REVIEWING ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS

Different style or different anticipations of architecture

brings quality, integrity and specially uniqueness of an
architect. Context regarding through design and
application brings originality to an architect to embrace
personal identity. With that, my attention was caught
from the structure Cultural Center of the Philippines by
Architect Leandro Locsin, a quintessential man, pianist,
artist, interior designer. An architect who set standard to
the new and innovative land of Pasay City. Architect
Leandro Locsin contributes a different approach to
Filipino architecture known as “brutalism”, with this type
of style Leandro Locsin defies the nature of weight and
the volume of a structure exhibiting floating volume
which is remarkably brilliant.

The integration of form and volume, imitation of the Pre-

Spanish dwellings in the Philippines such as an Ifugao
House, a favor asked by the First Lady Imelda Marcos to
design a cultural center which is CCP that is brilliantly
impressive where the design perceives buoyancy and
gravity. An approach where the structure is divided into
mass of concrete. The lightness of the massive block of
concrete sits on multiple displacements of supports
underneath. Specifically, focusing on the material
concrete is dispatches the vernacularity of the Filipino
architecture. With a multiple structure that encompasses
Brutalism, Bipolarity of modern architecture from the
vernacular material in the Philippines was suppressed
due to the consistency of his work. In that condition,
Leandro Locsin still managed the efficiency of the
design from exterior to interior, applying distinctive
techniques that is barely used in Filipino architecture,
Incorporating the Ifugao houses to a monumental form.
Still, his incredible perspective to architecture influenced
different architects such as Jose Zaragoza’s Meralco
Building and Alfredo Luz’s Magsaysay Center. Imitating
the influence of the Floating mass to their design. The
difference of his design with unique understanding to
traditional forms, brought back the stand of architecture
in the Philippines. Signifying monumental architecture
reintroduce the new culture producing new from by
developing the past shelters into an innovative work and
production of new decorators.

An architect that sets standard, re-introducing art to the

Filipino architecture, creating a new diverse culture of
understanding the beauty and its function. A new
production of forms to unite the art and culture of the
Philippines. According to Leandro Locsin “The Philippines
is a hybrid culture, this is our weakness and our strength”
it is a signal for us to widen our field in terms of art, we
are decorators, we are the movement through beauty,
we are the voice through function. We are the eyes of
innovation.