Shipwreck - Building Rammed Earth on an Island

With both the Jack house and the Terra house winding down, I find myself with time to tell the story of building our family project in Hana, Maui. As a kid, I read and re-read Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson, planning how I would build if I were shipwrecked on a tropical island. In a way, our Hana project is fulfillment of those childhood imaginings.

We started in 2002 with the first of three main pavilions, and each year we add to the compound: a guest bedroom, outbuildings, the master bedroom, the guest cottage, and the shop. At the time we started, I'm pretty sure it was the first rammed earth in Hawaii. Since then, Olson Kundig designed a really wonderful house at Slaughterhouse Beach, and we're starting to consult on a project in Hawi on the Big Island.

I believed then and I'm convinced now that rammed earth is an ideal material for island building: it replaces imported materials with native, is non-toxic, eliminates wall cavities where insects and rodents congregate, it holds up to the salt air, wind, and rain, and it doesn't need painting. The current common building practice in Hawaii is much like mainland building: wood frame, exterior siding, fiberglass insulation, gyp board and paint. All the wood is imported and chemically treated, and the houses are built tight to keep out the bugs, which then traps moisture and fosters mold growth.

Traditional Hawaiian housing was made up of a broad roof on poles covering an open living space. Walls, where they existed were woven and allowed the wind to blow through. For our project, we wanted to develop an architectural style and a pallet of materials that respected local tradition and that would acknowledge vernacular successes. We designed our buildings with broad roofs on poles, open living spaces and moveable walls. We intended the wind to blow through to keep the house comfortable naturally. Mostly we wanted to build affordably, using local materials whenever possible and as simply as we could.

We're in Hana now and for most of the winter. Over the next couple of months, I thought it might be worthwhile to go through the digital scrapbook and put up some illustrated posts of the processes we've developed appropriate to the region and the resources. You can extrapolate them to your own projects. Put your comments on the blog and I'll respond if I can. The photo at the top of this post shows two of the containers converted to a cottage.