Holding Space in Landscape Architecture

Landscape architecture is not only about form, planting, or circulation. It is about holding space —creating the conditions for moments, transitions, and emotional presence to emerge. At Pueo Haus, this philosophy shapes how we design residential outdoor environments, from the most visible gathering spaces to the overlooked edges where meaning is often found.

When I was a child, my Chinese grandfather, Gung-Gung, would take me up his street to the University of Hawaiʻi Laboratory’s grounds to find Monarch caterpillars munching away on the abundant Calotropis gigantea or Crown flower. He built a habitat for them out of an old fish aquarium made out of freshly picked leaves and stems gathered on our nightly walks. For weeks, I would watch these caterpillars munch away through the plants’ fleshy, velvety leaves. My favorite part of their life span was the methodical building of their chrysalis, always from tail to head. I would spend hours fussing over their incubation space to give them the most optimal chances of survival. The warmth of the light setup, the height of the branches, the humidity of the tank, all were minded by a little me. No observable activity, but I inherently knew the transformation happening within those green chambers. For a short period of time, I held the space, the conditions, and the care for these creatures. And the day they broke free of their protective enclosures and flew off to live their short lives was always beautiful to witness. To be truthful, I’m actually afraid of butterflies; being up close to them kind of gives me nightmares. So when I say they are beautiful, I recognize the power of transformation and how it affects us so deeply because we have to be present, curious, and vulnerable. And with the recognition of beauty in transformation, we ourselves are transformed.

When it comes down to it, we want to be seen, and not just be seen, but seen as beautiful. Beauty is a reflection. In a backyard, for example, you are programmed to look at a fire pit conversation circle through seating orientation toward the pit or circulation paths. They demand attention. But what of the odd spaces? When we aren’t told to use a place or to hold space for a place, the energy and attention is stumbled upon, if not tripped over. And this is where we at Pueo Haus live, for these moments, these vignettes; finding meaning in the unintentional. You can’t be told how to feel; although we surely do try to capture that feeling of raw authenticity and vulnerability.

These details are often overlooked by the homeowners. The edges or the transitions of the outdoor to indoor space or vice versa are not deliberately curated. How the outside could dramatically change an indoor space so energetically. How the details incite, infer, and ignite the main programs just as a simple semicolon can affect the sophistication of coding. A yin and yang. A cause and effect. But at Pueo Haus, we know this. We account for this. We anticipate these details, as this is what great design is expected. We plan for these lived moments, our vignettes. We invite them.

In Landscape Architecture, we leave discovery open. We have to. We are not able to account for everything. We can have a design with all of the client’s wants with perfect installation and yet can be emotionally disappointing. However, great design anticipates the mundane. The moments you rush in to get the groceries in because you have to start preparing for your family get-together. Or those times after a long day’s work, where staying in the car with the still and quiet is all the stimulation you can handle. For there, waiting, just after the sun went down, are rows of your soft glowing crown flowers illuminated by the backsplash of lights your Landscape Architect insisted you have, and that sigh you didn’t realize you were holding on to is finally let out. In Landscape Architecture, we see the outdoor space in macro and micro perspective. We work on budgets from $100-$1,000,000+ with space large and small. But we can’t force intimacy, we can only design the spaces that hold it.