PREPARING OUR LEADERS WHO TRANSFORM OUR PROFESSION
The Hawaii Architectural Foundation believes in supporting students and helping them to achieve their goals of graduating with an Architectural Degree. Since 2013, the Foundation has given out over $30,000 to support architectural students in our state. This support comes in different forms, listed below. Typically, awards range from $1,000-$3,000.
THE HAWAII ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP
Congratulations to this years' Hawaii Architectural Foundation Scholarship recipients, Nevaeah Angel Nacion and Tiana Nicole Mangrobang!
Funded by HAF and administered by HAF and AIA Honolulu, this need-based scholarship is open to Hawaii residents enrolled in a NAAB-accredited architecture program. Each recipient was awarded $4,000 to further their studies and future in architecture.
THE AIA haf school of architecture master of architecture (MArch) award
Congratulations to Jessica Aellen, the 2025 MArch Award of Merit recipient! Check out Jessica's presentation, "A Shelter for Homeless Teenagers in Waimanalo"
This project proposes a mixed-use residential and therapeutic shelter for homeless youth ages 14 to 24, located on a farm in Waimānalo, Oʻahu. It supports RYSE, a nonprofit organization serving youth experiencing homelessness in Hawaiʻi, where rates are among the highest in the U.S. Many of these teenagers face mental health challenges, and this project aims to provide not just shelter, but healing, dignity, and connection to nature.
The building is designed for a small community and blends with the surrounding farmland through soft, horizontal forms that echo the nearby mountain landscape. It includes therapy and gathering spaces, private rooms, communal kitchens, and outdoor areas that support reflection and social connection.
Key features include a raised outdoor terrace, curving interior corridors that promote privacy and comfort, and the use of natural materials such as wood-fiber insulation. The structure is made of lightweight metal framing and wood components, chosen to reduce environmental impact and allow flexibility in construction.
The architecture prioritizes openness, safety, and well-being through passive design and biophilic principles. By fostering both physical and emotional healing, this project demonstrates how architecture can play a meaningful role in helping vulnerable youth reconnect with themselves, with others, and with the land.
THE AIA haf school of architecture doctorate of architecture (darch) award
Up to three awards are given each year to students graduating from the Doctoral program (DArch) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture. These awards are judged by current HAF board members during the students’ final presentations. The following awards were given:
Award of Excellence - Beau Nakamori - “AI Architecture: A Resilient Hawaii Through Data Infrastructure & Clean Energy Sovereignty”
This thesis reframes AI infrastructure as inseparable from energy infrastructure and argues for Hawai'i-built, sovereign compute. The current grid still relies on imported fossil fuels, which creates volatile prices, supply shocks, and high electricity costs that cap local AI capacity. Instead of grid-first data centers, the thesis proposes 5 to 15 MW facilities powered primarily by on-site renewables, with the grid as backup. Three place-based concepts are evaluated: ocean energy cooling and generation at HPU’s Oceanic Institute, a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, and geothermal at Puna Geothermal Venture. A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), covering economic, regulatory, reliability, technical maturity, sustainability, scalability, and adaptability, guides siting and design.
Sovereign AI matters in the Intelligence Age because compute is the new strategic resource. Training and serving frontier models require stable megawatt scale power, low-latency networks, secure data custody, and operational control. Off-island hosting leaks value, raises latency, and adds geopolitical and disaster recovery risk. Hawai‘i should not be a downstream user in this era but a leader, setting a model for resilient island AI infrastructure.
To complement centralized high-performance compute, the thesis explores decentralized Small Modular Supercomputers, a distributed edge layer in campuses and communities. Networked SMSCs can share workloads, island with microgrids during outages, reduce backhaul, enable privacy-preserving compute, and let residents and institutions participate in the compute economy. Together, centralized HPC and decentralized SMSC form AI Architecture, an integrated and resilient model that secures Hawai‘i’s energy and data sovereignty and enables leadership in the Intelligence Age.
Award of Merit - Trinh Tran - “Climate-resilient Housing for River-based Communities in the Mekong Delta”
The dissertation examines the connection between architecture, environment, and community in the Mekong Delta, a region where flooding is both a risk and an integral part of daily life. Instead of treating floods as temporary crises, the project defines resilience as a continuous cycle that unfolds before, during, and after disaster events. To ground this idea, the study turns to the everyday domestic landscape, the vernacular structures and practices of local residents, as a source of critical knowledge for solutions that are both culturally rooted and environmentally adaptive.
Building on this foundation, the design is developed as a modular kit-of-parts system, allowing for easy assembly, expansion, transformation, or replacement. The structure is simplified so that even non-specialized labor can carry out on-site construction and maintenance, while residents can customize façades, reinforcing a sense of belonging. A house thus becomes more than shelter; it is a node in the community network, where families share infrastructure and support one another, weaving together a resilient fabric that is enduring, connected, and deeply embedded in cultural identity.
Award of Merit - Lijin Zhao - “The Power of Pop-Ups: Strategic Urban Guidelines for Indeterminate Public Spaces in NYC”
Privately owned public spaces (POPS) often result in indeterminate urban areas that lack clear public value. In New York, informal food vendors frequently "borrow" these underutilized sites, turning passive voids into vibrant destinations. Although operating under different regulatory frameworks, POPS and food trucks intersect in practice, forming an informal yet functional relationship of mutual exchange. This study asks whether temporary, mobile food trucks can serve as a strategy to activate long-neglected POPS, and how such informal practices might be integrated into formal urban management networks. It also considers what design and policy frameworks are necessary to sustain accessibility and usage in privatized public spaces.
Using GIS-based spatial analysis, pedestrian flow data, and policy review, the research finds that POPS often fail to provide the accessibility and value of conventional public spaces, with limited funding for long-term maintenance. Food trucks, positioned as potential coordinating permittees, offer a low cost and flexible way to bridge the gap between public and private stakeholders. The study concludes with form-based design guidelines for incorporating temporary food facilities into long-term governance. These strategies can improve vendor management, create jobs, and enhance the quality of public space, while also raising critical questions about the role of continued public investment in privately owned sites.
THE AIA maui/HAF SCHOLARSHIP
Funded by HAF and AIA Maui and administered by AIA Maui to eligible to Maui County residents. Two scholarships are given out each year, one to a graduating high school senior and one to an architectural college student, both must be enrolled in NAAB-accredited programs.
The AIA Maui has awarded two $5,000 Architectural scholarships in 2025. Lahainaluna High School graduate, Jake McGilI, will begin this fall at Montana State University. Second awardee, Mico Corpuz, also a Lahainaluna graduate will be starting his third year in the University of Hawaii Manoa Architectural program.
AIA Maui Scholarship recipients must be Maui residents and must be enrolled in a School of Architecture. Scholarships are awarded on the basis of scholastic ability, extra-curricular activities, dedication to the field of Architecture, and need. Scholarship funds were donated by the National AIA Component Services, Hawaii Architectural Foundation, and AIA Maui members.
Congratulations to this year's 2025 AIA Maui Scholarship Recipients, Jake and Mico!
The AIA Honolulu Scholarship
The AIA Honolulu Architecture Scholarship Program began in 2009 and is jointly administered by the University of Hawaii School of Architecture. The scholarship program annually awards grants to two architectural students in support of their studies in architecture.