Architecture and engineering students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will have the chance to design and engineer homes at a state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands subdivision in Kapolei, under agreements signed Monday by UH President M.R.C. Greenwood and Hawaiian Homes Commission Chairman Alapaki Nahale-a.

Initial talks would have UH School of Architecture students develop 10 model home designs over 10 years for DHHL’s Kanehili subdivision, but DHHL and UH are optimistic the designs can be used for other homes in Kapolei and elsewhere in Hawaii where the agency is developing homes for native Hawaiian beneficiaries.

The architecture students would be involved in every aspect of designing affordable, custom-built and environmentally friendly homes, officials said.

Engineering students, meanwhile, are being asked to help DHHL identify infrastructure and maintenance issues on its homes and lands, such as rockfall mitigation and drainage and water filtration problems.

Nahale-a said the agreement offers up DHHL lands as a "learning laboratory" for students.

"We are calling on the best our local university has to offer to help us build healthy, sustainable homestead communities and provide diverse homestead opportunities," he said.

Greenwood said she’s hopeful the 10 homes in the initial agreement are just a beginning and that it "ends up being hundreds."

Clark Llewellyn, dean of the UH School of Architecture, said the agreements will make it easier for students to recognize that homes are more than just structures and that "two-by-fours are more than just wood, just as land is more than just dirt."

The partnership is the latest of several joint efforts using UH students to develop DHHL homes. More than 3,000 students of carpentry and other disciplines at Hawaii Community College’s Applied Technical Education program have helped develop one house on a DHHL homestead each year since 1965.