Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Political Reality of Globalization and The Open Practice of Architecture in The Philip
The Political Reality of Globalization and The Open Practice of Architecture in The Philip
Group 5A
plans,
consultations,
specifications,
conferences,
evaluations,
investigations,
contract documents and
oral advice and directions
regardless of whether the persons engaged in such
practice are residents of the Philippines or have
their principal office or place of business in this
country or another territory, and regardless of
whether such persons are performing one or all
these duties, or whether such duties are performed
in person or as the directing head of an office or
organization performing them;
"Scope of the Practice of Architecture" encompasses
the provision of professional services in connection
with site, physical and planning and the design,
construction, enlargement, conservation,
renovation, remodeling, restoration or alteration of a
building or group of buildings.
Services may include, but are not limited to:
(a) Planning, architectural designing and structural
conceptualization;
(b) consultation, consultancy, giving oral or written
advice and directions, conferences, evaluations,
investigations, quality surveys, appraisals and
adjustments, architectural and operational planning, site
analysis and other pre-design services;
(c) schematic design, design development, contract
documents and construction phases including
professional consultancies;
(d) preparation of preliminary, technical, economic and
financial feasibility studies of plans, models and project
promotional services;
(e) preparation of architectural plans, specifications, bill
of materials, cost estimates, general conditions and
bidding documents;
(f) construction and project management, giving
general management, administration, supervision,
coordination and responsible direction or the planning,
architectural designing, construction, reconstruction,
erection, enlargement or demolition, renovation, repair,
orderly removal, remodeling, alteration, preservation or
restoration of buildings or structures or complex
buildings, including all their components, sites and
environs, intended for private or public use;
(g) the planning, architectural lay-outing and utilization
of spaces within and surrounding such buildings or
structures, housing design and community architecture,
architectural interiors and space planning, architectural
detailing, architectural lighting, acoustics, architectural
lay-outing of mechanical, electrical, electronic, sanitary,
plumbing, communications and other utility systems,
equipment and fixtures;
(h) building programming, building administration,
construction arbitration and architectural conservation
and restoration;
(i) all works which relate to the scientific, aesthetic
and orderly coordination of all works and branches
of the work, systems and processes necessary for
the production of a complete building or structure,
whether for public or private use, in order to
enhance and safeguard life, health and property and
the promotion and enrichment of the quality of life,
the architectural design of engineering structures or
any part thereof; and
(j) all other works, projects and activities which
require the professional competence of an architect,
including teaching of architectural subjects and
architectural computer-aided design
ISSUES OF THE
PRACTICES IN THE
GLOBAL CONTEXT
The practice of these professions here is threatened to
extinction by the continued bias of clients against them,
the threat of illegal Filipino practitioners, the invasion of
foreign consultants and the exodus of Filipino designers to
better-paying jobs overseas.
The bias against local practitioner s apparently stems from
the public’s misunderstanding of what architects and
related design professionals do.
Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings
and building complexes to house and support the functions
of clients and the public.
As a service, it is like medicine and law where problems or
needs are addressed in a timely and direct manner but
with the additional facet of elegance, aesthetics and good
taste.
Many Filipino architects are treated like suppliers
or contractors, valued only if fees charged are
cheap and if they are willing to be constantly on
call (unlike doctors or lawyers, clients refuse to pay
architects based on time spent at endless
meetings).
It’s a matter of respect, which makes it all the
more aggravating for many locals practitioners
as they witness a whole different attitude given by
clients to foreign-schooled but unregistered or
licensed practitioners or foreign consultants.
Of late, a number of Filipino or Fil-American
designers schooled or who have worked overseas
have set up practices without the necessary
licenses.
Their success has been the product of good
marketing skills, individual packaging (foreign
accents, fashionable dress sense, and conspicuous
attendance in the cocktail circuit) as well as a
competent portfolio of work overseas. It is no
wonder then that local media find these
personalities good copy.
Nevertheless they have been found not to be in the
roster of registered or licensed architects. The
United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) has
sent notices to editors in chief and writers of design
magazines and broadsheets to desist from referring
to these designers as “architects.”
Similar incidents have been cited by the Philippine
Association of Landscape Architects and the
Philippine Institute of Interior Designers regarding
personalities featured in newspapers and magazines
and referred to as landscape architects or interior
designers. All three professions are regulated by the
government and require registration and licenses to
practice.
On a show, architect Alli explained that the
Architecture Law RA9266 (there are similar ones for
landscape architecture, interior design and
environmental planning)protects the interest of the
public and ensures legal accountability for
malpractice or its results—collapsing buildings,
landslides in housing sites, exploding utilities
and the like.
More worrying for the UAP, PALA and PIID is the
proliferation of foreign designers who are featured in
numerous press releases and ads by real estate
developers—complete with portraits and interviews
as to how they have designed this or that new
master planned community, world-class complexes
or trend-setting landscapes and urban design.
The situation with architecture is a bit different but
malpractice in the art and science of designing
buildings could lead, like bad medicine or lawyering,
to loss of life or a sad existence in a structure that
looks and feels like a prison.
Filipino architects are considered world-class
in every country except their own. Like many in
other design professions they are driven overseas
because they are unappreciated and underpaid yet
they possess the technical expertise and capacity
that could create all that public and private clients
are planning to build in support of a booming
economy without there course of foreign
consultants.
Architecture is a proud profession. Its practitioners
have to be respected for them to be able to produce
structures and settings that engender pride of place
and a national identity. Philippine architecture is
best created by Filipinos for Filipinos. If we aspire
instead to live in simulations of other lands and
cultures, then globalization will have shown
its ugliest façade, an illusion of modernity that hides
behind it a poverty of culture and purpose we can
never escape from.
APEC Architects
Manual
OVERVIEW