MODERN INDIGENOUS

TRINOMA
along EDSA and North Avenue, Quezon City

TriNoma, which means Triangle North of Manila, is the latest shopping destination owned by

Ayala Land Corporation. The P3.5 billion project sits on a 20-hectare property along EDSA and
North Avenue and is easily accessed via MRT3.

What is ‘Philippine Indigenous Architecture’?

Architecture is reflected from the culture of a country, therefore, the culture of the
Philippines replicates the complexity of the history of the Philippines through the blending of
many diverse traditional Malay heritages mixed with Spanish, American and other
Asian cultures.

Just like the bahay kubo, Ivatan houses, torogan house and the houses-on-stilts in
Mindanao, these Philippine ethnic houses show the intricacy of the Filipino character towards
their homes. Filipinos being ornate, practical, and nature loving, they used natural resources
like rocks/stones, wood, nipa shingles, grass, etc. as building materials. And also because of the
environmental influences:

Geography and Topography

-Philippines as an archipelago of 7,110 islands and some geologists asserted that the
Philippines was of volcanic origin.

Geology and Materials

-The Philippines is rich in latent wealth found in her vast lands of valleys, plains, hills and
mountain ranges and the waters along her extensive coastlines. There is a great variety of
timber, mineral land areas. Iron, copper, gold, tin, clay, limestones, manganese are mined in
many parts of the country. The best timber products used for building and furniture making are
narra, molave, yakal, dao, ipil, guijo, tanguile, palosapis and others found in extensive mountain
ranges and hills. Palm and rattan are also abound. These are used form minor light
construction.

Climate and Seismic Condition

- Climate, topography and seismic conditions dictate a highly functional type of

architecture. Torrential rains, typhoon, tidal waves, heat, humidity, earthquake are common
 occurrences in the Philippines. The main seasons in the Philippines are the dry-hot season from
March to June; rainy-wet season from July to November. December to February experience
mild climate. Torrential rains cause floods, washing out coastal towns and destroying forest and
farmlands.

Ancient Tagala-Malay Architecture

 build houses of bamboo and wood thatched with grass or palm leaves or nipa, with a pair of
steep gables, each gable end terminated with a motif of carabao skull head
 The upper part of the gable wall was covered with brilliantly colored woven matting in a
decorative manner
 The house was raised on wooden posts or stilts about six feet above the ground, and with an
open roofless verandah extending on the whole front of the house
 the interior was one large room or open hall for all purposes save for a low partitioned cubicle
used as the conjugal room of the household
 there was no need to decorate because their household equipment provided color and
ornament such as floor mats, weapons, musical instruments, earthenware, silver and bronze
wares and pottery
 The main entrance of the Datu's house faced the east with a large open court in front, at the
center of which was planted the "tree of life" or totem pole superimposed with the carabao's
skull, streamers and garlands
 The rich decorative designs called okir were carved on posts, beams, doorways, fascias and
others. The most developed phase of the Muslim-filipino decorative art commonly known as
"Maranaw art" was executed in bamboo, wood, silver, bronze and other alleys
 The "sarimanok" was an important decorative abstract design, the symbolism of which was
inherited from our Malays or Tagala as the symbol of the rooster
 The Indonesians who came six thousand years ago introduced the grass-covered house with
rounded roofs. This type was originally sunk one meter into the ground, raised later to the
ground level, and still later, constructed on stilts
 The malay immigrants who came later introduced the squarish type of structure supported by
four posts and capped by a pyramidal roof. the sumatran-type of dwellings of wood, provided
with steep, graceful roof and decorated with intricate carvings of wood are now found in Lanao,
Cotabato and other southern provinces of Mindanao
 Terraces were evident building skill of the Ifugaos. The most extensive of these are three
thousand year old Rice Terraces in Banawe, Mountain Province

Trinoma being a ‘modern indigenous’ architecture

 First of all because traditional ethnic Filipino architecture, especially ‘bahay kubo’, are all
GREEN ARCHITECTURE, for PHILIPPINES IS A TROPICAL COUNTRY, therefore, the best kind of
architecture here in the Philippines is – TROPICAL GREEN ARCHITECTURE.

TRINOMA follows Filipino design tradition that combines the simplicity of nature, and
also combined with the complexity of modern-day architecture.

 Green architecture – for it extensively uses natural sunlight and natural ventilation; widely
incorporated landscape areas.
 Uses the ingenuity of natural building materials like stones (crazy cut), wood, rubblework:
 BAHAY KUBO

IVATAN HOUSE

For walls:

Fairfax Green Honed Trinoma Pattern – combined the wall patterns of

the ‘bahay kubo’ and the stone walls of ‘ivatan houses’.
 Fairfax Green Split face Trinoma Pattern– combined the wall patterns of
the ‘bahay kubo’ and the stone walls of ‘ivatan houses’.

Golden Woodstone Trinoma Patterna– combined the wall patterns of

the ‘bahay kubo’ and the stone walls of ‘ivatan houses’.

For floors and stairs:

 Abundance of Landscape area, just like the ‘bahay kubo’ which is surrounded by plants.

BAHAY KUBO
 Profusion of Aquascape spots similar to the ‘houses-on-stilts’ in Mindanao.


Louvers (made from wood) – conceptualized from the
stilts

 Shape of the whole structure – similar to the shape of the ‘Rice Terraces in Banawe’
  Cantilever Roofing – roofing is in layers, resembling the layers of the ‘Rice Terraces in
Banawe’

 Ends of each of cantilever roofing – modernized ‘okir’ (decorative element of the

‘torogan’ houses of the Maranaos.
 Lamps and Columns – has the rattan-like pattern, showing the ingenuity of native
Filipino materials.

 Slanted Pylons – followed the shape of the slanted

walls of the Ifugao dwellings; made out of rubblework (a significance for bahay-na-bato
or ivatan houses)

 Open Terraces – likeness of the ‘balconahe’ of the bahay kubo.

  Air Vents – just like the wall openings or air vents of the ‘bahay kubo’

 Torch-like Lamps – imitating the early native

source of lighting of the Filipinos (Flame
Torch)

*Roofing of the Trinoma has

the resemblance of the shape of
the national plant of the
Philippines – Anahaw.
Philippine Modern Architecture – concept of Gerry’s Grill (one of the restaurants in Trinoma)

 Used rubbleworks
 Used wood patterns
 Native Lampshades

Sets
of

native chairs and tables

Philippine Modern Architecture – concept of Crustacia (one of the restaurants in Trinoma)

 Used wood as the main building material

 Used different kinds of colorful oranates

“Filipinos love to go to Trinoma or other places that has

tropical green architecture, not only because its relaxing
and you can experience nature in the city, but because our
own culture reflects on the architecture itself, that is why
we are at ease when going in such places because its our
hearts (culture) attached within it, we are inside of our
ethnicity, yet it is only modernized to fit the trends of
today.”