Designing legal tools for the creative and responsible use of land
Reimagining how law, design, and community collaboration can turn ownership into care.
Creative Land Stewardship is an independent research and design platform founded by Professor Alina Ng Boyte to explore how law, architecture, and community collaboration can transform ownership into care. The project develops legal and practical tools that align private property, sustainability, and the ethics of aloha ʻāina.
To design and test legal, architectural, and community tools that help private owners and public actors collaborate in the sustainable, ethical, and imaginative use of land.
Each of these five pillars are created to provide a laboratory of ideas and best practices under that umbrella goal of designing and testing legal, architectural, and community tools for public-private-communal collaboration for the most sustainable, ethical, and imaginative use of land.
Core question: How can legal structures sustain cultural and architectural heritage through continued use?
Tool or outcome: Model easements, adaptive preservation templates, incentives guide.
Core question: How can zoning and code frameworks support creative transformation of existing buildings?
Tool or outcome: Model code amendments, case studies (e.g., Patagonia Honolulu).
Core question: How can private and community actors co-manage vulnerable coastal zones?
Tool or outcome: Co-management agreements, trust models, stewardship guidelines.
Core question: How can property development law secure equitable outcomes and shared prosperity?
Tool or outcome: Model CBA clauses, community negotiation toolkit.
Core question: How can corporate and real estate law embed SDG-aligned stewardship?
Tool or outcome: Creative Stewardship Certification model, benefit covenant prototypes.