Conducted as part of the University of Hawaii School of Architecture's Fifth Biennial Symposium on Asian Pacific Architecture

April 5th-April 8th, 2003 at the School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Design Charrette will occupy four days prior to the start of the Fifth Biennial Symposium on Asia Pacific Architecture. It will involve students and faculty from approximately 16 schools (half from Asia Pacific countries, half from U.S. countries). Also participating in the activities will be the National American Institute of Architects Committee on Design. Members of the UH School of Architecture’s practicum faculty will serve as facilitators and roving advisors. These distinguished groups of participants respectively represent internationally recognized firms and bring with them invaluable experience and expertise that will add to the depth of the experience.

The Design Charrette will focus on urban design and mixed use building design for two adjacent sites that comprise 12 acres situated at an important edge of Waikiki. A principal challenge of the problem is to find converging strategies addressing the number of diverse interests (e.g., developers, hotel companies, local residents, tourist boards, local planning offices, etc.) and to therefore contribute to a vital urban environment and engaged community.

The purpose of the Design Charrette is fourfold:

First, the Design Charrette offers students and faculty of the participating schools the opportunity to engage a number of critical and converging forces pertinent to many world cities (e.g., globalism, tourism, environmentalism, multi-culturalism) thereby creating new knowledge useful in a variety of contexts. The urban Waikiki site selected for the Charrette serves as an excellent vehicle to study the complex relationships of these forces.

Second, the Design Charrette offers an opportunity to amplify and test thematic Symposium issues through concrete context and design.

Third, the Design Charrette offers the opportunity for the exposure to and the rich exchange of divergent viewpoints of students, faculty and practitioners from around the world.

Fourth, the Design Charrette will serve to inform and guide actions in Waikiki, thereby serving to directly and indirectly shape the future development of this vibrant city.