Melinda Groenewegen

Food for an Island

My thesis will focus on O‘ahu's broken food system and restoring the community’s identity and relationship to their food and land. Hawaii is in a food crisis relying on 85-90% of their food to be imported to the islands while 41% of its agricultural lands are unfarmed. On an urban scale the project maps out agricultural lands of O‘ahu that are being underutilized and owned by large corporations. The project then zooms into a town as an example of how to reinterpret the land. The site was a sugar plantation and owned by Dole that still exists. Using the designated agriculture land and reimanging the land to be agroforestry and indigenous farming techniques to reconnect with the roots of Hawaiian culture and create sustainable farming practices. On site an agriculture learning center is proposed that connects to the local elementary school to promote a farm to school initiative and food security. This allows the town to reconnect to the strong culture relating to the common saying aloha ‘ānia (love of the land). The architecture blurs boundaries of landscape and architecture and looks to the traditional Hawaiian hale a staple of indigenous Hawaiian architecture that uses local building materials. The systems of land, food, and building work together to support self sufficiency and sustainable methods.