Xinbo DuHao Lin

LAR 444Professor Fernando Magallanes

December 4, 2013

Main Garden of Shangri-La, Honolulu

1. General introduction of Shangri La

2. How owner’s travel experience influenced the design

3. What is limitation of Shangri La

4. Conclusion

Located on the south shore of the island of O’ahu, Hawai’I.

Southeast of Dimond Head crater along the southwest side of the promontory of Black Point and the residential neighborhood of Kahala.

Bounded by residential housing lots on all sides but the south fronts the Pacific Ocean.

Doris Duke (1912–1993) was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.

She traveled widely, immersed herself in other cultures and pursued a wide range of interests including the performing arts, historic preservation, environmental conservation and the preservation of wildlife. She was also a major collector of Islamic art, assembling a collection of more than 2,500 pieces and exhibiting it throughout her Honolulu home Shangri La—a sustained effort of nearly 60 years.

Marion Sims Wyeth(1889-1982), architect.

Education BackgroungdPrinceton University and studied École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.Founded the firm of Wyeth and King in Palm Beach, Florida, 1919

Practical Projects

Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach

Florida Governor’s Mansion

High Point Monument, New Jersey

Shangri La, Honolulu (1935-1937)

Consist of four gardens and two buildings. The four gardens are Main Garden, Mugal Garden, Entry Courtyard and Central Courtyard. Main house and Playhouse.Separated by different elevation.Each of the gardens has their own axis in large scale.

PlayhouseMughal garden

Entry court

Main garden

Main building

Central court

Tennis court

Symmetrical layout. Drastically topographical changing. Linear space. ornamented by a grid of shallow water channels.

Water divided into four parts, vegetation and pattern of surface.Ground is divided into four flower bed by water channels and intersecting paths.

Symmetrical space ornamented by a grid of shallow water channel and traditional Islamic chahar bagh.

With the elevation changing at the entrance of this garden, the foreshortening line goes down, which let people feel the end of this garden a little closed than before.

Combined different styles, the owners do not have strict Islamic religious manner and exposed in a pluralistic society. For example the vegetation, coconut palms appear in this garden.

A compounded style garden.The elevation changes.The main building and the adjacent lawn standson high elevation.

The upper grassland and lower swimming pool connected by terraced water.Dominated by a strong axis.

Open view to south, pacific ocean and Diamond Head crater.

Easily accessible to the pacific ocean through staircase from the garden to the sea level.

Square space open to the sky surrounded by Living room, Mihrabroom, Syrian room and Damascus room.

The octagonal water ornamented by Islamic pattern in the middle of the courtyard. Also, this space is a colonnaded Egyptian or Roman peristyle.

Roof Garden of Mughal Suite

1935Started honeymoon tour, February. Traveled the Middle East, India and south Asia.

Doris Duke at the Moti Mosque in Agra, India. (Fig 1)

Taj Mahal(1632 ; Fig2) inspired Duke to commission a marble Mughal suite incorporating bedroom and bathroom.

Final destination in Hawaii. Captive by Hawaii’s natural beauty and relaxed outdoor lifestyle.Extended their short visit to four months. (Fig 3)

Fig 1 Fig 2

Fig 3

1936Purchase of ocean front property at Ka‘alāwai near Diamond Head.

Design and construction overseen by the architectural firm Wyeth and King. (Fig 4)

1938Second tour to Middle East. Numerous purchases; and a large commission for tiles is placed in Isfahan, Iran.

Chihil Situn, Isfahan, Iran.(Fig 5) Heavily influenced the construction of the Playhouse at Shangri La.

Fig 4

Fig 5

Chihil Situn (Forty Columns) in Isfahan, Iran.

Completed in 1647 by the Shah Abbas II, the Chihil Situn served as a reception hall within a 15-acre garden.

A long reflecting pool and narrow watercourse surrounds the building which contains a high wooden Talar porch. The pool in front of the Safavid palace reflects the 18 slender columns on its porch, thereby creating an illusion of many more columns.

Three walkways lined with trees that led to the building.

Chihil Sutun Shangri La

Playhouse, Shangri La

The playhouse incorporates a large central living room, small kitchen, and two bedroom suites on its mountain and ocean sides. Its facade has large talar porch with a painted wood ceiling supported by 14 colunmns and facing to pool. In positioning Shangri La’s pool directly in front of the playhouse, Doris Duke and her architects were possibly inspired by a similar arrangement at the Chihil Situn.

Taj Mahal(1632-1653), Agra, India.In memory of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal.White marble architecture.

Doris’s husband wrote from India that his wife “had fallen in love with the TajMahal and all the beautiful marble tiles, with their lovely floral designs with some precious stones.”

“Commission a new bedroom and bathroom suite decorated with tiles like those in Taj for Malmaison.”

Mughal suite, private core of Shangri La. With a Jali pavilion on the flat roof. Screened seating.

Aerial View of Shangri-La

The designer just changes Shangri La’s surface to look like Islamic style actually it was based on a modern architectural style, which might be superficial but practical.

the architect’s background cannot meet the owner Duke’s wish

Duke’s wish: passionate about Islamic culture and traditional Islamic items

Designer’s educational and practical experience:Marion Sims Wyeth studied at Princeton University and study aboard in ParisModernism and functionalism was prevailed all over the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Over Marion’s first 20 design years, he did not have any Islamic design experience.

Islamic Garden Shangri-La

Religion Mohammedanism No

Vitruvian triad Venustas is dominant Utilitas is dominant

Climate Desert climate(＜50mm)

Tropical Marine climate（＞6000mm）

Vegetation xerophytic cypresses and myrtles

Palmae

Historical background（prevailing influence）

Religion Functionalism

Symbols Paradise Villa

comparison

ConclusionShangri La managed to break the convention of a classic Islamic landscape style which ancient Persian world applied to their palace construction, combining modernism and classic Islamic style together to create a modern villa with Islamic feature, though a limitation appeared in it that Shangri La only dressed in an Islamic appearance of paradise garden but actually it was deeply influenced by modernism. The designer just changes the villa’s surface to look like Islamic style actually it was based on a modern architectural style, which might be superficial but practical.

This is Shangri-La.