Our story
In 2016, the School of Architecture established the University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center, building on four decades of education and public service to Hawaiʻi and the Asia-Pacific region. Positioned at the intersection of government, university, and community stakeholders, the center operates as a Hawaiʻi-serving teaching-practice, resource hub, and outreach arm. Guided by our shared values, our multi-disciplinary teams of faculty, staff, and students work with public and non-profit partners to align teaching, learning, and research with the needs of our community.
Our values
Community + Equity
We collaborate with institutions and communities to support more inclusive, equitable, and effective practices, processes, and environments that are designed for all.
Sustainability + Resilience
The challenges we face as a remote island community frames our foundational commitments to social, cultural, economic, and ecological sustainability and resilience.
Education + Leadership
We are a university-led teaching practice. Our work prepares students to be civic practitioners and future leaders in our built environment disciplines.
Our approach
Collaborative design
We see design as a collective action, one that benefits from internal and external collaboration to ensure that diverse knowledge and perspectives guide our process.
Applied research
We draw from the deep knowledge network of the university, applying established and emergent research expertise and methodologies across disciplines to our work.
Hawaiian place of learning
We learn from the values, knowledge, and practices of our host culture and are called to action by the ethos of aloha ʻāina.
Remote island context
Hawai’i is home to one of the most remote urban populations in the world. Our isolation and vulnerability underscore the importance of our sustainability and resilience aims.
A cultural perspective
Our diverse multi-ethnic community offers a rich context to explore the role of race, culture, and identity in the planning and design of the built environment.
Building relationships
We understand that cultivating and maintaining meaningful relationships is key to long term impact.
Our impact
Partners
50+
Federal, State, City & County agency and non-profit clients or granting agents worked with our UHCDC teams.
UH faculty
25+
Faculty members across ten university departments applied teaching and research efforts to UHCDC projects.
Courses taught
60+
Courses at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa integrated UHCDC into academic curricula.
Students employed
170+
Student assistants across departments received paid employment and credit hours applicable to the requirements for architectural licensure.
Our services
Proof of concept involves pre-procurement research, planning, and design services that can include, but is not limited to stakeholder alignment, community engagement, applied research, design investigations, prototyping, and preliminary costing to better define and fund projects ahead of contracting a professional planning and design team.
Our process
While every project is unique and each process is developed in coordination with our partners and stakeholders, there are components that many projects share in common.
Active listening - Meeting people and understanding their experiences and perspectives.
Understanding place – We learn from our cultures and contexts which uniquely define Hawaiʻi.
Engaging stakeholders – From talk-stories to town halls, our work aims to bring people together around shared issues. See our outreach page for more information.
Applied research -We connect our community-engaged findings to other forms of disciplinary research to support reciprocal exchanges of knowledge.
Participatory planning and design - We invite people to co-design solutions with us.
Visioning – Through design, we visualize future solutions, scenarios, and frameworks that can guide our decisions today.
Share/Repeat - We share, we revise, and we share again, in a continuous process of learning and exchange.
Communicate – Through our reports, presentations, briefings, project websites, and other media, we share the collective efforts of this work.
Alignment with broader goals
UN Sustainable Development Goals
No poverty
Zero hunger
Good health and well-being
Quality education
Gender equality
Clean water and sanitation
Affordable and clean energy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Reduced inequalities
Sustainable cities and communities
Responsible consumption and production
Climate action
Life below water
Life on land
Peace, justice and strong institutions
Partnerships for the Goals
Aloha + Challenge
Clean energy
Local food
Natural resource management
Waste reduction
Smart sustainable communities
Green workforce & education
UHM Strategic Planning Goals
Becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning
Sustainability
Enhancing student success
Excellence in research