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Cradle to Cradle Development Framework for Hali’imaile,
Maui, Hawaii

Hali’imaile, a community in Maui’s upcountry, is a model for sustainable development where site systems are key informants of community structure, pattern and design at the earliest stages of the planning process. This ambitious effort by Maui Land & Pineapple and A&B Properties addresses pressing issues of affordability and limited community resources in the development of workforce housing.

Responding to the client’s commitment to the Hawaiian culture and its workforce, and their corporate values of contributing to a more environmentally sustaining future for the island, William McDonough + Partners created a planning structure to integrate sustainable design and new urbanist design principles. A “base case” was created projecting water and energy use under conventional development standards to understand the extent of user demand for each system and then to measure the benefits derived from modeling an “optimized case” of sustainable strategies.

By translating architectural and engineering strategies into a language addressing community planning, the framework has created a land planning approach from a new perspective — focused at the interface and integration of spatial planning, site systems and built form. This system-based approach represents early steps toward new and innovative solutions that can apply to the planning of more environmentally sustaining communities worldwide.