Fritz Johnson Architect
Cantilevered white house above ironwood trees at dusk, one window lit

Coastal House No. 1

Oʻahu

A house on a pali above the Pacific, where the buildable ground was a small fraction of the site. Its curves and cantilevers, reaching makai toward the sea, are not gestures but answers, each one found by fitting the full program within the slope, the setbacks and the height limit. Inside, the materials rise with the house: stone at the lowest level, wood among the trees in the middle, and pale, cloudlike surfaces at the top.

Photography: Adam Taylor

Curved lānai with glass railing open to the ocean, low sun across a slatted wood wall
Pale stone stair rising between two dark wood wallsCurved soffit over a stone lānai and the open horizon
Walnut vanity beneath a wide window framing the ocean