Yasamin Mayyas
United States
The project investigates the relationship between the alimentary, architecture and urbanism by rethinking a sustainable and self-sufficient agricultural production system in Hawaii. Despite that Hawaii is the only state with a year a round growing season, it still imports over 90% of its food and in the event of a major disruption that affect air and marine cargo, it only has 10 days of food reserve. Thus food security is of prime importance especially in such remote context. By analyzing the traditional land resource management and intensive agricultural system” The Ahupua’a” which encompasses a vertical space that extends from ocean to mountain, and corresponds to various ecological elements within the transect that guides organization of land habitation and cultivation. Thus it transforms the watershed into an intensive technology for food production. Prior to the European contact in 1778, these systems were fully functional and sustained an estimated population of 800,000. However, currently only some artifacts of this system remain partially intact and functional like the Pond fields ( Lo’i), fishponds (loko), and dry land terraces ( Kuaiwi) are dispersed across each island. Due to the increasing demands for urbanization on one hand and the pressing need to address food security. The project synchronizes urbanization and the various modes of food intensification and resource production in correspondence with the environmental conditions of the ocean-basin watershed.
Comments