Native Materials and Typical Uses

At Hualalai, traditions of caring for the ‘aina flow through to the building that goes on today. Creating a dream home literally from the ground up provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of local and sustainable materials that also offer up the beauty and mana inherent in the land.

Building materials available today range from rock to wood to glass and plastics. Consult with your architect and building contractor to find out what's available from local sources, what makes ecological sense locally and globally, and what will achieve the home you envision.

Traditional Hawaiian Building Materials

The traditional native house, or hale, was a weather-tight thatched home built over a pole frame. While most days were lived primarily outdoors, hale provided sheltered sleeping space, storage areas, and protection from rough weather.

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Hala

The grass hale followed a basic construction pattern common throughout Polynesia. A wooden framework of ridgepole, rafters, and purlins or horizontal supports provided the hale's "bones." Lashed on top of this substructure was the thatching, most commonly pili grass but Hawaiians also used pandanus (hala tree) leaves, ti, sugar cane leaves, banana trunk fiber, and other grasses. For lashing material, Hawaiians used braided ‘uki'uki grass, coconut husk fiber, or ‘ie'ie, a strong vine. They used no nails.

Decades after Western contact, grass hale continued to be used. By 1816 they were still prevalent but adobe and coral block houses were also beginning to appear near Honolulu harbor. By 1837, pili grass and local woods were still the primary building materials, but Western design elements like windows, high ceilings and large portal entrances were beginning to be incorporated.

Woods of the Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands contain the only Pacific tropical forests in the United States. Hawaii's endemic trees grow nowhere else on earth. Most of these species are hardwoods, very dense woods that require special skill to mill, season, and work effectively. Because of this, Hawaiian hardwoods are not typically used for framing and construction; their use is generally limited to fine furniture, decorative items, flooring, veneer, and quality crafted materials that require skill and time to achieve.

The following woods – native or introduced – are grown and harvested locally. Some are appropriate as building and finishing materials; others may find their way into your home as decorative pieces.

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Bamboo	Ironwood	Kamani

• Bamboo – Bamboo is a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae, subfamily babusoideae, tribe babuseae. Fast-growing with a wide range in size, bamboos have high cultural significance in Asia where they are used extensively in gardens, as a building material, and as a food source. Used as flooring, bamboo can withstand wear better than hardwoods. Its attractive light color, easy installation, and durability make it an economical choice. It also presents ecological savings as a resource that can easily be harvested and replenished in a short time with low environmental impact.


• Bluegum (Eucalyptus globulus) – An introduced tree, bluegum was used extensively in reforesting Hawaii's damaged pasture lands in the early twentieth century. The wood is extremely hard and durable and is used primarily for furniture building.


• Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) – This member of the palm family is grown for its fruit rather than its wood, but wood is harvested at the end of the palm's coconut-bearing years to be used for flooring, furniture, and specialized construction. Hawaiians traditionally used hollowed trunks to form drums, containers, and small canoes. Coconut trees rejuvenate quickly, reaching maturity in five or six years, which makes this a sustainable resource.


• Ironwood (Casuarina sp.) – Planted in the Islands originally as windbreaks and as a salt-tolerant tree that could grow in sandy areas or depleted soil, ironwood – difficult to season and work – is used today for exceptionally durable furniture. The wood is dark brown, very tough and dense, with a pronounced ray fleck on its radial planes.


• Kamani (Calophyllum inophyllum) – Kamani grows near the seashore and produces a lustrous wood with interlocking grain. This interlocked grain makes it relatively difficult to work, but it is used for fine cabinetry. The main floor doors of ‘Iolani Palace include panels of kamani veneer. Traditionally this wood was used for bowls.


• Koa (Acacia koa) – Koa is the largest of the endemic trees of Hawai'i, and the fastest growing of the Islands' hardwoods. It has weight and strength properties similar to black walnut. Ancient Hawaiians built their ocean-going canoes from koa. The reddish wood is prized for carving, cabinetry and furniture making. An excellent tonewood, koa is also often used for making musical instruments like ‘ukulele and the weissenborn-style Hawaiian steel guitar.

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Koa	Lemon-gum	Mango

• Lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) – Lehua (or ‘ohi‘a lehua) is the most common endemic tree in Hawai‘i and is one of the first tees able to take root on new lava fields. In ancient times it was used extensively in house and canoe construction, for poi boards, weapons, tool handles, kapa beaters, statues (ki‘i), and as high quality firewood. The leaves were used for religious purposes; the young leaf buds were of medicinal value. The flowers (lehua) and leaf buds (liko lehua) are still used today in lei making. The modern uses of lehua are typically for flooring, cabinetry, and furniture. Wood color ranges from pale brown to dark reddish brown. It is fine grained, very hard, strong, and dense but great care must be used in seasoning this notoriously unstable wood.


• Lemon-gum (Eucalyptus citriodora) – This introduced tree does particularly well at low elevations in Hawai‘i. The light brown or gray brown wood shows distinctive black veins that are highlighted today in furniture designs. Its hard density makes it ideal for high-stress applications like residential flooring, tool handles, trailer decking, and boat framing.


• Mango (Mangifera indicia) – Imported in the 1800s, mango is a favorite fruit tree in the Islands. Its wood contains beautiful grain patterns of blond tones mixed with grays and browns and is used for carved and turned bowls and furniture.


• Milo (Thespesia populnea) – This member of the hibiscus family with its buoyant seeds may have colonized the Hawaiian Islands before the voyages of the Polynesians. The tree is widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean region. Slow-growing, taste-free, and insect-resistant, the wood was used by ancient Hawaiians for making food containers and in boat building. Today dark grained milo is used for bowls, dishes, and platters. This tree – found in beachside settings – is not planted in commercial quantities.


• Monkey pod (Samanea saman) – Introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1800s, this tree grows well in all the tropical regions of the world. The wood is dark-grained and porous and has qualities similar to Honduran mahogany.

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Milo	Silk oak	Sugi

• Norfolk Island pine (Arucaria heterophylla), Cook pine (Arucaria columnaris) – Widely available in Hawai‘i, this tree's light weight wood is similar in strength and characteristics to Rocky Mountain Douglas fir and has a typical pine color. Its most striking modern use is in turned bowls which can take on a brilliant translucence.


• Painted gum (Eucalyptus deglupta) – One of the world's fastest growing trees, the Deglupta is found in many Hawai‘i forest reserves. Its wood is relatively light, stable and runs from pale browns to pinkish browns in color. The grain often features pronounced stripes which furniture builders highlight. It is also used extensively for cabinet work.


• Robusta (Eucalyptus robusta) – This is the most commonly planted of the 100+ eucalyptus species introduced to Hawai‘i. A moderately large tree, its mature wood is very hard and typically very heavy. In strength it's similar to white oak. Robusta is used to build extremely durable furniture.


• Saligna, Flooded-gum (Eucalyptus saligna) – Since 1880 this tree was widely used for reforestation in Hawai‘i. The moderately heavy wood ranges from pale brown to pink in color and is fine grained. In many applications it resembles cherry.


• Silk oak (Grevillea robusta) – An Australian native commonly called "silky oak," this tree was introduced for shade, ornament, and reforestation. Moderately dense and of a lustrous golden color, this open-grained wood finishes well.


• Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) – Often called Japanese cedar or Sugi pine, this aromatic softwood is native to Japan. The Hawai‘i Division of Forestry planted it in the Islands between 1910 and 1960. Its sapwood is white or yellow, with a reddish brown heartwood. With properties similar to Western red cedar, it is used for aromatic drawer linings and more recently for decorative items.

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Toon

• Toon (Toona ciliata) – Also called Australian red cedar (it has a strong aromatic cedar scent), this tree was introduced in 1918 for plantation use. The lightweight, reddish wood carves and turns particularly well. Several stands grow in Hawai‘i forests.


• Tropical ash (Fraxinus uhdei) – Originally introduced in 1880 as a shade tree, tropical ash has been planted since the 1920s in Hawai‘i as a forest and watershed cover tree. Its wood is similar to white ash – white, moderately hard and light weight – and is used in furniture for its light color and fine grain.


• Wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicensis) – Also called Hawaiian coral tree, wiliwili is a very soft, light wood similar to tropical American balsa. Because of its buoyancy and durability, Hawaiians used it for the outriggers on their canoes, surfboards, and fishnet floats.

Other Hawaiian Materials

• Rock from Hawaiian quarries is used for a variety of construction purposes. From stone veneers to full-sized boulders, rock is available for structural as well as decorative uses. Basalt lava rock common on all the islands provides a rough surface and dark colors. Moss stone found on O‘ahu is a smoother igneous volcanic rock, gray to black in color.


• Glass can be crushed to any size specified by the end user. Uses range from aggregate substitute for road construction (glasphalt), glass beads for reflective paint, glass sand, abrasive for sandblasting grit, to architectural accents like glass tiles and bricks. Glass recycling companies in Hawai‘i make many of these products.


• Fabrics from plant fibers were important in ancient times – kapa for clothing, fiber rope and cordage – and they continue to be used today. Traditionally the primary plant used to make a very strong cording was olona (Touchardia latifolia). Hawaiians also used coconut (niu) husks, the inner bark of the hau tree and ‘ahu‘awa, a native sedge. Kapa continues to be made from wauke by beating, fermenting, and compressing the plant material into sheets which are dyed, decorated, and scented. Today kapa is produced primarily as art pieces for display.


• Plastic products made locally from recycled plastics include roofing insulation products, wall systems, and perimeter, foundations, underslab, and cavity wall insulation.