Proposal for indigenous architecture may set precedent

The Maui News
Friday, August 9, 2002 -- A5

By Harry Eagar
Staff Writer

HANA – If Maui County can successfully craft an indigenous architecture ordinance, it will lead the nation, according to J. Kalani English. English introduced the proposal when he was on the County Council. "If we are successful, it will be a national model," says English, now a state senator.

Southwestern states are interested in indigenous adobe architecture, and even bamboo buildings are waiting in the wings for legal status. English is not a purist when it comes to Native Hawaiian architecture. In the Pacific Islands today, people following traditional ways use what is to hand.

"They take traditional ideas and adapt them to modern use," he says. He would like to see Maui County provide for a similar evolution, "as part of our modern vernacular architecture."

Another reason to allow for newer materials is that pre-Contact materials like pili grass for thatching are hard to find. English says he knows some people want to define "indigenous architecture" as exactly what was done before Capt. Cook arrived in 1778, but he sees nothing wrong with using mango, a 19th century introduction, if that is what's available.

In the draft prepared by the Maui County Indigenous Architecture Task Force, sennit (coconut fiber cord) for lashings would not be allowed. Hans Riecke, a member of the group, said the reason is not only that sennit is hard to get, but that its strength is uncertain.

Francis Sinenci, the Hana master hale builder who was a key member of the task force, describes himself as a "semi-purist" when it comes to indigenous architecture.

"You've got to use common sense," he says.

"If you use nylon instead of sennit, because you cannot get good quality sennit," then that is acceptable.

The Hawaiian Preservation Society has approved nylon parachute cord for lashings.

Cost matters, too. Ohia, a native wood, is good, but it would cost $30,000 for enough ohia for a hale, Sinenci says. "You use what you have."

Sinenci is more of a purist when it comes to using traditional procedures and behaving in a culturally correct manner.

For that reason, Sinenci plans to be selective in accepting students for the indigenous architecture course he will be teaching at Maui Community College.

Passing this course will be a requirement for getting a permit to build under the indigenous architecture chapter of the building code, if the proposals are adopted.

A prerequisite for the course will be "being a Hawaiian," but Sinenci says "you can be a 100 percent haole Hawaiian."

He will demand that students "have a valid reason" for wanting to become certified Hawaiian builders.

The course will be rigorous, with 132 "contact hours."

It will cover the cultural meaning behind the building, the gathering and processing of materials, and the techniques of erecting them.

Students must be able to lift 40 pounds and use hand tools. They must be physically fit, because hale builders sometimes have to tie lashings while hanging upside down.

It's hard work, he says, which is why he is the last of the master builders on the island.

The first class will be limited to 12 students, and if there are more than a dozen applicants, Sinenci will interview each one to select the class.

English says he wants to make sure that "we don't lose the vision" in the details of fitting Native Hawaiian architecture into modern governmental policy. "We're not trying to create an exception" from the building code.

The Land Use and Codes Administration will hold a public informational meeting on the draft proposal at 2 p.m. Monday in the conference room at Kalana Pakui, the Maui Planning Department building.

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