Makani Eka ‘dances lightly across the site, borrowing and returning its small measure of paradise’

Passing through the low gate from the motor court to the Makani Eka compound on Hawaii’s Big Island subtly prepares visitors for what they will find inside. The wood-and-steel gates are utilitarian rectangles, but the inner edge of each side has a canted wedge of wood and a correspondingly canted hardware plate. They strike a jaunty midcentury vibe, coupled with a touch of California’s craft-intensive regional modernism. We know immediately that the house beyond is no bland vacation box. And, indeed, it isn’t. Those who thrive on right angles and tidy perpendiculars need not venture in.