Alfred Preis

Awana Lee Residence

The Awana Sau Whan Lee & Mavis Mau Lee residence is a prime example of Preis’s attempt to incorporate Asian detailing into his houses, particularly for Asian clients, and to create a mitigated version of modernism for middle-income, island residents. It is a perfect example of his flexibility as an architect, comfortable designing for clients with a variety of tastes from the adventurous to the more mundane. Seen from the street, the building appears as a typical suburban home with a horizontally massed L-shaped plan topped by a low-pitched roof. The house seems purposefully understated – apart from its clear horizontality, nothing about its massing or elevations reveals Preis’s debt to European or International Style modernism. Preis’s hand is only seen as one nears the house to observe the ornamental brick patterns and oozing mortar pressed between the courses. Wide overhanging eaves with soffits painted in a deep, Chinese red enliven the entry and mark it as a Preis-designed home – along with his signature doorway with a thin line of glass marking the red door. A language of dark, rectilinear lines enclosed by plate glass further highlights the Asian influences.

In contrast with the suburban simplicity of the exterior, the original interior exploded in bursts of color, open space, and inventive lines. In the main living room, the ceiling had a four-toned composition of a dark brown central beam and bold red rafters. One side of the pitch was painted white and the other was left a natural, light brown. A triangular glass clerestory formed by the pitch illuminated the cathedral ceiling.

Preis segmented the different occupational zones with marked changes in ceiling levels, moving from high to low, and volumes visually and spatially defined through materials. These varied from textural brick, to various tones and types of wood, white and red paint, and glass block. As typical of the architect, he achieved the house’s ornamental qualities with these vivid and tactile variations in material and color. Planes of wood and glass block that contrasted with clean, white-painted cabinetry defined a modern kitchen and adjacent dining area. In one of the bedrooms, an otherwise simple rectangular space, Preis carved a biomorphic recess into the ceiling enhanced with cove lighting, which broke with the home’s otherwise middle-class, suburban character. Preis opted for Asian details like shoji closet doors of dark wood. A line of glass patio doors allowed the room to be opened to the outside.

Perhaps the most inventive feature of the house was the roof of the rear lanai formed by the L-shaped plan. It was composed of diagonal wooden slats with narrow spaces left in between. Using the tropical light itself as a method of ornamentation, Preis relied on the sun to cast unexpected shadows on the walls and floors at various times of the day.