Osipov (1907-1998) was born in Vladivostok, raised in Tokyo, and moved to the United States in 1923. There he graduated from the University of Berkeley in California, and in 1931 settled in the capital of the Hawaiian Islands, Honolulu. Over the next decades, he built about 1000 buildings there: villas, schools, office complexes and even an airport.
Vladimir Osipov is considered the most important architect in Hawaii of the modern period, bringing the ideas of modernism there and using them taking into account the peculiarities of the local climate and culture. He was also one of the pioneers of green architecture, using extensively in the 1960s and 1970s its elements that are popular in our time.
The Hawaiian Modernism exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts is dedicated to his work. The curators included 30 Osipov buildings of different periods and types in the exposition.
When the architect arrived in Honolulu, the so-called "territorial" style prevailed there, which was a mixture of different types of colonial style, from Spanish to Italian. The young architect began to gradually change its elements, but only after the end of the Second World War, when it was necessary to rebuild and expand the destroyed city (Honolulu is located next to the Pearl Harbor base), Osipov received freedom of action. Soon he declared "war on disgrace", completely abandoning the colonial style and turning to modernism.
In doing so, he used details of traditional local architecture, for example, lanai - buildings that do not have a front wall. The architect designed houses, the main living quarters of which were not separated by anything from the space of the courtyard, were part of it. In all his works, Osipov took into account the preferred directions of the winds, using them for natural conditioning; gratings made of various materials protected from the sun's rays.
In the 1970s, Osipov was tasked with rebuilding the Honolulu airport complex, which he also turned into a kind of lanai. There, along with reinforced concrete and steel, he made extensive use of wood, and also included the planting of tropical vegetation in the air terminal ensemble. Such techniques arouse keen interest at the beginning of the 21st century, at the same time it was an incredible innovation.
Vladimir Osipov was critical of skyscrapers, believing that they block the way for the winds and make the city's space more stuffy. But he also built office buildings - albeit of a mid-rise. The seven-story IBM office complex in Honolulu features a curved concrete grille that shades the façade and protects the building from overheating.
After Honolulu, Hawaiian Modernism will be shown at Yale University and later at the German Museum of Architecture (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main.
