Lavaflow 5 – Bennet/Yeo House
Hamakua coast, Big Island, Hawaii
Located on thirty acres of remote pasture, the slender steel frame supports walls of varying opacity; from nothing, to glass, to screen, to solid—creating a laminate of materials tempering the expansive view overlooking the Hamakua coastline.
The remoteness of the site, our desire for large open expanses, and a commitment to build sustainably led us to investigate prefabrication in steel as a method of construction. We began to research standard prefabrication systems available but all seemed clumsy and lacking the refinement we desired. So working closely with our structural engineer, we designed and developed a bolt together structural system based on 8″x8″ wide flange beams that enabled broad spans of steel framing while retaining the elegance of scale we had envisioned.
