The Collection: Curated Architecture and Design in Kaka‘ako, Hawai‘i

Abstract

This Research Note investigates The Collection (2016), a residential development in Kakaʻako, Hawaiʻi. The Collection is part of Our Kakaʻako, an urban revitalization project on land administered by the Kamehameha Schools. The Collection initiates critical conversations about the fraught relationship between contemporary architecture, urban planning, and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) futures in the settler state of Hawai‘i. While The Collection is steeped in neoliberal and capitalist discourses, its monumental presence also enables an interrogation of future possibilities of Honolulu as a just urban society—a place where everyone has a home and Kānaka Maoli can maintain and restore relationships informed by the ʻāina (land; that which feeds).