Thesis

Place-Based Design · Cultural Economy

Designed from Hawaiʻi

La'akea Ching  ·  2026

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Abstract

The most enduring creative cultures are not those that produced the most. They are those that built the infrastructure to carry what they made. This paper argues that Hawaiʻi's specific conditions, its histories, relationships, values, and creative lineage, are not limitations but competitive advantages. Rooting design practice in place produces work that could not have emerged anywhere else. That distinctiveness is the point.

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