagine creating these convex, complex curving elements, using recycled materials and methods heretofore unexplored, and then being the one responsible for implementing them."

"This house proved to us that it is possible to do an earth-friendly structure that has grace, elegance, dignity, and restraint."