Strawn Sierralta

Design partners1 operating across academia2, practice3, research4, and leadership5.

FEATURED WORKS

Spaces for Places

A toolkit to engage the community in place caretaking on sensitive sites

Spaces for Places is a toolkit to engage the community in place care-taking on sensitive sites developed in collaboration with Hawai’i County to aid in recovery after the 2018 volcanic eruption of Kīlauea. Components for use “At the Table” and “In the Field,” guide teams in preparation for activities and conversations about Understanding Place and Making Space. A variety of spatial configurations for interpretive installations can be tested before committing to anything permanent with a set of “Field Frames” that create “Spatial Sketches” on-site in real-time.


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Holistic Housing
Design Toolkit

A collection of tools and resources for designing housing for all

The Holistic Housing Design Toolkit is a comprehensive collection of tools and resources rooted in the Holistic Housing Design Framework. This framework outlines 12 strategies and 36 design actions aimed at fostering walkable, sustainable, and equitable communities. Written in plain language, the toolkit is designed to inspire innovative future designs, guide redevelopment processes, and enhance community engagement in planning mixed-income and mixed-finance housing solutions. It is freely accessible through the Hawai‘i Housing Lab, which also serves as a platform for documenting collaborative efforts that utilize this framework.

2024 Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards


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‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i Campus

Supporting Hawaiian language revitalization and normalization

The Ōlelo Hawai‘i Campus proposes a series of spaces that support the normalization and revitalization of the Hawaiian language. This project was co-developed with representatives from six Native Hawaiian language organizations and supports a complete educational system from preschool to Ph.D., taught entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. The multi-phase project, designed for the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo campus, highlights and aligns ceremonial protocol spaces for three new buildings with Hilo Bay and the sacred Mauna Kea.

2024 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award
2023 Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards
2023 AIA Honolulu Award of Excellence


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Beyond Wayfinding

Incorporating Indigenous knowledge and protocols into campus signage

Beyond Wayfinding is a bi-lingual signage and wayfinding system acknowledges and celebrates the layered environmental, social, cultural, academic, and historical contexts of the campus. This interactive network was co-designed with Native Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners, Kūha'o Zane, Nalani Kanaka‘ole, and Sig Zane, to invite guests to learn Indigenous navigation techniques and corporal alignment practices while highlighting significant locations and topographical elements surrounding the university.

2023 AIA Honolulu Distinctive Detail Award
2023 Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award
2023 Good Design Award
2023 Graphic Design USA’s Digital Design Award
2023 SEGD Global Design Award


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Footnotes

1. Karla Sierralta and Brian Strawn have worked together since 2003 and are the primary authors of all the creative works presented in this digital archive.
2. As members of the University of Hawai’i community, many of their activities and outputs are closely tied to teaching and learning.
3. As architects and active participants in the professional community, they have collaborated on speculative and real-world design projects. Sierralta is currently leading all private design and consulting activities.
4. As principal investigators at a Carnegie R1 research institution, operating through multiple contractual mechanisms, their work aims to challenge existing typologies, create new knowledge, and broaden understanding.
5. Through their design labs and non-profit roles, they collaborate on special projects with talented teams of individuals to create more equitable futures. All production team members and consultants are paid through individual project funding.