halau la'au lapa'au

Imagining a new courtyard to the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine, the design of a mala la'au lapa'au (healing garden) and adjacent hale for learning, form a new piko that reconnects the land to its place and spirit. A circle with 8 posts, each representing a different part of the kumulipo, eliminates the traditional center post and replaces the ceremonial post with a shaft of light. The oculus connects sky and earth in day and night, with the spirit and knowledge of the living standing between them. Gardens of endemic plants used in the traditional healing processes, and plants incorporated into the canon of la'au lapa'au surround the hale and waft it with the spirit of holistic health and healing.