The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands develops homes for Hawaiians, but there's not much particularly Hawaiian about the homes.

A new University of Hawai'i School of Architecture project could change that.

On Wednesday, four architecture student teams showed Hawaiian Home Lands officials housing designs they created in large part to provide greater local identity.

"You see the homes out there right now?" said team member Liko Dowling, 22. "There's no Hawaiian identity."

Dowling and 20 other students participating in the project hope the agency benefiting Native Hawaiians can incorporate some of their concepts, which included designing space for large families and gatherings, cooling homes naturally and building with eucalyptus, a predominant Hawai'i forestry crop.

Project co-director and fabrication coordinator Joe Hagedorn, said a major goal is to see mass-produced homes in Hawai'i reflect more of the local environment in their design and construction.

"We're seeing homes from Southern California that don't fit here," he said.

Hawaiian Home Lands is one of the largest residential developers and landowners in the state, with hundreds of homes or home lots planned for Hawaiians who pay the cost for a house on land leased for $1 a year.

But there's also potential for the project in its first year to produce concepts for use by other developers.

Another project ambition is to help create local manufacturing jobs and use state forestry land to provide timber for home construction.

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

Ambitious goals aside, the project of course benefits the students, all of whom are in their fifth year of a seven-year architectural doctorate program.

"It's pretty good to get a hands-on practical experience," said student Kanoa Chung, 22. "Most of the time you're designing stuff. We haven't seen a design/build studio like this before."

Project leader Amy Anderson, an associate professor of architecture at UH, approached Hawaiian Home Lands officials a year ago with the idea to give some real-life basis to an advanced design class that would be a first of its kind at the architecture school.

"At that point we didn't really know where it might go," she said.

The agency responded by suggesting the class could focus on its largest housing project ever, a planned 403-lot subdivision called East Kapolei I where home construction is anticipated to begin in 2008.

"We were surprised," Anderson said. "It was quite real."

FOUR TEAMS AT WORK

The East Kapolei subdivision plan was already set, so designs were somewhat limited, but the UH project set out to produce home construction models sensitive to cost, culture and climate.

Students began working on mostly individual designs in January, then combined ideas into four team projects.

One team concentrated on environment issues, and one incorporated interviews of homesteaders about how they use space in a home.

Two other teams worked in improvised studio space — a covered floating barge and a warehouse loft at Kalaeloa Harbor — to build full-scale examples of how their designs use eucalyptus post-and-beam framing.

To make eucalyptus a cost-effective framing material, thin strips of the wood are glued together to form laminated veneer lumber, a process that is used for home building but typically not with eucalyptus in the United States.

Hagedorn said the idea is that laminated veneer lumber made from trees in Hawai'i can be produced largely by computer and constructed in a factory as an economically attractive alternative to standard construction involving higher labor and shipping costs.

"This is a very new approach to building homes," he said. "We're still in the infancy."

Steve Smith said the project could help the industry achieve one of its goals to have local products in local homes.

"We're just as excited as all get out," the president of the Hawai'i Forest Industry Association said.

EFFORTS APPLAUDED

Hawai'i has thousands of acres of mature eucalyptus, but harvesting the trees has been difficult because of financial and permitting challenges to build a veneer mill. An Oregon company, Tradewinds LLC, expects to start mill construction early next year.

Hagedorn said the UH project hasn't gone far enough to estimate costs, but that is a future goal.

It typically costs $170,000 to $290,000 to build a home for Hawaiian Home Lands, which contracts with private developers for construction.

Several architects present at the student presentation for Hawaiian Home Lands applauded the teams for their efforts.

Randy Lau, president of architecture and construction firm Designer Built Systems Inc., said the presentation showed incredibly fresh thinking that went well outside standard material and methods for home building.

"It's impressive," he said. "I think as a prototype, you're definitely on your way."

NEXT STEPS

Micah Kane said designing culturally sensitive homes that are affordable to homesteaders is a difficult prospect but that the students offered great ideas.

"Thank you," the Hawaiian Homes Commission chairman said. "I think we're going to learn a lot from it."

Time will tell if or how project design concepts get put into commercial use, but Anderson said the course will continue and evolve.

Next year students may be asked to create multistory townhome construction designs using eucalyptus laminated veneer lumber, and stress test the wood product.

"I think we're only beginning to ask the questions we need to ask," Anderson said. "There is tremendous idealism in the group. They see architecture as something that truly can effect change and improve people's lives."

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.