Craig Steely Architecture’s Inventive Designs Mingle Nature and Living Spaces
A musubi-shaped footprint and surfboard finlike structure are among the elements Craig Steely incorporates into Hawai‘i home designs.
The D Fin House, high on the slopes above Kealakekua Bay, offers panoramic views. Photo: Darren Bradley
A home with a musubi-shaped footprint or surfboard finlike structure isn’t something you often encounter in the Islands. That’s what’s so exciting about Craig Steely’s designs. The Hawai‘i Island- and San Francisco-based architect has a knack for dreaming up one-of-a-kind homes that break the mold of traditional Hawai‘i abodes, rooting them in deep respect for their unique locales.
“We’re known for smallish houses that fit into beautiful, complex sites,” Steely says. More than that, his considered designs harmoniously blend modern aesthetics with biophilic elements and eco-mindful materials. “We’re constantly trying to mitigate that level between human scale, the scale of time and the scale of topography,” he says.
Take Steely’s Musubi House for example. Situated on 100 acres of bucolic pastureland in Pa‘auilo on Hawai‘i Island, the off-grid home features a triangular concrete structure separated into three zones—a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms—by a central inverted atrium. “There are no doors, just open spaces that imply closure with spots that squeeze off,” he says. Outside, rolling fields of tall grass give it the feel of a ship among the swells.
In the equally striking D Fin House, high on the slopes above Kealakekua Bay, a steel-clad wood and glass barrel structure offers panoramic views of the ocean and lush mountainside. At its center sits an open-air courtyard. A steeped-roof loft, reminiscent of a ’60s-style skeg, overlooks a lap pool nestled into the earth. “There’s something about the remoteness of these sites and the contrast between site and house, where it fits in there; it’s not fighting it,” Steely says. “That always feels really precious and amazing.”
Brie Thalmann is the former home and style editor of HONOLULU Magazine and now a contributor.
