ARCH 342: Hale Nā Kōnāhuanui
(The Home of the Great Summit)
1. Project Overview
Hale Nā Kōnāhuanui, translated as “The Home of the Great Summit,” is a high-density, mixed-use residential project developed to address the urgent need for affordable housing for Native Hawaiian families.
Supported by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), the project carries forward the vision of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole by exploring how Native Hawaiians may be returned to the land within Honolulu’s urban core, where infrastructure, transportation, services, schools, employment, and community resources are already established.
Rather than treating land return only as a rural or suburban question, this project asks how Hawaiian home lands can support a new model of urban belonging, cultural continuity, and multi-generational living in the city.
Partner: Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
Instructor: Hyoung-June Park, PhD
Students: Keoni Andrei Agapay, Richelle Joy Ayala, Avery Burton, Jing Tong Chen, Jingwen Chen, Jennifer Do, Joshua Luke Ishimine, Grace Langley, Mailiokawailelenani McKeague, Bella Oliver, Katelyn Pagsolingan, Rachel Petersen, Austin Sandi, Nathaniel Shih, Micah Shikada, Mackenzie Tennal
2. Project Vision
The final project proposes a “Dense and Green” affordable housing model for Native Hawaiian families. It moves beyond surface-level cultural symbolism and asks how architectural design can support a deeper relationship among land, community, privacy, ecological responsibility, and cultural grounding.
The project is designed for a multi-generational population, including: 1) Native Hawaiian beneficiaries seeking affordable and culturally meaningful urban housing, 2) Kūpuna, 3) Multi-generational households, 4) Students, and 5)Working individuals and families,
Through this framework, Hale Nā Kōnāhuanui explores how high-density living can become not only efficient, but also humane, green, socially connected, and culturally rooted.
3. Site and Policy Context
Hale Nā Kōnāhuanui is proposed as a mixed-use vertical community for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands at the intersection of Isenberg Street and Date Street in Honolulu.
The project is anchored in the directives of the DHHL Oʻahu Island Plan (2013) and responds to three interconnected goals: 1) Increase revenue generation for DHHL through strategic urban development, 2) Expand affordable housing opportunities for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries, and 3) Establish a culturally grounded model for Hawaiian urban living.
By locating the project within Honolulu’s urban core, the proposal takes advantage of existing infrastructure while reimagining how density can serve the mission of DHHL.
4. Feasibility Study Framework
The project is informed by preliminary feasibility study numbers that compare three potential development scenarios:
Option A Low Rise Low-rise development 51 units
Option B Tower 210 ft tower 261 units
Option C Tower 350 ft tower 347 units
These options establish a critical design question for the course:
How can increased density be transformed into a culturally grounded, environmentally responsive, and socially supportive housing model for Native Hawaiian families?
5. Course Integration
This project is integrated into the architectural design curriculum as a final project that combines cultural research, urban analysis, housing design, environmental thinking, and architectural programming.
Students are asked to develop design proposals that respond to the mission of DHHL while also addressing the realities of contemporary urban housing in Honolulu. The project challenges students to think critically about density, affordability, Hawaiian values, and the future of urban living.
The course emphasizes that architectural design is not only the production of buildings, but also the shaping of relationships among land, people, culture, infrastructure, and daily life.