Rockworks of the Land.

Rockworks of the Land encompasses the garden space engendered by and between two actualized works of lavarock, each borne of this land itself. Situated on an intimate, private forest farm outside of Naʻalehu, Hawai’i, these works of lavarock demonstrate mastery in their edification as exemplar styles of (1) dry-stack lavarock masonry and (2) mortared lavarock masonry. In their function as partitioning and enclosing elements, respectively, they frame this garden space in peace and security. The attentive stone-setting in the dry-stack lavarock wall and the artful weaving of the mortared lavarock enclosure each aim to elevate these materials in the promulgation of this centuries-old building practice here on Hawaiʻi Island. In telling this story, I seek to pay respect to this land and this building practice I undertook, as principal landscape designer & apprentice mason, underneath the tutelage of an elder master stonemason of this craft and land.

These stones are borne of the fire of the earth, cooled and weathered by orographic rainfall from cooled air pushed up the slope of the mauna – the volcanic mount – off the open ocean on this site on Ka Lae, Hawaiʻi. It is with this divine meeting of earth and sky that we, as landscape designer and stonemason, respectively, sought to humbly collaborate in this process through our art.

In the beginning of this process, we paid respect to the mixed-native forest by pruning back the non-native Schinus terebinthifolia (Brazilian pepper tree) to make room for the canopies of the native Hawaiian dryforest tree Alaheʻe. These locations of the old-growth Alaheʻe dictated the siting of the rockworks, so as to be placed only in now-cleared areas of non-native Schinus. In this, the of stewarding the native forest was the act of siting the rockworks.

In digging the footing foundations for each rockwork, I sifted pāhoehoe (smooth lavarock for stone faces) from aʻa (rough lavarock for interior wall fill). I backfilled the foundation with large aʻa rocks and set even bigger individual stones as cornerstones. In so doing, I raised these rockworks from the land itself. For our mortared rockwork, we sited sand from a quarry proximate to this forested site, to ensure our concrete work was of the ultimate essence of the land as well.

Our intention was to contribute to the beauty of these lands through applying the utmost intentionality of respect and elevation to these building materials and this building practice. My vision was to engender garden spaces that invite contemplation and reverence of the beauty of these lands by virtue of the divinity of the stacked and woven rock itself.

Lastly, maintenance demands, particularly with the dry-stacked wall, invite collaboration and ritual between landowner and rockwork. Given that the 6-foot tall dry-stack was achieved without mortar of any kind, the utmost attention to weeding of fledging vines and grasses is undertaken regularly by the owner. This has created a continued ritual of care, as predicted on the architecture of the dry-set, between owner and rockwork. This ultimately perpetuates the aura and essence of veneration and respect in the garden into inifity.