es•pa•syo 9

JOURNAL OF PHILIPPINE ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS

National Commission for Culture and the Arts

es•pa•syo
JOURNAL OF PHILIPPINE ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS
VOLUME 9 2017-2018
ISSN: 2094-3725

© 2019 National Commission for Culture and the Arts

Printed in the Republic of the Philippines. National Committee on Architecture and Allied Arts
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, 20xx-20xx
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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from the publisher. Central Luzon Representative

Disclaimer Arch. Benedict C. Hermoso

Vice Head
The views expressed in this journal are those of the authors and are not United Architects of the Philippines (UAP)
necessarily those of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, or
the editors of the journal. Arch. Minerva C. Rosel
Secretary
Southern Mindanao

Gerard Rey A. Lico IDr. Sophia L. Calima

Asst. Secretary
Executive Editor Philippine Institute of Interior Designers

Maureen Anne L. Araneta IDr. Brigid A. Sarmiento

Council of Interior Design Educators (CIDE)
Adelaida V. Mayo
Rogelio Caringal Arch. Chona E. Ponce
Associate Editors Council of Deans and Heads of Architecture Schools
in the Philippines (CODHASP)
Glenn T. Orbon LAr. Zenaida DC Galingan
Managing Editor Philippine Association of Landscape Architects (PALA)

Maureen Anne L. Araneta EnP. Maria Theresa L. Quimpo

Review Editor Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP)

Arch. Aida V. Cabang

Gerard Rey A. Lico Northern Luzon Representative
Design
Arch. Wilfredo S. Sy Jr.
Western Visayas Representative
Jose Ibarra C. Cunanan
John Brian E. de Asis IDr. Heidrun Milan
Lucas A. Mangulabnan Eastern/Central Visayas Representative
Editorial Assistant
Arch. Rommel S. Reyes
Western Mindanao Representative
Christian Erold V. Enriquez
Miguel G. Feliciano
Timothy Augustus Y. Ong
Editorial Support
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is the
Michael Ang overall policy-making body, coordinating, grant-giving agency
Luis Maria Bo-ot, Ph.D. that systematizes and streamlines national efforts in promoting
Edson Roy Cabalfin, Ph.D.
Cecilia de la Paz, Ph. D. culture and the arts. The NCCA promotes cultural and artistic
Lorelei de Viana, Ph.D. development; conserves and promotes the nation’s historical
Patrick Flores, Ph.D. and cultural heritage; ensures the widest dissemination of
Kimberly Yung-Gultia artistic and cultural products among the greatest number
Lai Chee Kien, Ph.D. across the country; preserves and integrates traditional culture
Adelaida V. Mayo, Ph.D.
Gloria Teodoro, Ph. D. mainstream, and ensures that standard of excellence are
Michael Tomeldan pursued in its programs and activities. The NCCA administers
Maria Cristina Turalba the National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts (NEFCA).
Johannes Widodo, Ph.D.
David Leonides Yap, Ph.D.
Board of Referees

Cover: Manila Cathedral, Intramuros, Manila

The Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate
Conception (1958), is the religious center of the Archdiocese of Manila.
Established in 1571 but periodically brought down by natural and man-
made calamities, the current reification is a fusion of the Neo-Romanesque National Commission for Culture and the Arts
and Modernist styles, designed by Architect Fernando Ocampo after the 633 General Luna Street, Intramuros, 1002 Manila
Second World War. The edifice underwent restoration in 2012-2014, and
celebrated its 60th dedication anniversary in 2018. www.ncca.gov.ph
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Editorial

ARTICLES
Between Remembrances and Erasures: The Architecture of
2 Memory in A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965)
Tito R. Quiling, Jr.

Living with the Surges: The Parity Between the Local

13 Community and the Experts’ Roles in Nominating Batanes as
a World Heritage Site
Cindy P. Pornelos and Susan C. Aquino-Ong

Post-Earthquake Design Process for Loboc Church Parish in

21 Bohol Island
Pasquale Miano and Candida Maria Vassallo

Neo-Gothic Imaginary of Manila: San Sebastian Church and

41 Revising the City for the Global Age
Jovino G. Miroy

Urban Vertical Expansion: A Study on Reclaiming the Vertical

57 Space above RROWs to create Public Space
Ronald S. Balane

Quantifying Aesthetics: A Study On The Application Of The

72 Salingaros Scaling Coherence Rule to Quezon Hall of The
University Of The Philippines
Nadia L. Mañalac, Anna Ruth Villareal, Luis Maria T. Bo-ot,
and Ringer T. Manalang

Breaking and Entering: A Case Study on Burglary-Prone

87 Parts of the House in Cebu City
Pedro B. Rubia III

STUDENT CONTRIBUTION
94 Algorithm Theories and Heritage Conservation: Applying
Parametric Design on the Intendencia Building in Intramuros
Miguel G. Feliciano

REVIEWS

98 Dilao: Urban and Cultural History of Paco

Elijah Joshua Benjamin D.F. Aban

99 Tropical Architecture for the 21st Century

Maureen Anne L. Araneta

100 Architects in the Margins

Maureen Anne L. Araneta

An Architect’s Illustrated Guide to R.A. 9514 Fire Code of the

101 Philippines and its IRR
Lucas A. Mangulabnan
102 Regulating Colonial Spaces (1965-1944)
Elijah Joshua Benjamin D.F. Aban

EXHIBITION REVIEWS

103 Manila Cathedral: A Legacy of Architecture and Faith

Lucas A. Mangulabnan

105 Mañosa: Beyond Architecture

Sam Rañosa

The City Who Had Two Navels

107 Paulo Alcazaren

Framing the Spectacle of Space: Juan Arellano, Architect -

108 Painter
Edgar Allan M. Sembrano
Editorial
Spaces are charged with personal, collective and
at times ‘imaginary’ memories that we value.
Memories are accumulated, negotiated and
shaped by a myriad of forces surrounding its
inception. Certain agencies, actors, emotions, and
even the climate affects how memory is conceived.
One person’s memory of an event or a place may
be different from another. Space is never neutral. It
plays an active role in the creation and reception of
memories. This in turn invests it with the power to
shape our perceptions of it and creates a plurality
of voices that transforms spaces into places.
The refereed articles in this issue largely revolve
around the ideas of memory, perception, and the
negotiations between the public and private
sphere. Space is seen not merely as a setting for
interpersonal and social interactions, but as an
active dimension that influence the quality and
overall dynamics of such interfaces.
Quilong discusses architecture as a flashpoint of
memory and its manifestations in the 1965 film
adaptation of Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist
as Filipino. This is then juxtaposed and contrasted
with a post-script that discusses the actual house
in which the film was shot, and the memories of
the owners who lived in it.
Pornelos and Aquino-Ong bare the conflict of
determining outstanding heritage value in
Batanes and the negotiation of these values
between professionals and the local populace.
The top-down approach to conserving sites is
refuted with a collaborative grassroots approach in
determining the most ideal manner of preserving
the locale’s heritage sites.
Miano and Vasallo present the application of
fluid post-emergency design processes in the
conservation of Loboc church which takes its cues
from the sites pre- and post-emergency contexts
to create a conservation and design plan that best
suits the community’s new needs. Comparing the
design process as applied in other sites in Bohol,
the study yields a myriad of possibilities which
show a conservation approach that is forward-
looking but context sensitive.
Miroy discusses the San Sebastian Church as
a focus for the urban reimagining of Manila in
the global age, considering the interface of the
ontological bearings of neo-gothic architecture,
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
modern urbanity, and the phenomenology of
the modern city of Manila in the contemporary
pluralistic context.
Balane proposes the adoption of the current trend
of urban vertical expansion over road right of ways
to create more livable cities for the Philippines and
how similar developments adhere to or may be
affected by current policies.
Quantifying aesthetics was explored in the study
of the Quezon Hall in University of the Philippines
Diliman. Manalac, Villareal, Bo-ot, and Manalang
apply the Salingaros Scaling Coherence Rule to the
façade of the building and compare the resulting
form with the existing one. They then compare the
two through a survey to determine the efficacy of
such theoretical applications in objectifying the
highly subjective nature of aesthetics.
Lastly, the vulnerabilities of residential architecture
are examined by Rubia in his study of burglary-
prone areas in Cebu city’s houses. The study
balances its discussion by presenting comparative
accounts from homeowners, police, and persons
convicted for the same crime.
This edition of Espasyo introduces a new section
on student contributions. The editorial team
acknowledges the innovative and emerging
ideas from undergraduate students and seeks to
promote discourse on these ideas and concepts.
The exhibits reviewed in this issue continue the
theme of memory and negotiations, beginning
with the retrospective exhibits of Francisco
Mañosa and Juan Arellano. The Manila Cathedral
exhibit celebrates the legacy of architecture and
faith of the post-war cathedral building as the
Archdiocese of Manila commemorates its 60th
dedication anniversary. Espasyo shares in this
celebration by featuring the church in this volume’s
cover. The Philippine Pavilion at the 16th Venice
Architecture Biennale also shows the negotiation
of the postcolonial and the neoliberal nature of
Philippine cities.
It is our hope that this edition of Espasyo will
continue to promote and push the discourse in
architecture and allied arts, and forge the path
for the better appreciation, understanding, and
development of the Philippine built environment.
1
 Between Remembrances
and Erasures:
The Architecture of Memory in A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965)
TITO R. QUILING, JR.
Tito R. Quiling, Jr. has a BA in Literature with an Outstanding
Thesis merit from the University of Santo Tomas and an MA Media
Studies in Film from the University of the Philippines Diliman
where he was awarded Best Thesis. He is currently with the
Department of Literature at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila.
His research and writing interests center on the intersections of
cinema, architecture, and the city.
ABSTRACT
With the bahay na bato (stone house) as a central
image in Lamberto Avellana’s film adaptation of A
Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965), the study
explores how attachment is built between the
inhabitants and the house, focusing on personal
and collective memories embedded in the domestic
space. The reactive nature of the house is illustrated
by leaning on architectural phenomenology,
where multi-sensory experiences contribute to
concretizing recollections and strengthening the
sentiments within lived spaces. On this note, the
lived experiences of the characters are viewed
through the phenomenology of film. And by way of
filmic representation of the senses, the narrative
is developed as the systematized phenomenon
in revealing the interactions between characters.
The film captures them in moments of uncertainty
and emancipation, in which their decisions are
influenced by the temper of the times. With
memory and time as organic elements, the theme
of the film questions the position of art and the
preservation of cultures in nation-building.
Keywords: architecture, film, memory,
phenomenology, Philippine cinema
2 es pa syo 9
INTRODUCTION
Houses bear traces—the scars on a rocking chair,
the circular stain on the wooden table, the footsteps
of a family member and the scent of a room upon
opening the door. With these marks, one imagines
the lives within a house. But more than being a
repository of memories and experiences, how does
the house function as a conscience?
A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965) is a
film adaptation of a three-act play by National
Artist for Literature Nick Joaquín. Regarded as
the most successful and widely-viewed stage
play in Philippine literature and theater, some
of the adaptations of Portrait include a reading
performance, a 45-minute radio drama, and a
theatrical production with an impressive run
of over 160 shows—all of which were jointly-
organized by National Artist for Theater, Daisy
Hontiveros-Avellana and her husband, National
Artist for Film and Theater, Lamberto Avellana.
With Manuel de Leon as the producer, the
film adaptation’s screenplay was written by
the Avellanas under their pen names, Donato
Valentin and Trinidad Reyes.1 Lamberto Avellana’s
remarkable interpretation of time-honored
Filipino qualities reflect cinema’s partiality in
representing history and identity.

Figure 1. Movie poster of Portrait of the Artist as Filipino when
it premiered in 1965. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
Avellana is an important figure in Philippine film
history with a career spanning six decades and
70 films. The 1950s and the 1960s was often
considered as the “First Golden Age” and Avellana
was one of the outstanding directors alongside
Gerardo de Leon, Manuel Conde, Ramon Estella,
Manuel Silos, Gregorio Fernandez, and César
Gallardo, to name a few. Starting his film career
with Sakay (1939), his works such as Anak Dalita
(1956, scr. Rolf Bayer) and Badjao (1957, scr. Bayer)
similarly received international acclaim.
Avellana’s most celebrated film is an adaptation
of Joaquín’s play which shows the richness of the
Filipino’s diverse cultural influences. Hailed as
the foremost Filipino writer in English, Joaquín’s
writings on pre-war Philippines focused on the
“high moral values on the part of the Filipino”2
—a quality which resonated with Avellana.
Combining these with the important issues of
his time—particularly the urban reconstruction of
the 1950s, he presented them through traditional
modes of Filipino filmmaking. And despite the
budget constraints of the time due to the post-
war recession, Avellana utilized the “rawness”
of Philippine reality, favoring authenticity over
escapism3 and going against the prevailing belief
that the Filipino audience was “unperceptive” and
“socially-unaware.” More importantly, Avellana
believed that appreciation for better films stems
from presenting truth in various forms.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
CINEMATIC SENSES
In augmenting the qualities of the bahay na bato
(stone house), this study anchors on selected
components of the house following the narrative
and the characters through phenomenological
strains in cinema and architecture. Classical
phenomenology explores the “phenomena”
of one’s experiences, viewing the structure of
one’s consciousness. On this note, the house is
illustrated as a receptacle for one’s memories,
where recollections are triggered by key fixtures
of the domestic space. As the home observes
our daily experiences, the researcher recalls and
follows a statement from Michel de Certeau that:
Places are fragmentary and inward-
turning histories, pasts that others are
not allowed to read, accumulated times
that can be unfolded but like stories held
in reserve, remaining in an enigmatic
state, symbolizations encysted in the
pain or pleasure of the body.4
Phenomenology of film underlines multi-
sensory experiences, asserting that images and
objects onscreen are perceived as one does in
reality. Through the senses, Vivian Sobchack
reminds that our eyes merge with the camera’s
eye in experiencing the filmic world as the
events onscreen become authentic through
sensory perception. On this note, Laura Marks
hypothesizes that in the absence of the other
senses when viewing a film (i.e. scent, taste and
touch), we recall our “memories of the senses”
to aid in making our experience “lifelike.”5 The
representational view of the camera shows
the constant (re)production of memories and
experiences tied to places. One’s view of reality
begins in the consciousness, where personal
insight is constructed before progressing into the
collective plane of perception.
Correspondingly, phenomenology in architecture
puts forward how the characteristics of a place
can be measured through sensorial qualities.
For Juhani Pallasmaa, lived experiences are
embodied in architecture, relating certain fixtures
to a human being’s body parts.6 Similarly, Gaston
Bachelard defined the phenomenon of dwelling
as topoanalysis (“the systematic psychological
study of the sites of our intimate lives”)7
observing how residents, houses, and habitation
co-exist harmoniously or dissonantly. People
react to the atmosphere inside the house. In
turn, the space becomes witnesses to their public
and private lives. In this study, the house in
Portrait has witnessed various spatial dynamics
and the current situation of the inhabitants
present how the memories from their untroubled
days are exposed to erasure, heightened by the
uncertainty of their immediate future as their
3

Figure 2 and 3. Interiors of the Marasigan House. Courtesy of
Diadem Pictures
Figure 4 and 5. Paula, Bitoy, and Candida viewing Retrato del
Artista Como Filipino. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
4 es pa syo 9
land transitions from the customs of the Spanish
to the modernization by the Americans.
THE STONE HOUSE
At the closing of the Spanish-American War in
1898, the Treaty of Paris marked the beginning
of the United States as a world power. Following
this contract, Spain ceded its territories: Guam,
Puerto Rico and Cuba, the West Indies, and the
Philippines. However, documents state that they
initially had full rights only on the island of Luzon.8
With this turnover, English became the medium
of exchange, shifting from the isolating quality
of the Spanish language, and straying away
from the church bells as education was applied
as a form of influence. Entering another colonial
period, the Tagalog language and the indigenous
cultures continued to be marginalized while the
elite continued to set themselves apart by taking
on the culture of the new colonizers.
The development of domestic architecture began
when European settlers adapted the practical
design of the bahay kubo whose materials were
readily available but were easily destroyed by
natural disasters. When adobe (volcanic tuff) was
discovered in the 1580s, sturdier buildings were
constructed along with using coral stone and
brick. In 1834, Manila became a major port in the
international trade route. With the opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869, agricultural trade amplified
the wealth of landed families in the islands. In
this period, “the lifestyle, aspirations, and even
pretensions, of the upper class demanded a
new type of dwelling that was spacious, durable,
comfortable, impressive, noble, and elegant.”9
The structural changes led to the bahay na bato,
representing stability and flexibility.
The ground floor is enclosed in stone walls while
hardwood is primarily used for the second-story. A
main feature of the bahay na bato is the escalera
(staircase), permitting access to the house and
is a site for a dignified entrance. A balustrade
surrounds the majestic stairway—a space
for interaction and prolonged goodbyes. The
staircase opens to the caida (upper entrance hall)
and connected to the sala (living room). Around
the living room are doorways leading to numerous
bedrooms which have large double doors. When
opened at the same time, the entire space
becomes a huge lobby. The capiz (shell) windows
are wide open, allowing an abundance of natural
light, making the wooden floors glimmer.
A structural archetype, the bahay na bato is
owned by patrician families, whose descendants
traditionally inherit the property. This domestic
space is a cultural appropriation of Western
ideals that symbolize the well-heeled Filipino, as
the loftiness of one’s residence creates a change
in the attitude of its inhabitants. Conversely,
the bahay na bato is an appropriation by the
colonizers who utilized the practical design of the
stone house to suit the tropical climate and adapt
to the string of calamities in the islands. The
structure is a product of the fast-paced economic
and societal changes, reminding us that domestic
spaces reflect the atmosphere of the times.
ARCHITECTURE OF MEMORY
The film opens with the ringing of church bells over
the old stone walls of Intramuros, now overgrown
with weeds and rubble. In the days before the war,
the streets teemed with a myriad of activities—
the Chinese peddled their silk textiles, while the
Indians traded their gold. The Europeans and
mestizos (Filipinos of mixed ancestry) attend
a tertulia (an informal social gathering), as the
natives head toward the markets. Clothed in
darkness, one man walks through the ruins of
a house, mourning the destruction of Manila.
He recounts that it took a global war to destroy
Manila, but prior to the destruction, the city was
already decaying. The streets that once catered
to the elite became a slum colony with the
onset of industrialization. But the anonymous
storyteller proudly states that there was “one
house that never became a slum.”10 From the
streets, the camera’s eye enters the entresuelo
(mezzanine) of a house, up the grand staircase
and into the entrance hall. Walking through the
shell of the mansion, the man is reminded of its
three occupants, who perished in the house with
their beloved city. It was Don Lorenzo Marasigan
(Pianing Vidal), who lived with his two spinster
daughters, Candida (Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana)
and Paula (Naty-Crame Rogers).
October 1941. Intramuros is hectic with practice
blackouts. Tony Javier (Conrad Parham), a law
student and a piano-player at the cabaret theater,
returns to his room at the Marasigan house with a
Shanghai woman. Despite the lateness, the night
is rich with the sound of calesas. The Marasigan
sisters sense someone coming up the stairs and
proceed to investigate but see no one. The elder
Candida bears a youthful grace at 42 in contrast
to Paula, who at 40 remains dependent on her
sister. In the morning, Candida entertains Bitoy
Camacho (Vic Silayan), a family friend.
Paula joins them and notes that everyone
and everything have changed, to which Bitoy
interjects— “everything but this house” before
noticing the painting in the sala. Candida shares
that their father, Don Lorenzo, calls it “Retrato del
Artista Como Filipino” (“A Portrait of the Artist
as Filipino”). Bitoy questions the title when
the content is not Filipino, as the scene alludes
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
to a Renaissance painting depicting Aeneas
carrying his father, Anchises, out of the burning
city of Troy. The two men in the portrait is Don
Lorenzo—a young man carrying an old version of
himself. The portrait embodies the artist’s grief
over modernization and the disregard for the past
by the youth, who are consumed by hedonistic
affairs, represented as the burning city.
Bitoy then asks Candida if she has met the
Frenchman offering a large sum for the work, and
the women express their annoyance at strangers
pestering them about the portrait. When Paula
ushers Bitoy into Don Lorenzo’s room, Tony arrives
and is scolded by Candida about his late-night
rendezvous inside the house. With much suave,
Tony tries to get Candida to take pity on him
with his measly salary as a piano-player to avoid
getting thrown out. Bitoy returns and is surprised
at Tony’s presence. As it turns out, Tony and Bitoy
used to work together at the piers as teenagers.
Between the two, the shrewd Tony shares with
Bitoy how “man-hungry” the sisters are and
relays that he is trying to convince them to sell
the painting to the American offering a $2,000
commission. Tony continues to badger Candida
and Paula to sell the painting, but the sisters
remain steadfast about keeping it.
Boisterous calls from the doorway reveal two
ladies, who are Tony’s co-workers at the cabaret
theater. One of the women confronts Tony about
leaving with the Shanghai woman last night. In a
fit of rage, Tony slaps her and the group disperses,
confused at the situation. The characters
represent different economic and social strata.
In the first set of scenes, intruders like cabaret
workers and people who keep perusing the
portrait drop by the house without any regard
for the inhabitants’ privacy. Despite the presence
of the owners, the power to throw people out is
wielded by Tony, their boarder. The film portrays
decadence through him, who views the portrait as
a means for survival. Tony signifies the inclination
for leaving the past, as the house is affected by
the societal changes On this note, Pallasmaa
explains how one’s home represents more than
the ideals of its time:
Home is a diffuse and complex condition
that integrates memories and images,
desires and fears, the past and the
present [...] Home cannot he produced
all at once; it has its time dimension and
continuum and is a gradual product of
the family’s and individual’s adaptation
to the world. A home cannot, thus,
become a marketable product.11
What Pallasmaa does not consider is that some
homes are marketable products—being opened
for temporary occupancy, offering exclusive use of
5
 the house or shared quarters. Oftentimes, these
dwellings concurrently function as a commercial
space and a residence. Domestic spaces anchor on
human experience, allowing a personal approach
on how they are represented in cinema. Sobchack
contends that cinema uses “structures of direct
experience”12 in creating awareness towards one’s
body in a space and its interaction with other
objects and characters. Everyday occurrences and
personal histories contribute to a collective plane
of history commemorated on print, as stories, and
mementos. Using these structures, memories
of one’s dwelling space come to mind whenever
there is a house on film as numerous houses
project different perceptions to viewers.
Following the confrontation, the sisters prepare
dinner in the kitchen and converse with Tony.
Candida insists that he must leave the house.
Tony starts narrating his struggles as a boy and
mourns the fact that he remains in this situation,
earning the sympathy of the sisters. An outsider
is able to manipulate their stay inside the house,
instead of its owners deciding if a person has
worn out their welcome. But a person who has
tried to move towards a favorable home holds on
to where one can have a semblance of stability.
When Candida plans to inquire at the Bureau
of Health and Science, she convinces Paula to
accept students for a few lessons to earn money
and to prove their elder siblings, Manolo and
Pepang that they can take care of the house. With
the looming war, the existence of the Marasigan’s
mansion is threatened by their kin, who have no
regard for their house.
As an audiovisual medium, Marks views cinema as
“the privileged record of the disjunctive quality of
‘truth’ in a given historical formation.”13 A spectacle
portraying different realities, parcels of truth are
found in filmic narratives through representation.
But the singularity of truth is uncertain and these
personal histories correlate with other accounts in
a time period which enables a collective perception
towards society and a shared historical memory.
Figure 6 and 7. Candida and Paula check on their neighbors’ houses. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
6 es pa syo 9
Inside the house, viewers witness the characters
interacting and moving. Apart from trying to
cultivate a stimulating atmosphere, the house
intends to create stories on a personal level, to
present grand narratives that weave itself into the
historical context.
Paula turns on the lights when night falls, but the
switches do not work. Paula starts to panic, but
Candida does not want to go to the drugstore to
call the electricity company lest the neighbors see
them. When Candida looks out the window, she
sees the other houses with no lights, and realizes
that the morning newspapers were carrying
announcements about the practice blackout. The
sisters laugh vigorously over this confusion and
Candida eases into a crying fit. Her fear of being
judged is delivered through the open windows,
functioning as the eyes of the house. Anchoring
on Pallasmaa’s notion of the windows as eyes,
depending on the situation, these fixtures can “be
benevolent or inviting, or cruel or threatening.”14
The conscientious quality of the windows as eyes
affect the people inside, implying that even in
the privacy of their homes; others speculate
about their condition. Paranoia may set in as
inhabitants stand between projecting an ideal
setting and being subjected to judgment.
Their elder siblings, Pepang (Sarah K. Joaquin) and
Manolo (Nick Agudo) visit to persuade their sisters
to leave the house. In his bedroom, Don Lorenzo
muses over the pre-Revolution years with his
friend, Don Perico (Koko Trinidad), a poet-turned-
politician. Most of the characters long for the
“better days” and looking at the traces of memories
inside the house, the weariness and nostalgia that
are exchanges can be “related to [one’s] fear of
death.”15 On this note, the persisting view remains
anchored on modernization. Some tend to idealize
the past and choose to preserve tradition, while
others believe that one hinders commercialization
if one strongly holds on to the past.
Figure 8 and 9 Candida and Paula argue on the staircase. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
However, the vulnerability of nostalgia lies in
seeing the past through lenses that whitewash
certain facts and overly-romanticizes a time
period. This belief of leaving part of the past
is seen when Manolo and Pepang stress that
it will take a senator like Don Perico, their
godfather, to convince their sisters to sell the
house. When Paula arrives from Quinta Market,
Pepang castigates her for giving piano and
Spanish lessons, while Manolo adds that all three
of them shall be buried with the house. Don
Perico iterates that Don Lorenzo will be given
financial support for his involvement during the
Revolution. However, the patriarch refuses and
bemoans how his services have been forgotten
because “this country has a poor memory”—which
reflects today’s mentality. This avowal also relates
to Marks’s assertion that “memory involves not
simply the activation of “pure memory,” nor only
the bucking up of the individual unconscious,
but the traces of collective life that inform the
structure of perception.”16 Aside from a personal
account, the shared notion of memory is tied
to people’s perception of an event. Individual
viewing of events and opinions of people may
seem truthful, but this limits observation and in
the process, avoids the multiplicity of truths.
It becomes noticeable in the group’s conversation
that Don Perico does not look at the portrait
directly. Apart from the Marasigan house, the
painting is a conscientious item which reminds
him of a previous pursuit as the politician admits
to renouncing his first love. Objects in a domestic
space bear memories from a person’s past and
echoing the theme of the portrait, Don Perico
tells the sisters to stand by their father, to remain
steadfast against society’s pressure. Even with
the promise of a small fortune, the sisters refuse
to give in to Tony’s coercion to sell the portrait
along with their elder siblings’ constant urging
to sell their ancestral house. Don Perico relays
that the government is interested in buying
the painting, which can sustain their needs. But
Candida arrives and firmly states that the portrait
will stay with them in the house. Candida turns
on Don Perico for deserting his father during the
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Revolution years, then going into politics under
the Americans.
Defeated, Don Perico looks at the Virgil-inspired
painting and mourns how everyone in their
generation ends the same—carrying themselves
to the grave because no one from the next
generation will do it. As he leaves, he reminds
the sisters: contra mundum (Latin: “against the
world”). After Don Perico leaves, Pepang expects
that they finally agree to sell the house. However,
Paula says that they choose to stand by their
Papa. Candida follows through by saying that
the house will be their “portrait.” The sisters’
declaration signifies that they have decided to
find ways of upholding the virtues taught to
them instead of melding with the present. Their
assertion becomes a turning point as an irritated
Pepang reveals that she struggles in setting aside
money for their sustenance, before reprimanding
the sisters for allegedly bringing shame on their
family with the gossip involving Tony. Manolo
adds that the scandals shall ruin them and they
must leave, even with Papa’s illness. In their
verbal exchanges, the elder siblings seem to have
no regard for their family’s memories and their
former home, revealing that the grand house
“haunts” them.
Candida discloses that Don Lorenzo previously
tried to kill himself. In a flashback, the sisters
are seen conversing with their father inside his
studio. Candida and Paula blame their father for
their financial struggles with his inconsiderate
spending for his art. Both women lament about
their wasted youth, when he was supposed to
be the one providing for them. Following their
argument, Don Lorenzo starts painting wildly.
He refuses to eat and yells at the girls when
interrupted. Upon finishing, he presents the
portrait as a gift to Paula and Candida. As they
head out, Don Lorenzo bids them goodbye. That
night, the dismal weather casts a dark shadow
on the hallways of the house. There are slivers of
moonlight on the walls and on the floor. The eerie
7
 Figure 10 and 11. Paula returns and looks up at the portrait. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
atmosphere is heightened with thunderclaps
and heavy rain pelting the tiled roof. Don Lorenzo
puts on his coat and walks through the gloomy
passageway towards the terrace. Under the
downpour, he throws himself off the ledge. And
hearing a cry, they discover their father lying
unconscious in the drenched courtyard.
Closing the flashback, Candida relays that their
father is now recovering. Pepang sympathizes
but Manolo insists they should not live in discord.
For Manolo and Pepang, the resolution to the
miserable dynamic in the old house is departure
instead of restoring harmony. The elder siblings
leave and an excited Tony arrives, telling them
that the American is now offering $6,000 for
the painting. Candida thinks about the offer for
a moment, before seconding Paula’s reply that
it is not for sale. As they climb the stairs, Tony
declares that he is not after the commission but
is concerned for their future as Intramuros will be
the first target. Candida continues up the stairs
and when Paula implores not to leave her with
Tony, Candida blows up. Fueled by anger, she tells
Paula that perhaps the rumors about Tony are
true and they must go their separate ways.
The staircase becomes a stage for their
confrontation. Staircases function as the heart
of the house, where characters come and go,
following the narrative. More than the function of
the main door as an entrance or exit, the stairs
delineates a warm welcome and an unwanted
presence. Pallasmaa states that the staircase
is “responsible for the vertical circulation of the
house in the same way that the heart keeps
pumping blood up and down the body. The regular
rhythm of the stairs echoes the beating of the
heart and the rhythm of breathing.”17 While the
movements equate to breathing, the staircase
also functions as the “spine” of the house where
most human traffic happens. An inhabitant
ascending illustrates withdrawal from public
affairs and moving towards privacy. For a visitor,
ascending shows cordial reception while the other
8 es pa syo 9
expresses pushing away an undesired presence.
Conversely, descending suggests being open to
the public and engaging in social situations.
The eye of the camera is situated in a character’s
body, creating a distinct assessment of events.
As Candida leaves them, Tony consoles Paula who
shares her childhood desire to travel to European
cities where her father grew up. Bachelard
notes that “the house we were born in [...] is an
embodiment of dreams”18—nurturing aspirations
and forging consciousness. People are shaped
by the environments they inhabit and Paula’s
revelation illustrates how the home influences
one’s perception of the world.
Tony anchors on this longing to entice a confused
Paula and get her to elope with him. He starts
caressing Paula, who shudders upon his touch
and responds, “not in this house”—showing that
she is ashamed of desecrating it. When Candida
goes down to call Paula, both have already left.
Night time comes and Candida gets a glimpse
of her father at the other end of the hallway,
silhouetted against his bedroom lights. Both Don
Lorenzo and Candida turn away. The distance of
the three occupants is even more defined with
Paula now out of the house while Candida and
Don Lorenzo, despite being under one roof, are
situated in different rooms. The long hallway
symbolizes their detachment and the poor
lighting indicates the lack of illumination in their
personal choices. Inside a city inn, Paula gives
herself to Tony.
In their post-coital conversation, she finds out
that Tony’s goal is to get the painting and he
preyed on her. Distraught at his revelation, Paula
leaves a sleeping Tony and returns to the silent
Marasigan house, where Candida is sewing and
Don Lorenzo remains out of sight.
Under the shadows, Paula sneaks in. The
mansion is gloomier and only a couple of lamps
in distant corners provide lighting. The scene
has an ominous atmosphere, pre-empting a
confrontation. The mood is heavier and there is
no sense of warmth. A repentant Paula is met
by a silent Candida in the living room, who runs
to her bedroom and bangs the door on Paula.
Divided by the thick walls, the women weep
on their own. In the living room, Paula looks at
the painting and sees a pair of scissors left by
Candida on the table.
Driven by frustration, she destroys the painting
and burns it. Paula’s slashing of their father’s
portrait becomes a cathartic act—purging their
family of the pain caused by self-interests. She
watches the canvas turn into ashes and Candida
witnesses her sister’s actions from a window on
the second floor. Burning the portrait shows the
characters’ disconnection from conflict. Following
Pallasmaa’s notion, fire is a primal image which
“reminds [one] of the primary causality of the
physical world. At the same time, the flames
stimulate meditative dreaming,”19 reinforcing
a sense of reality. A significant quality of fire is
that it provides warmth and a sense of protection,
recalling the tolerable heat in times of coldness.
The next morning, Candida takes Tony’s
belongings out of his room, who comes in and
asks for Paula. When he goes to the sala for
the painting, he sees an empty wall. Stunned,
he harasses Candida about the painting. Paula
arrives and Tony asks for her mercy, but this is
only a ploy to get the portrait. An indifferent
Paula reveals that the painting has been
destroyed. Candida smirks as Tony goes mad
over this news, crying out that they will rot in
the house as he leaves. As Paula heads to her
room, Candida asks for Paula’s help in putting
up the curtains, getting them out from a large,
wooden wardrobe. The act of putting items
inside cabinets and taking them out represent
forgetting and remembering. Taking out the
curtains indicates Candida opening up as an
act of contrition. Paula asks for her sister’s
judgment, who replies that she would have done
the same—destroy the painting.
The streets vibrate with band music and the
rhythmic clip-clopping of the horses punctuating
the merry ambience. For the feast of La Naval de
Manila, the sisters don trajes de mestiza and are
thrilled at the news that their friends are coming
over to watch the procession with them. They
open the chandelier, produce a bottle of wine,
and share a toast. The chandelier drowns out the
feeble lights from the lamps and the energy inside
the house is lighter. The surfaces inside the house
glisten, echoing the sisters’ current disposition.
The celebratory mood continues when Bitoy
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
arrives as the sisters narrate that “the spell has
been broken.” They are now free to return to their
home, recalling how their discordant relationship
curtailed a positive atmosphere in the house.
Candida and Paula saw the portrait as a curse that
placed their family in a miserable environment.
The change in the atmosphere shows how a
domestic space adheres to the attitude of its
residents, similar to how people change their
behavior inside their homes.
The guests all share a glass of brandy as the two
sisters relay that it could be their last celebration
in the house with Manolo and Pepang’s decision
to sell it. Their friends urge them to stand firm.
Fueled by the nostalgic tone, Don Aristeo (Manny
Ojeda) leads a toast, declaring that “they will live,
as long as they will remember”—a reminder to
keep particular memories that are constantly in
danger of being erased.
Pepang and Manolo arrive, commenting the
guests to leave so they can converse with
Candida and Paula in private. The sisters reveal
that Pepang and Manolo’s true reason of selling
the house because the mansion haunts them,
standing as their conscience. Pepang and
Manolo do not refer to the Marasigan mansion
as their “home” but merely the “house” as the
familiar sentiment of their home containing
memories of warmth, love, and protection is lost
for the two. Pallasmaa underscores that “the
memory of home also awakens all the distress
and fear that we may have experienced in our
childhood.”20 There is no depiction of Manolo and
Pepang’s previous experiences in the house. In
their actions and declarations, it is clear that
they have detached themselves from their
former home since they keep trying get rid of the
property. But as much as people try and erase
certain memories of their homes, they strike a
chord, underlining what is right or wrong.
The argument is broken up when the church bells
ring and one of the guests yells that the Virgin
saved Candida and Paula. Their emancipation
begins upon realizing that they must make their
own decisions. Despite a moment of weakness,
Paula steps out of her docile self and destroys
the portrait—the root of their domestic conflict.
The destruction of the coveted painting on the
grounds of the house highlights the sisters’
severance from conformity and indicates the
start of their household’s healing, radiating from
the destroyed portrait. The sisters decide to
defend the traditions from the celebrated days
of Manila filled with strong family ties. Candida
and Paula are relentlessly pressured to follow
the social order.
9
 With the ringing of the church bells, they head
to the window to genuflect before the image of
the Virgin. A figure walks the length of the dark
hallway. From the shadows, Don Lorenzo ambles
forth with a cane in hand and embraces his
children. The repentant mood is another form of
cleansing and the family has now come together.
Bitoy passes by the weeping Marasigans. In the
film, Bitoy stands as a bookend character—a
neutral figure straddling two periods, viewing the
negative and the positive sides of the portrait.
The frame dissolves and shows him standing
within the shell of the house, silhouetted against
the melancholic skies. While the radiance of the Figure 12. Manolo and Pepang outside their ancestral home in
city has vanished with the war, Bitoy swears that Intramuros. Courtesy of Diadem Pictures
as long as they remember, their memories of
Manila will rise again.

CONCLUSION: BETWEEN REMEMBRANCE

AND ERASURES
In the film, how does the house function as a
conscience? A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino
deals with the uncertain future of state power
and social differences between the working class
and the bourgeoisie. The bahay na bato of the
Marasigans serves as a repository of memories
where the romance of the old days of Manila
was revered by people of similar economic and
social strata, who strongly hold on to a familiar Figure 13. The lot where the Yatco-Yaptinchay House used to
stand on J. Gonzales Street. Author’s collection
environment. On the contrary, transients merely
see the Marasigan house as a halfway point.
Since the bahay na bato does not represent their
way of living, there is no semblance of affection
towards the structure. However, both occupants
and transients see the house as a conscientious
structure, reminding them of their aspirations
and fears. The sun has set on the Intramuros
that they knew where the streets buzzing with
the people’s rhythm, the hymns from its grand
churches and the jovial conversations from an
afternoon tertulia have been silenced.

Treading on Sobchack’s premise on multi-sensory
experiences in cinema and Marks’s view on how
memories of the senses furnish a seemingly
authentic filmic representation, permutations
such as recalling how the sense of touch
reinforces the comfort from a family member in
times of isolation and confusion. In a similar vein,
Pallasmaa’s notions on multi-sensory experiences
in architecture and Bachelard’s notion on the
phenomenon of dwelling relates to the familiar
cadence of a family member’s footsteps, where
vehicles and people become keepsakes in the
recesses of the inhabitants’ conscience. These
sets of memories color images of our houses.
Among these recollections, the bahay na bato
reminds the characters to stand by their beliefs,
to uphold traditions and avoid yielding to society’s
stress. The domestic space is a conscience that
Figure 14. Archival photo of the Alberto-Yaptinchay House.
Courtesy of City of Biñan Library and Museum
anchors on time and memory—one of situating
the past in the present, and the other, of relating
the present to the past.
The theme questions the position of art and the
preservation of culture in nation-building. Despite
the resolution to a discordant household in the
film, society remains an exterior force influencing
the experiences and the consciousness of
its inhabitants, as the prevailing social order
demands people to follow their standards. With its
ever-changing nature, society openly leaves those
who cannot keep up. The spaces inside our homes
along with our experiences coalesce towards an
architecture of memory. Within homes, initial

10 es pa syo 9
awareness is crafted and the experiences in our
own domestic spaces contribute in shaping one’s
character and perception of society. Memories
of touch, sounds, and scents, among others, are
linked to our mind’s eye and these recollections
are housed in our conscience, holding themselves
against the tides of time.
POSTSCRIPT: THE BAHAY NA BATO IN BIÑAN
The mansion in Portrait once stood in the city
of Biñan, in the Province of Laguna. As Nelson
Navarro recalls in his memoir, the stone house in
the film was the former Yaptinchay mansion near
the town plaza.21 As it turns out, there are two
(2) houses of the Yaptinchay family connected
to the backdrop of Portrait. The main setting was
the ancestral home of Leonila Yatco, who was
married to Pablo Yaptinchay. Both the Yatco’s
and the Yaptinchay’s are well-heeled families in
Biñan, along with other distinguished surnames
who often intermarried. The front of the Yatco-
Yaptinchay house was located in the poblacion
(town center), close to the rear of the San Isidro
Labrador parish church.
Anthony Agulto, a fifth generation Yaptinchay
relative, shares that the residence was built
approximately in the late 1700s and was
extended by a new structure in the 1830s, “like
a train, all the way to the other street, which
became its new frontage.”22 The ownership of the
Yatco-Yaptinchay home was consigned to Flora
“Flory” Yaptinchay y Yatco, who was reputed to
be a character. An interesting story is linked to
Avellana’s film production in 1965 which involves
Flora, who was exasperated with their prolonged
stay. Every so often, she stormed to her ancestral
house all the way from Manila. Without a moment
of rest upon arriving in Biñan, Flora’s words for
Avellana and his crew were: “[sic] Shooting ng
shooting! Aba, kailan ba matatapos ang shooting
na ito? Bert, tapusin mo na ang shooting-shooting
mo!” [“When are you going to finish this shooting?
Bert, wrap up your shooting!”]23
Architect Roberto Quisumbing of the Guido
Yaptinchay y Gana line remembers that the
Yatco-Yaptinchay house had “a long room at the
back which had two rows of altar tables with ivory
santos (saints) one after the other.”24 Outside
these rooms, there is a long hallway seen in one
deep space frame, where an infuriated Tony
looks for Paula and tries to coerce an indifferent
Candida to produce the painting. As relayed by
Jaime “Jimi” Yaptinchay, also a fifth generation
descendant, some of the furniture used in the
production came from the Agustina Alberto-Guido
Yaptinchay home, a street away from the Yatco-
Yaptinchay house.25 Equally grand as the Yatco-
Yaptinchay mansion, the Alberto-Yaptinchay
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
house had itself immortalized on film through the
set furniture. Similar to the first Yaptinchay house,
the renovations installed over time created a long
house which straddled two streets.
The main house in Portrait—the Leonila Yatco-
Pablo Yaptinchay mansion—was demolished
sometime in the 1970s. The space was first
occupied by a bus station, then a convenience
store. The property is hidden behind rows of
sidewalk vendors and corroding roof sheets,
where through the cracks, concrete beams, large
stone debris, and old timber can be seen. Vendors
in the area share that a commercial building will
soon rise on its location. Likewise, the lot where
it the Agustina Alberto-Guido Yaptinchay house
once stood is now occupied by a gadget center, a
jeepney terminal, and rows of snack stalls.
As the researcher was walking through the
compound, the afternoon heat permeated the
property, bringing along a mixture of scents—
steaming oil on pans and skillets, gasoline
dripping on the pavement, and secondhand
smoke. After maneuvering myself through the
crowd of waiting passengers, loiters, shoppers
and vendors, the researcher left the area thinking
how the descendants of these houses continue
to lament the disappearance of their childhood
homes. But these memories from a bygone
time remain fixed in the minds of its former
inhabitants. Similar to the Yaptinchay and the
Marasigan mansions, many other structures
that have characterized the landscape for years
still face neglect and eventual demolition, as the
winds of supposed progress continue to blow
through old and new landscapes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to Mr. Christopher Alba of the City
of Biñan Library and Museum for the archival
materials and Mr. Jaime Yaptinchay for the
personal correspondence and stories.
ENDNOTES
1
See “Portrait: Rediscovering a Filipino Film Classic” (2006),
a documentary film produced and directed by Butch Nolasco,
co-written with Ivi Avellana-Cosio.
2
A. M. Guerrero in Commemorative Folio on National Artists
(p. 20).
3
Nicanor Tiongson in The Urian Anthology, 1980-1989 (p.
360). See also Pelikula at Lipunan ’99 (p. 83).
4
Michel De Certeau underlines this spatial quality in The
Practice of Everyday Life (p. 108).
5
Laura Marks in The Skin of Film: Intercultural Cinema,
Embodiment, and the Senses (pp. 6-7).
11
 6
Juhani Pallasmaa in The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and De Leon, M. (Producer) & Avellana, L. (Director). (1965). A
the Senses (p. 8) Portrait of the Artist as Filipino [motion picture]. Manila:
Philippines. Diadem Pictures.
7
“Topoanalysis” as a systematic process is discussed at length
in Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space. Guerrero, A. M. (1976). “Lamberto Avellana: Director.” In
Commemorative Folio on National Artists by the Cultural
8
See Leon Wolff’s assertion in “Little Brown Brother.” Center of the Philippines. Manila: Department of Public
Information for the National Artists Awards Committee and
9
Rodrigo Perez III takes note of the Spanish colonial tradition the International Artists Awards Committee.
in domestic architecture in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine
Art, Vol 3. on Philippine Architecture (p. 22). Joaquín, N. (1952). “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy
in Three Scenes” In Prose and Poems. Manila: Graphic House.
10
In verbatim, from Nick Joaquín’s A Portrait of the Artist as
Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes (p. 9). Marks, L. U. (2000). The Skin of Film: Intercultural Cinema,
Embodiment, and the Senses. North Carolina: Duke University
11
See Pallasmaa’s “Identity, Intimacy, and Domicile: Notes on Press.
the Phenomenology of Home” (par. 13).
Navarro, N. (2013). The Half-remembered Past: A Memoir.
Vivian Sobchack in The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology
12
Quezon City: Alphan Publishers.
of Film Experience (p. 4).
Nolasco, B. (Producer & Director). (2006). Portrait:
13
Marks in “The Skin of Film” (pp. 29-30). Rediscovering a Filipino Classic [motion picture]. Manila:
Philippines.
14
See Pallasmaa’s The Embodied Image: Imagination and
Imagery in Architecture (p. 81). Pallasmaa, J. (1994). “Identity, Intimacy, and Domicile:
Notes on the Phenomenology of Home.” Arkkitehti-Finnish
15
Pallasmaa in “The Eyes of the Skin” (p. 32). Architectural Review 1.

16
Marks in “The Skin of Film” (p. 75). Pallasmaa, J. (1996). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the
Senses. London: Academy Editions.
17
See Pallasmaa’s “Identity, Intimacy, and Domicile” (par. 39).
Pallasmaa, J. (2011). The Embodied Image: Imagination and
18
Bachelard on The Poetics of Space (p. 15). Imagery in Architecture. United Kingdom: John Wiley and
Sons, Ltd.
19
Pallasmaa on “Identity, Intimacy, and Domicile” (par. 64).
Perez, R. III. (1994). “The Spanish Colonial Tradition.” In
20
Ibid. (par. 22-23). Nicanor Tiongson, Editor. CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art,
21
Nelson Navarro’s The Half-remembered Past: A Memoir Vol. 3, Philippine Architecture. Manila: Cultural Center of the
(2013) expounds on this detail. Philippines.

22
Anthony Agulto shares this information in “The Families of Quisumbing, R. (2010, February 14). “The Families of Old Biñan,
Old Biñan, Laguna I.” Laguna I.” Retrieved from <https://remembranceofthingsawry.
wordpress.com/2010/02/14/the-families-of-old-binan-
23
Quoted in the archival blogsite under “The Families of Old laguna/>
Biñan, Laguna I.”
Romulo, C. (Producer) & Avellana, L. (Director). (1939). Sakay
24
See Roberto Quisumbing’s note in “The Families of Old [motion picture]. Manila: Philippines. Filippine Productions.
Biñan, Laguna I.”
Sobchack, V. (1992). The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology
25
Relayed in a personal correspondence with the author in of Film Experience. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
February 2015.
“The Past 100 Years: Time Capsule of Philippine Cinema.” In
Pelikula at Lipunan ’99.

REFERENCES Tiongson, N. (1980). “Natatanging Gawad Urian: Lamberto

Agulto, A. (2010, February 14). “The Families of Old Biñan,
Laguna I.” Retrieved from <https://remembranceofthingsawry.
wordpress.com/2010/02/14/the-families-of-old-binan-
laguna/>
Bachelard, G. (1994). The Poetics of Space (M. Jolas, Trans.).
Massachussetts: Beacon Press. (Original work published
1958).
De Certeau, M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life. (S. Rendall,
Trans.). Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Original
work published 1980).
V. Avellana.” In Nicanor Tiongson, Editor. (2001). The Urian
Anthology, 1980-1989. Manila: Antonio P. Tuviera.
Tiongson, N. (Ed.) (1994). CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art
(Vol. 3): Philippine Architecture. Manila: Cultural Center of the
Philippines.
Wolff, L. (2006). Little Brown Brother: How the United States
Purchased and Pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century’s
Turn. History Book Club.

De Leon, N. (Producer) & Avellana, L. (Director). (1956). Anak

Dalita.[motion picture]. Manila: Philippines. LVN Pictures.

De Leon, N. (Producer) & Avellana, L. (Director). (1957). Badjao:

The Sea Gypsies [motion picture]. Manila: Philippines. LVN
Pictures.

12 es pa syo 9
Living With The Surges:
The Parity Between the Local Community and the Experts’ Roles in
Nominating Batanes as a World Heritage Site
CINDY P. PORNELOS
SUSAN C. AQUINO-ONG
Cindy Pornelos is a Master of Tropical Landscape Architecture
(MTLA) candidate under the College of Architecture of the
University of the Philippines Diliman.
Susan Aquino-Ong holds a post-graduate degree in
Environmental Science and is a Landscape Architect specializing
on cultural landscapes and heritage conservation. She is an
affiliate faculty at the College of Architecture, University of the
Philippines Diliman and an associate professor at the Institute of
Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Food Science, University
of the Philippines Los Baños.
ABSTRACT
The responsibility of protecting and conserving
the heritage resources of Batanes has become
more challenging in the midst of the conflict of
values between the indigenous community and
the experts. A review of situations and conditions
of life in Batanes was done to describe and
examine what the property and its resources
meant to the survival and development of the
Ivatan community. This brings up the issues and
conflict of viewpoints between the two parties
which are particularly related to the three pillars
of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) – property
meets one or more World Heritage criteria, it
meets the conditions of integrity and authenticity,
and it meets the requirements for protection and
management. World Heritage nomination is about
understanding a property’s OUV to determine why
and how it must be protected and conserved. This
paper acknowledges the roles and issues that both
parties play and provides suggestions to further
integrate collaborative approaches. Bridging the
gap through collaboration may be difficult but it
could aid in a clearer and reinforced statement of
Batanes’s OUV for all their stakeholders, thereby
facilitating its designation as a World Heritage
site not merely for the purpose of listing but more
for uplifting the spirits and livelihood of the local
community, being its first-line protectors.
Keywords: local values, experts values,
outstanding universal value, world heritage
listing, heritage conservation   misguided aspirations as to why some wanted
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
INTRODUCTION
The Batanes Protected landscapes and seascapes
has established its fame worldwide. It has earned
numerous praises from different countries,
making it among the top destinations of tourists.
This spectacular destination of unparalleled value
however, has never been formally inscribed in the
List of UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization) World
Heritage Sites for protection, conservation
and management. It has been included on the
Tentative List since 1993, and was nominated for
inscription on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage
Sites in 2007.1 However, the said attempt was
not successful in pursuing the inscription.
The World Heritage List has influenced the
protection of global heritage sites. Along with
the commitment to save these irreplaceable
monuments and sites, being inscribed in the list
brings prestige, public awareness and economic
gains through tourism2 and international aid.3
However, preparing the nomination dossier for a
candidate site is complicated and difficult to deal
with. Being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site at times may be inadequately understood by
everyone, especially by its own local community.
This may be one of the reasons why some local
communities manifest resistance towards having
to work on this tedious process of nominating
their place without the proper knowledge of
how it can benefit them. Furthermore, there are
13
 Figure 1. The Parity in Assigning a Site’s OUV
to acquire such title. In countries wanting of
economic gains, eagerness to obtain the status
may be due to promotion for tourists to flock
into the site without regard for the capacity
of the local community and its infrastructure
and ecosystem to address the demand.4 This
is where conservation and management of the
site becomes challenging, when the carrying
capacity of the site has not been preconceived
and planned, given that one of the foundations
of a site’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)
is the way it is protected and managed. A clear
statement of a site’s OUV is the keystone for
UNESCO’s heritage designation.
This paper seeks to understand how the local
values could influence to hasten or delay the
inscription of Batanes in the World Heritage
List. It also attempts to understand the conflict
of values between the local and indigenous
community and the expert community in order to
unify and find a common goal between the two
parties and to come up with a more representative
statement of OUV. It is acknowledged that there
is conflict in prioritizing what is more important.
The values placed by the local and indigenous
community and that of the expert community on
a heritage property may seemingly be misaligned.
For the experts, its value may have been highly
based on scientifically-grounded evidences of
14 es pa syo 9
tangible properties, while that of the locals place
more importance on the people itself. Hence,
this paper attempts to provide suggestions for
a more collective and collaborative approach in
coming up with its statement of OUV. It explores
to seek attempts to work on a compromise
between the two parties which will set aside
their egos and work towards a unified purpose of
conservation and sustainable development. The
paper examines the value placed by the local and
indigenous community on the site to determine a
collaborative way of dealing with the challenges
of the nomination process of Batanes as a World
Heritage Site (WHS). The local values of sites are
usually no less apparent than the universal values,
this parity allows for the sustainable management
of the sites with minimal difficulties.5
The celebration of the 40th anniversary of the
WHC highlighted the role of the local communities
and indigenous peoples in ensuring that World
Heritage contributes in fostering local sustainable
development. The adoption of ‘Community’ as
the fifth C in the Strategic Objectives of World
Heritage Convention, along with the four Cs
—Credibility, Conservation, Capacity-building,
Communication, presented new emphasis on the
importance of local values, alongside OUV, on the
necessity to unite the World Heritage system and
local communities and indigenous peoples.6
ACKNOWLEDGING COLLABORATION OF
HERITAGE VALUE
As defined in the Operational Guidelines 2005
of the World Heritage Convention, a site’s
Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) means:
“…cultural and/or natural significance which
is so exceptional as to transcend national
boundaries and to be of common importance
for present and future generations of
all humanity. As such, the permanent
protection of this heritage is of the highest
importance to the international community
as a whole. The committee defines the
criteria for the inscription of properties on
the World Heritage List.”
World Heritage nomination is about
understanding the property’s OUV and
articulating it for the international community to
recognize. A Statement of OUV (SOUV) must be
produced, where a brief synthesis of the property,
a justification for the criteria the property belongs,
a statement of integrity and authenticity and the
requirements for protection and management
must all be included to be considered for World
Heritage designation. This process is not only
time and energy consuming but is also difficult
to carry out. Identifying a property’s OUV is a
research endeavor where all the stakeholders
should proactively and painstakingly participate
not despite of but because of their differences in
values and interests. Although value is the point
of divergence, it is also the common ground, thus
the reason for collaboration.
Figure 1 shows how every pillar of a site’s OUV is
substantiated by the value placed by both the
expert and local community on the site. These two
parties value the heritage properties in a totally
different perspective, shedding light to various
benefits of having these areas protected and
conserved. Nonetheless, in collaborating to create
the SOUV, the said differences must be unified –
first, whether the property should be under natural,
Figure 2. Timeline of Events Related to the Nomination of Batanes
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
cultural or mixed; second, the parameters of being
considered having integrity and authenticity; and
lastly, the limits placed in order to protect and
manage the heritage resources. Components of
the three pillars sparked debates which have arisen
from the various interpretations of some concepts
and terminologies.
There is this nature-culture dualism wherein the
separation of “natural” and “cultural” heritage
has become problematic to the indigenous
peoples since it undermines the connection
of their beliefs and activities to their physical
surroundings.7 These connections are at times
overlooked and misunderstood, thus there
is a need to properly understand and assess
the linkages between biological and cultural
diversity in practice.8 Another one has been
due to the codified notion of authenticity.
Alberts and Hazen identifies specific issues
pertaining to this. It is problematic to reconcile
the demand for common preservation standards
across different cultural contexts. Making it
more complicated is the evolution of many
sites over long periods of time wherein it is
difficult to determine which time period should
frame preservation and interpretation. In
historic cities and cultural landscapes, there
is a tension between preservation demands
aimed at high degree of authenticity and
integrity and the needs of the inhabitants of
the site. And lastly, the preservationists’ aims
may or may not be in parallel with the goals of
other stakeholders.9 There are also challenges
concerning stewardship and sovereignty over
heritage sites. As indigenous rights were being
given priority over matters of heritage, the state
parties are particularly wary that uplifting these
rights might undermine the sovereignty of the
state concerning issues such as land access and
resource use. Paradoxically, the universalizing
claims which considers properties as belonging
to all peoples poses a profound existential threat
15
 UNDERSTANDING BATANES’ VALUE FROM THE
LOCAL LIFE
A review of the situations and conditions of life
in Batanes was done to describe and examine
what the property and its resources mean to
the survival and development of the Ivatan
community. This review may not contain the
verbalized version of how the local community
values the heritage property but more of how the
people manifests the value they place on it.

The Batanes Islands forms the northernmost

province of the Philippines. It is 150 km from
the southern tip of Taiwan and 200 km from the
north coast of Luzon.10 It is bounded by the Bashi
Channel to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the
east, the Balintang Channel to the south and the
West Philippine Sea to the West. It is about 230
square kilometers11 and the smallest and least
populated province of the Philippines. Owing to
its location, it tends to have rough seas and windy
weather almost throughout the year. The weather
may be the most unpredictable in the country but
it is not always battered by typhoons as many
believe.12 It has rich fishing grounds also because
of its proximity to the Balintang Channel, which is
believed to be inhabited by one fifth of the world’s
fish species.13

The group consists of three inhabited islands;

Figure 3. The Location of the Batanes Islands Batan, Sabtang, and Itbayat. There are also some
(Source: Bellwood & Dizon, 2013) small and now-uninhabited islands, Ivuhos is
the largest of them. The islands are hilly, even
to the indigenous peoples concerning their
craggy, and mountainous towards the inland,
autonomy and desire for self-determination.7
which from there one can reach the sea by more
These challenges define the diverging side
or less than an hour’s hike.13 Fertile plots of land,
of the equation in heritage conservation and
lined by hedgerows, can be found and are being
also prompt the need for actions towards the
cultivated by the Ivatans mostly for tubers (e.g.
collaboration of the two parties.
ube, camote).
Figure 2 shows the sequence of events from the
Batanes is the only province in the Philippines that
time Batanes was included on the Tentative List
is entirely an ancestral domain and a protected
of properties that Philippines intended to consider
area under Republic Act No. 8991 or the Batanes
for nomination, up to the present progress the
Protected Area Act of 2000. Like any other
province has been making in order to produce
rich natural areas, it can become exploited by
a better and precise dossier. It has already
unmindful anthropological activities as well as
been some twenty-four years and it seems that
forces of nature. With the latter, there is nothing
the province has had difficulties on producing
that can be done but with the former, they can be
revisions despite international aid. However, the
regulated and managed.13 One of the local issues
question is no longer about what the problems
faced in conservation of heritage sites is the limited
are nor how they can be addressed, but it is who
attention placed on carrying out local traditional
should make decisions for the protection and
activities that use resources and exposes the site
conservation of heritage properties. Everyone
to various anthropological activities which may
has their role: the locals, being protective of
cause damage to the property and threaten the
their traditions, beliefs and practices, and the
existence of species inhabiting it.14
experts, knowledgeable of the responsibility to
conserve resources and identity. Both are not
Batanes Islands has been found to contain
mutually exclusive arguments since both fight
archaeological evidences pointing that it has
for the survival of heritage. They supplement one
played a role in the whole saga of Austronesian
another to generate a sustainable future.
origins and migration across Insular Southeast

16 es pa syo 9
Asia (5000 BCE – 1300 AD), into Oceania, and
even to Vietnam and Madagascar. The Taiwan
nephrite, the slate artefacts and the pottery
artefacts found in Batanes served as a data
source suggesting that contacts with Taiwan
in the period from 500 BC to AD 500 happened
much more than once.10
Since time immemorial, the Ivatans have been
dependent on their traditional farming and
fishing. The reforestation process in the cycle
of their traditional agriculture, especially in the
cultivation of yam is a sustainable practice that
is surviving until today, however it is in grave
threat of being undermined by the reorientation
of socio-economic values to money and market
economics of cattle and goat raising.13
Ivatans also have their own way of fishing which
is reflective of how much they perceive the water
as a life-giver. They made their own equipment,
methods, and way of preserving fish. Their
common practice today of carcass processing
have archaeological evidence of being an ancient
technique.10 All of these are anchored on their
fish lore and rituals. However, these have been
vanishing as new technology became available
and the competition among fishermen from
neighboring East Asian countries became stiff.13
Batanes is also one of the last remaining areas
in the Philippines that has unique natural
physiographic features (wave-cut cliffs, cave-like
outcrops, secluded white sand beaches) resulting
from its position where strong winds and fast
currents have etched out its distinct morphology.
It is an important flyaway for many migratory bird
species, and the deeper portions of the marine
environment are the few remaining sites where
pink and red corals (Corallum sp.) are found.15
Another thing distinctive to Batanes are its boulder
beaches. These volcanic rocks, smoothened by the
waves and almost similar in size, are exceedingly
high in strontium, a rare earth element attributed
to the presence of upper mantle materials found
in hot spot volcanoes. These boulders were utilized
for house building and construction.16
Another challenge in its protection is the advent
of modernity and rapid urbanization. Local
communities are drawn to be reoriented to non-
native practices and beliefs which can not only
put a dent on their identity but may also lead
them to convenient but unsustainable ways
of living. The current sprawl of the use of non-
traditional building materials, the diminishing
reliance on native beliefs and rituals, and the
weaning production of traditional goods present
the equation of losing the integrity of the natural
and cultural properties of the place.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Batanes is also worthy to be considered a Cultural
Landscape. Their traditional way of living which is
still evident at present – the stone-lime walls and
cogon-thatched roofs of the Ivatan houses, their
all-weather gear made of dried leaves, the way
they prepare their food, the hedgerows intricately
stitched on their farmlands, and their traditional
boat craftsmanship and fishing practices,
narrates their adaptation to the characteristics of
the environmental conditions in their islands.
Based on the information gathered, Batanes is of
incalculable value to the life of its inhabitants. It
is literally a ‘world full of bounty’ as Ian McHarg
describes our Earth dwelling place. Every turn is
a scene to behold and every thing you encounter
tells the story of the place and its people. Living
in a place as such, where one’s traditional use of
resources may get in the way of conservation
efforts, is no easy thing to deal with and it will not
get any easier since time moves in parallel with
resource consumption.
The Ivatans are not ambitious, they are among
the humblest and most generous people on earth.
Their inherent values of being contented and
comfortable in their environment as long as they
can survive in it, combined with the lack of training
provided to those assuming the roles as leaders of
the local government units in their province, are
the things holding them back from being united
in preserving the beauty and resources of their
province. They are responsible and hard-working
people. Their sense of responsibility to provide
for their families must also be aligned to their
obligation of passing on their heritage in good
condition to the future generations.
The local community or the traditional owners of
the site has a different view on how they regard
the place as valuable. To them, it is not just a place
abundant in biodiversity, nor just a spectacular
scenery to behold, nor just something to remind
them about their ancestors, but more so, it is the
fabric of their way of life and reciprocally, their
way of life is the soul of this fabric. However,
the challenges experienced in nominating for
its inscription are largely due to their desperate
need to satisfy basic requirements for a secure
and comfortable living. During an immersion
activity done by a private organization, some
local community members were asked about
the value of their place and their immediate
response pertains to the amount of money the
subject is equivalent to, not considering the
other expressions of intangible values such as
ecological, educational, intrinsic, research, social,
historical/symbolic, and spiritual. All of which
equates to a subject’s significance. Using just the
material expression of value lessens the capacity
17
 of a site’s significance to be better understood.
The problem here is that people tend to not place
effort on things not materially valuable for them17
and this is where protection and conservation
of these properties could be at stake. Such
a scenario will not render the understanding
of World Heritage values and its aims for the
greater good. Unless the local community finds
a direct link between upholding these heritage
values and providing for their daily needs of a
comfortable life, the sustainability in protecting
and conserving such sites and its properties will
not be achieved. And as what Sue Millar stated
in her article Stakeholders and Community
Participation, people are important not only in
terms of their commitment to the inscription and
management of a WHS, but also in terms of their
contribution to the intangible aspects of a site in
the first place.18
HOW COLLABORATION COULD WORK IN
HERITAGE CONSERVATION
In unifying the said differences between the
two parties concerning the three pillars of OUV,
a bottom-up approach must be adopted since
heritage sites have different environments,
different social and political settings, histories,
different groups of resource users, and contain
different resources. It is imperative for the
World Heritage system to recognize the
property through the viewpoint of its people and
understand its distinctiveness against the rest
of the heritage sites. The concept of a balanced
list of heritage sites and the standardized process
of heritage designation, as what the Convention
opines, are somewhat contrary to acknowledging
the inseparable relationship of the locals and
their place where the endemism of heritage
resources lie not only in the natural species but
also in the intangible component of the place as
a whole. Changes to the World Heritage criteria
may help in the problems brought about by the
nature-culture dichotomy through developing
new concepts that build upon the full continuum
of human-nature interaction and learning more
from the cultures and worldviews of many
indigenous peoples who do not conceptualize
nature and culture as separate.19
The intangible elements of heritage in the
site, which inadvertently the ones maintaining
its tangible characteristics, must be given
utmost consideration. The community must
be empowered for them to take charge. This
empowerment may emanate from the equity of
assigning values to a potential World Heritage
site. The local community’s role in the formation
of a strong statement of a site’s OUV should not
be neglected, which is anchored on the local value
conferred on it by the local people. The experts
18 es pa syo 9
have to set aside their power and give way to
the local and indigenous communities to take
charge when dealing with heritage properties.20
This may lessen the ambiguity and vagueness of
meanings that the local community have to deal
with which raises concerns about how particular
ideas and terms question their existence as
distinct peoples with distinct connections to the
elements of their surroundings who are capable
of self-governance. Effective dialogue to ensure
that these ideas and terms remain meaningful
in diverse contexts, and for all stakeholders, is
significant in maintaining and improving the
efficacy of the World Heritage program.9
Local communities must be the major partners
from selecting the sites to be inscribed up to
planning and monitoring for their management.
It offers a holistic model that has been tested
effective in various sites involving the locals,
the site managers, the stakeholders and the
government, although it is still recognized that
approach must be homegrown.6 Conservation
through a collaborative management as a
centralized control over heritage protected areas
must be done. Management of heritage sites
should focus on the conservation role, as well
as on achieving sustainable development for
the rural communities that attach local values
to them. The modern concept of protected area
management should therefore involve local
communities, but through an institutionalized
management link with elected members and
financial backing from government.5 This will
facilitate the aligning of conservation efforts to
the specific conditions and situations occurring
in the site.
Meanwhile, the World Heritage Convention can
play an important role in ensuring biocultural
integrity and social equity. Connecting practice
and building the capacity of heritage practitioners
are crucial to creating a space and tools for an
integrated and equitable conservation approaches
and thus are continuously worked upon by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), the International Council for Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Center
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration
of Cultural Property (ICCROM).8
CONCLUSION
There are numerous conflicts between local
values and universal values of World Heritage
sites. Clearly, the standardization of designating
heritage properties has brought confusion and
threat to the local owners of the sites in terms of
their beliefs, practices, sovereignty and survival.
The experts and the locals may have different views
on what nature and culture are or what integrity
and authenticity mean. For the experts, it is
important to maintain the tangible and intangible
properties as they used to be and if possible, as
they were since their original time. However, this
way of protection and conservation of value is
too rigid and ripping off the freedom of the local
community and indigenous peoples of their socio-
cultural evolution and independence to govern
themselves. Such challenges communicate the
need for actions towards the unification of the
local and indigenous community and the expert
community in heritage conservation. Afterall,
protecting humanity’s identity and ensuring the
availability of resources for our children would
be compromised when people lose the chance of
achieving both because of a failure to be united.
This paper highlights the significance of
providing the local and indigenous community
the opportunity to have a say on the protection
and conservation of their site. The experts, on
the other hand, may be equipped with proper
knowledge and ground-breaking studies on
how to protect and conserve the tangible and
intangible resources of the site but a homegrown
approach is the key to appropriately deal with
a place as a great part of its value is embedded
in the life of its inhabitants. A community or a
group share a common ground aside from their
biological and socio-cultural characteristics, that
is the way they feel towards unfamiliar situations
and changes that has been uniting them. And
since all of those factors are interwoven with the
tangible properties of the place, it must be part
of the experts’ roles to emphatize with them.
In spite of the ardent concern of non-Batanes
people to nominate the site, it shall depend on the
perception and action of the local stakeholders
and indigenous community. Nevertheless,
the role of the expert community must not be
undervalued in the equation. Their contributions
are essential tools in planning for the protected
future of our heritage properties. There may be
flaws to the WHC system, but focusing on its role
as well as every party’s involved is what gets us
on track to the purpose which is protection of
identity and sustainable development for the
future generation. Furthermore, World Heritage
nomination should not only about the locals,
it is also about providing the international
community an opportunity to perform the duty of
safeguarding what speaks about their existence
and identity from a location that may be
geographically away from them but ontologically
a part of who they are as dwellers of this earth.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
ENDNOTES
1
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization. (n.d.). Batanes protected landscapes and
seascapes. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/
tentativelists/521/
2
Glaser-Segura, D., Nistoreanu, P. & Dinc, V.M. (2018).
Considerations on Becoming a World Heritage Site: A
Quantitative Approach. Amfiteatru Economic, 20(47), pp.
202-216.
3
Gfeller, A. E. (2015). “Anthropologizing and Indigenizing
Heritage: The Origins of the UNESCO Global Strategy for a
Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List.”
Journal of Social Archaeology 15 (3): 366–386.
4
Leask, A. (2006). Worl Heritage Site designation. In A. Leask
& A. Fyall (Eds). Managing World Heritage Sites. Retrieved
from http://www.mu.edu.et/iphc/images/liblary/Heritage/
Heritage_Culture_and_Tourism/Managing_World_Heritage_
Sites.pdf
5
Edroma, E. L. (2004). Linking Universal and Local Values
for the Sustainable Management of World Heritage Sites.
Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/series/13/
6
Brown, J. & Hay-Edie, T. (2014). Engaging Local Communities
in Stewardship of World Heritage: A methodology based on
the COMPACT experience. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.
org/en/series/40/
7
Pocock, C. & Lilley, I. (2018). Who Benefits? World
Heritage and Indigenous People, Heritage & Society, DOI:
10.1080/2159032X.2018.1503836
8
Larsen, P. B. & Jaeger, T. (2017). People and wilderness
conservation. In C. F. Kormos, T. Badman, T. Jaeger, B. Bertzky,
R. van Merm, E. Osipova, Y. Shi, & P. B. Larsen (Eds). World
Heritage, Wilderness, and Large Landscapes and Seascapes.
Retrieved from https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/
files/documents/2017-028.pdf
9
Alberts, H. C. & Ha zen, H. D. (2010). Maintaining
Authenticity and Integrity at Cultural World Heritage Sites. The
Geographical Review, 100 (1), 56-73. Retrieved from https://
noppa.oulu.fi/noppa/kurssi/791637s/materiaali/791637S_
alberts_and_hazen_2010.pdf
10
Bellwood, P. & Dizon, E. (Ed). (2013). 4000 Years of
Migration and Cultural Exchange: The Archaeology of the
Batanes Islands, Northern Philippines. Canberra, Australia:
ANU E Press.
11
Hidalgo, C.A. (1996). The Making of the Ivatans: The Cultural
History of Batanes. Pasig , Metro Manila: Cognita TRC.
12
Local Color (2000). Batanes: Born of Fire and Water. Pasig
City: Next Step Creatives, Inc.
13
Hornedo, F. H. (2000). Taming the Wind: Ethno-cultural
History on the Ivatan of the Batanes Isles. Manila: UST
Publishing House.
Hornedo, F. H. (2000). The Glitter of Gold: In Batanes Cultural
Heritage. Manila, Philippines: UST Publishing House.
14
Okware, J.I. & Cave, C. (2012). Protected areas and rural
livelihoods: the case of a World Heritage site in Western
Uganda. In M. T. Albert, M. Richon, M. J. Vinals, & A. Witcomb
(Eds). Community Development through World Heritage.
Retrieved from https://whc.unesco.org/document/117040
19
 15
Villalon, A. F. & Man and the Biosphere Programme
(MAB) Philippines (1993). Batanes Protected landscapes
and seascapes. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/
tentativelists/521/

16
About Batanes: Geology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.
batanes.gov.ph

Mencias, C. (2017). Ecoturism Enterprise Developent and

17

Heritage Conservation [Lecture].

18
Millar, S. (2006). Stakeholders and community participaion.
In A. Leask & A. Fyall (Eds). Managing World Heritage Sites.
Retrieved from http://www.mu.edu.et/iphc/images/liblary/
Heritage/Heritage_Culture_and_Tourism/Managing_World_
Heritage_Sites.pdf

19
Leitão, L. (2017). Bridging the Divide Between Nature and
Culture in the World Heritage Convention: An Idea Long
Overdue? The George Wright Forum, 34 (2), 195-210. Retrieved
from http://www.georgewright.org/342leitao.pdf.

20
Sullivan, S. (2004). Local Involvement and Traditional
Practices in the World Heritage System. In E. Merode, R.
Smeets, & C. Westrik (Eds). Linking Universal and Local
Values: Managing a Sustainable Future for World Heritage.
Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/documents/publi_wh_
papers_13_en.pdf

20 es pa syo 9
Post-Earthquake Design
Process in Churches
Loboc Parish Church in Bohol Island, Philippines

PASQUALE MIANO
CANDIDA MARIA VASALLO
Pasquale Miano is the Coordinator of the International Agreement
between the Architecture Programs of the University of the
Philippines in Diliman (UPD), and the University of Naples
– Federico II, Italy (UNINA). He is an Ordinary Professor of
Architectural and Urban Composition in UNINA, and an
Architect with a long professional experience in the recovery and
reconstruction of public buildings and creating urban recovery
and redevelopment plans. He has authored numerous books and
publications in international e-journals.

Candida Maria Vasallo is the Co-Coordinator of the International

Agreement between the Architecture Programs of the University
of the Philippines in Diliman (UPD), and the University of Naples
– Federico II, Italy (UNINA). She is an Architect specializing in
“Engineering of Emergency” and in “Habitat and Technology
in Developing Country Urban Areas” with a long professional
experience in Post-Emergency Reconstruction Programs in Pakistan,
Sri-Lanka, Mali, Montenegro, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italy. She has
authored publications in international e-journals and books.

ABSTRACT
The article presents the post-earthquake design
process used for the Loboc Parish Church, on
the island of Bohol, Philippines, through an
experimentation carried out by the students of
the course “Architecture and post-emergency”.
The design experiment was developed within the
International Agreement between the CoA-UPD
and the DiArc-UNINA.
A comparison between the designs (in the first
three years of the agreement) for the Churches
of Alburquerque, Dimiao, Dauis, and Loon
highlights the similarities, the differences and,
above all, the important issues to be addressed
in a post-earthquake design set in line with the
transformative process generated by a disaster.
In addition, it defines an excellent starting point
for the process and design development in the
experimentation for Loboc.
their own procedural route based on the same
architectural and urban elements, in the same
limits, on the same vulnerabilities, for the same
needs, in the same identities and with the same
transformative design logic. Through a study and
an in-depth analysis, it was possible to identify the
potentials in the complex post-disaster situation
that have led to different and interesting design
alternatives. Each design rebuilds, in the entire
area, a better normality than the previous through
recomposing the identity and responding to the
functional and emotional needs arisen by the
earthquake. The evolvable and transformable
designs are projected into the future, generating
a new balance between the present and the
memory of the past, between the community and
the tourist, between the new and the existing
architectural elements, between the open spaces
and the streets, between the earth and the river.

The process was not given to students as a Keywords: Loboc, post-earthquake process
rigid scheme to be followed mechanically, but design, identity, necessity, normality
rather they were guided in the construction of

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 21

 INTRODUCTION
In the complex scenario generated by the last
disasters in the Philippines, the international
collaboration activities between the University
of the Philippines College of Architecture (CoA)
and the University of Naples – Federico II
Department of Architecture (DiArc) were focused
on contributing architectural and urban design
proposals to the post-emergency reconstruction
efforts. In 2015, during the first on-site mission,
the Churches of Alburquerque, Dimiao, Loon,
Loboc, Dauis damaged by the 2013 earthquake in
Bohol Island, were identified as case studies to be
developed into a post-graduate dissertation and
four theses of students in DiArc mentored by the
author. The complexity and diversity of the cases
have allowed us to experiment with procedural
and design approaches based on an in-depth
study of the uses, culture, and traditions that
the community ascribes to the building, and an
accurate survey on construction techniques and
local materials, developed concurrently by the
CoA graduate students for the National Museum
of the Philippines (NM).
Starting from this study, we reflected on the
mechanisms that, after the disaster, require
the overcoming of two typical design attitudes
followed in the reconstruction process. On the
one hand, there are the design solutions that
produce a completely new edifice, in that the
solutions seek equilibriums of a formal nature
determining a distanced condition from the
contexts in which they are inserted, so they
become the expression of a self-referential
architectural research with technologies and
materials that completely disregards the
contexts of the previously-existing building.
On the other hand, there are design solutions
that seek to re-propose or reconstruct what
existed before the disaster, without accounting
for the transformations that occurred in the
long transition period between emergency
and reconstruction. These two attitudes are
united by the same reluctance to intervene
in the new system of relationships, balances,
and modifications that have determined a new
condition, different from that preceding the
disaster. This condition had become stratified,
as we have observed in our case studies,
owing to the long transitional period where
the dynamics between the more conservative
and transformative sectors of the community
have manifested actions contrary to the
reconstruction programs.
Therefore, it was interesting to think about how
the urban and architectural design had to deal
with this transitional condition. This reasoning led
us to set up the design as a process, as this was the
22 es pa syo 9
most suitable way to support the transformative
process: (1) to go beyond the consolidation and
restoration design of the damaged Churches
and convents, and to integrate them into a
rebalanced system with a fluid use of all spaces;
(2) to improve local resources that would reduce
vulnerabilities in the context; (3) to develop
cultural, social, tourist and economic potential;
(4) to create a plan that would easily adapt to
present and future needs of the community;
and (5) to rebuild a normality better than the
previous one, recomposing the identity that the
earthquake has profoundly changed.
The objective of this article is to provide a new
and unconventional procedural and design
approach that may be adopted for post-
emergency reconstruction in the Philippines.
An approach that is in continuity with what the
disaster has transformed. This approach will be
illustrated starting from the critical comparative
reading of the design solutions defined in the
theses (for Dimiao, Alburquerque, Loon) and in
the dissertation (for Dauis) which allowed the
researchers to highlight the similarities and
differences with the case of Loboc based on a
common design approach. This paper will focus
on the detailed illustration of the process defined
by the co-author in her dissertation as applied
on the Loboc Church complex, performed by the
DiArc’s students of the “Architecture and post-
emergency” course held by the co-author in
the last semester of academic year 2017/2018.
Different elaborations of the method over the
three-day study have produced interesting
design alternatives joined by the desire to create
an open and balanced system that would best
serve the Loboc community.
Comparing case studies
The Church and convent complexes of
Alburquerque, Dimiao, Loon, Dauis, and Loboc in
Bohol, damaged by the 2013 earthquake, have
not been examined with the aim of producing
a completed design proposal, but rather with
the purpose of defining a methodological
design approach. The intent was to offer useful
reflections on similar cases by extending the
field of possible courses of action and suggesting
alternatives that were not considered in the
Filipino post-emergency reconstruction.
Located along the coast, these religious buildings
are evidences of Spanish colonization in the
island and of the role the Jesuits and Augustinian
Recollects who founded these buildings played
in the Philippines through buildings that
have become, over time, strong religious and
social landmarks. “Places of pilgrimage where
the faithful enters [sic] into a more direct
communication with God”, that are real “concrete
signs of space; and as signs stand between the
arbitrary and the tradition,” between faith and
popular beliefs. In this sense, an interesting
analogy is to be found in the strong relationship
among the emerging architecture of the religious
complexes and the housing settlements of the
small villages. Beyond their religious meaning,
these edifices take on the character and weight
of a real main public place, with open spaces
and public buildings tightly interwoven. Thanks
to its landscape-relevant position, each place
does not surround itself but opens towards the
community becoming a fundamental reference
point under different aspects: from water to land,
from memory to identity, from use to religious
meaning, from architecture to the village to the
whole island. Each place defines the identity
of the entire settlement which, over the years,
has built, stratified and evolved itself through a
reciprocal and incessant interchange between
the site, the community, and the architecture.
Interesting analogies have also been found under
the technological-constructive point of view:
all the Churches are the result of a complex and
interesting petrification process that arises from
the abandonment of traditional light materials
(coconut and bamboo, used in the early religious
settlements), and replacement with blocks
of coral stone, with a grainy texture and with
decorative carvings. The relationship between
the Churches and the convents is also of great
interest as it concerns both the dynamics of the
technical-constructive transformation of the
convents, with a basement in coral stone and
upper wooden floors (bahay na bato) and the
position of these compared to the Churches. In
Dimiao, Loboc and Loon the convent is located
behind the sacristy and connected to it by a
wooden passage, in Alburquerque the convent is
placed laterally to the Church and is connected
with a path on stone arches, while in Dauis the
two buildings are completely separate. Finally,
there are also similarities in architectural-spatial
configurations: the Latin cross plan with one nave
Figure 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e. Albuquerque, Dimiao, Dauis, Loon, Loboc before earthquake (Google Earth, CoA-UPD)
Figure 1f, 1g, 1h, 1i, 1j. Albuquerque, Dimiao, Dauis, Loon, Loboc after earthquake (Google Earth, CoA-UPD)
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
in Dimiao and Loboc; the Latin cross plan with
three naves in Alburquerque, Dauis; the narthex
in Alburquerque, Dauis and Loboc; the compacted
façade with two lateral bell towers in Loon and
Dimiao (Fig. 1a-1e).
With the 2013 earthquake, very different
conditions were determined, due to the damages
sustained by the religious complexes deriving
from the reaction capacity of its structural
systems. Different conditions and damages
emerged from the first site inspection done by
DiArc and CoA: slight in the Santa Monica Parish
in Alburquerque, consistent in the San Nicolas de
Tolentino Parish in Dimiao; partial collapse in the
Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Dauis and in
the San Pedro Apostol in Loboc, total collapse in
Our Lady of Light Parish in Loon (Fig. 1f-1l).
During the on-site mission carried out by the
authors and the DiArc’s students, it was evident
that the damages have also affected the areas
around the religious complexes, so the issues to
be addressed were much more complex because
the extent of the damages have profoundly
changed the typological, morphological and pre-
existing urban relations of the area. It should be
pointed out that the different cases were studied
from a perspective with which does not limit
itself to the consolidation and restoration of the
Churches and convents alone, but also takes into
account the urban design point of view in a phase
of transition between the post-emergency and
the reconstruction periods.
From the time of the earthquake until this
study was produced, a series of substantial
transformations took place in the organization
and of the religious spaces of each Church,
including the provision of temporary structures
for the conduct of liturgical celebrations and the
exercise of parochial activities, keeping the role
of religious institutions constant while awaiting
the right reconstruction. A temporary Church
beside the convent was built for the faithful
of Dauis,. Provisional Churches were built in
23
 Dimiao, Loboc and Loon with reinforced concrete
structures placed near the old Church, creating a
transitional space with other minor structures.
Over time, these new Churches acclimatized
with its location, generating new relations with
the surrounding open and closed spaces, and
substantially altering the religious and social
place of reference prior to the earthquake.
Consequently, these new situations posed
questions in finding the most appropriate ways
to integrate the design with the new contextual
relationships generated by the earthquake.
Integrating oneself with this transformation
meant, first of all, conceiving a design as a
process to restore the pre-existent space to the
community in a new condition. This could not
only concern the buildings themselves but had to
also take into account the contextual relations in
an extremely thorough manner of an articulated
palimpsest, in a way that the multiple identities,
the economic availability, the needs of the
inhabitants, the new potentials of space all came
to be intertwined so to rebuild a normality better
than before. These relationships involved not only
the Churches, but also the convents as well as the
other open spaces and buildings, elements that
have continued to live even after the earthquake,
albeit in a different condition from the previous
one. At the same time, the presence of the new
“temporary and definitive Churches” allowed us
to develop a reflection on the role of the new
architectural elements in the restoration of pre-
existing religious complexes. The question of
distinguishability of the new intervention was
really important since some elements of the pre-
existing Church to be replaced were “translatable”
in a contemporary key, but they could above all
fulfil new tasks, more and more breaking the idea
of ​​isolation of the emerging architecture of the
Churches. Following this approach, opposed to
the crystallization of “what it was and where it
was”, the preserved parts of the original structure
were used as a starting point for a careful design
operation, aimed at preserving the identity, the
social and cultural values ​​of each Church, but also
to the ensuring of a reintegration into the context,
integrating new public spaces useful for the
community. The reflections on the relationship
between the pre-existing religious complexes (to
be restored) and the new spaces (to be added)
made it possible to return places of religious
and social reference to the communities in each
village of Bohol.
In particular, the convent of Alburquerque could
accommodate functions related to the training
of technicians and workers involved in the
restoration at the service of the whole island. In
24 es pa syo 9
this perspective, the exceptional nature of this
religious complex could be highlighted, assigning
it a fundamental role in a territorial perspective,
which could hold the Bohol Churches together in
a unitary development program. It was necessary
to build support buildings, through which the
continuity of the traditional activities of the
convent would be guaranteed as well as add
new functions to them. A similar mechanism of
growth and urban integration could be followed
for the school located in the square in front. While
denouncing the differences compared to the pre-
existing, the new grafts continue the process of
formation and growth of this central place, using
the available spaces but without imposing their
presence in a forced manner (Fig. 2).
The design for Dimiao involved the consolidation
of the Church, with the addition of buttresses
and the insertion of elements of connections
between the Church and the convent and the re-
use of the new Church as part of an urban design
that covers the entire area. Also in this case,
at the center of the design reflection was the
convent which, if used as a school building, could
be partially freed from these functions creating
a new volume to expand the existing school, at
the service of which it was possible to integrate
the new Church as an auditorium. With a view to
the progressive expansion of urban relations, the
design included the ancient Ermita cemetery to
the north and the commercial areas to the south.
The area of the Ermita could be interpreted as
an open archaeological park, connected to the
open spaces around the religious complex, whose
fruition takes place through a system of paths at
different altitudes, bringing into play the various
layers of the ancient cemetery (Fig. 3).
In Loon, since the materials recovered from the
collapsed Church are still available on site, the
design proposal was to “reconstruct” the most
significant parts of the building: the façade, the
altar, and part of the rear wing, simplifying the
existing decorative apparatus. In the part behind
the altar, a connection between the ruins and the
pre-existing convent and the exhibition spaces
was proposed. With the partial redefinition of the
architectural elements, it could be possible to give
importance to the presence of the Church in the
area with the creation of a new space for outdoor
religious functions, in which the memory of the
pre-existing building and the earthquake could be
equally alive and intertwined. A space interacting
with the new Church in reinforced concrete was
incorporated into an expanded system that, with
multiple and diversified directions of growth,
would welcome a new nave, bell tower, sacristy
and, other service rooms (Fig.4).
Figure 2. Post-earthquake design for Albuquerque, DiArc thesis, S. Schizzano

Figure 3. Post-earthquake design for Dimlao, DiArc thesis, F. Vardaro

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 25

 Figure 4. Post-earthquake design for Loon, DiArc thesis, F, Sommella
In the cases of Alburquerque, Dimiao and Loon,
the design approach taken on the architectural
scale was applied to the urban scale, generating
new situations and configurations, in which
nothing pre-existing was eliminated but rather
incorporated into dynamic systems, which was
a fundamental complementarity between what
existed and what was added.
Finally, in the dissertation, the co-author applied
to Dauis the process defined for the post-
emergency design of public buildings in contexts
with limited resources, which will be examined in
detail in the steps below. Like the previous cases,
the design approach opened a new alternative
taking distance from the conservative and
traditional approach followed in the consolidation
and restoration completed by the National
Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
26 es pa syo 9
In fact, the distinguishability of the elements
could underline and enhance the “surviving”
building to the earthquake which, on the
main facade, partially restored the spatial
configuration of 1863 and, on the sea front,
opened new perspectives with the collapse
of both corners. The reconstruction of the
portico (narthex) and the main façade could
be considered as a reinterpretation of the idea
of filtering and of passage between the Church
and the community leaving only the memory of
the “survivor” pillar. The portico (narthex) could
become a simple covering that, on the one hand,
defined a welcoming space in close relationship
with the square, to lead the community inside
the Church; on the other, it also offered a
great elevated view, with external access
which directly opened the Church towards the
community. The “reinterpreted” portico could
Figure 5. Post-earthquake design for Dauis, PhD research, C.M. Vassallo
be an essential element in a new urban space,
which could be transformed and extended over
time, reinforcing the centrality of the religious
building in the settlement context, with a more
balanced relationship between the square,
public buildings, housing, and the road/bridge
connecting with the island of Bohol. Above the
portico, the façade was reset, making dialogue
with the “historical architecture” with a new
light modular wooden infill, able to filter the
light into the atrium of the Church. Similarly,
on the opposite side, in the empty corners of
the sacristy, wooden filter elements have been
inserted to determine a new dialogue between
the Church, the Convent, the bell tower and
the sea. In particular, the reconstruction of
the left cantonal could give the opportunity to
unite the Church/Convent through an elevated
connection establishing a direct access between
the sacristy and the interior spaces of the
Convent (used as collective spaces) and, in
addition, it could reorganize the open spaces
existing towards the sea. At the same time,
the convent was connected to the temporary
Church, which may be simply dismantled once
the Church is restored. The design proposed to
maintain this covered open space and repurpose
it to accommodate other functions accentuating
the character of the space as a reference point
for the community (Fig. 5).
All the designs were crafted through a reasoning
that has put focus on the social value of each
religious complex that was in an unstable
context, but continuously built upon the existing
post-emergency conditions, graduating the
steps towards the resumption of normality
through a continuous and unique design that
brings together the public buildings, the square,
the Church, the convent, the new structures,
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
the houses, the community, and the sea at the
same time. The comparison between the various
case studies highlighted the similarities and
differences, and above all, the important issues
faced by the post-emergency reconstruction
design, defining an excellent starting point for
the procedural and design development for the
Church and the convent of Loboc.
Process < - > Design for Loboc Parish Church
In the dissertation, the definition of process
for post-emergency design for public buildings
in contexts with limited resources meant
developing an adaptable method, otherwise
producing a methodology that accounts little for
the community’s specific needs. A method that
would, if applied to the Loboc Parish Church, guide
the design process and prevent the designer
from making hasty and ungrounded decisions,
and maximize the use of local resources. A
method that used rationality “first of all in the
analysis, in the clarification of the structure
of problems, in exposing the peculiarities that
make up a problem and in their systematic
satisfaction.” As for Edward De Bono in 1967, the
“systematic satisfaction” of a problem meant
on the one hand, the following of a sequential
logic (vertical thinking) and on the other, the
constant breaking of the perfection of this logic
(lateral thinking), proceeding by leaps, changing
direction, welcoming suggestions, generating
new directions, and counterweighing options to
find the most appropriate design solution. In this
way, “it was not a procedural scheme, neither rigid
nor definitive, but rather a route” which, through
vertical and lateral thinking, branched to develop
an uninterrupted evolution, from the in-depth
study of the problem to its solution through an
adaptable and transformable design with and for
the community (Fig. 6).
27

Figure 6. Vertical and lateral thinking, E. De Bono 1998
Following the studies of De Bono, in the design
process applied to the Loboc complex “we always
tried to restructure the concepts observing the
stereotypical units to get rid of them,” to generate
a new approach that conceived the method not
as a fixed track with a fixed destination but,
rather, as a conversation about everything that
could be done. A conversation that, having to
close the logical gap between past and future,
should not be limited by rigid preconceptions.
Specifically a “Método de Proyectaciòn” defined by
Guy Bonsiepe, as an open process that, although
having a horizontal sequence, must be seen as
an interactive and recursive guide in which it
was possible to transform and to add variables
for solving, from simple to more complex post-
earthquake design problems.
Solving the problems meant to understand in
depth that a “disaster creates the possibility for
changed individuals, in families changed in a
changed community” to rebuild their normality
better than before. This possibility became real
through the full understanding of the changes
that the disaster has generated, not dwelling on
external factors (linked to the planning strategies
of local authorities) but focusing only on internal
factors (linked to the community, to the village,
to the territory) in order to identify the real
perspective of the local resources. In particular
the positive internal factors were identified in the
strong community cohesion that was activated in
order to satisfy new needs using the potential of
social, cultural and economic local resources.
The negative internal factors characterizing the
vulnerabilities and limits of the community, of
the buildings, of the entire settlement, always
existed in Loboc and even expanded after
the earthquake. Precisely, the vulnerabilities
were related to the social disorganization,
the unfavorable weather conditions, the high
exposure to the territorial risks (earthquakes,
landslides, flooding, etc.) and the climatic risks
(typhoons, cyclones, monsoons etc.), while the
limits were related to the limited economic
resources, the limited availability of construction
materials, the inadequate construction
28 es pa syo 9
techniques, the lack of specific regulations and
guidelines, the absence of skilled labor, the rate
of poverty. Therefore, through this method,
the profiles of the limiting factors were traced
to identify the local resources with greater
potential, and the vulnerable factors (in relation
to each risk) to understand how to reduce
them by improving the performance quality of
available resources.
The earthquake caused a violent, immediate,
and sudden transformation that has activated a
gradual adaptation process around the suspended
memory of the ruins in the entire community and
in the entire settlement. A process that is leading
to the loss of an important place that, over the
years, had brought together the land and the river,
sacred rites and pagan customs, the community
and tourists. The loss of a place with “potentially
devastating psychological implications for
individual and collective identity, for memory and
history” (Fig. 7a, 7b).
The collapse of the Church, the convent and the
watch tower has deeply transformed the identity
link, which united the community with its territory
through these emerging architectures. A link
that evolved over time and changed in space,
through a continuous relationship of exchange
and mutual influences, to create a balanced
connection that could no longer be reproduced but
only reinterpreted and re-elaborated incorporating
the multiple identities generated by the vacuum
that surrounded the ruins. Multiple identities
that, though informal and disconnected (the new
Church, intermediate spaces, public buildings),
required a new balanced connection to re-construct
that unique identity which was not created from
nothing neither it is destroyed but transformed.
This transformation had to take place without
dispelling the authenticity of the place which “is
not only in tangible cultural heritage, but is in
history, in tradition, in culture[,] in the memory
of the community.” A collective memory that is,
as for Jan Assman in 1992, communicatively and
culturally distinct, should not only consider the
past (reconstructing the building as it was before
disaster) but it should be a decisive factor for the
organization of the meaning of the present as well
as the future. In particular, the communicative
memory, in the rites, in the sounds, in the
stories, and the cultural memory, in the detailed
historical documentation of the Church/convent
of Loboc, allowed to read and interpret the traces
of the interrelations, the modifications, the
mutual stratified influences in the past violently
transformed by the earthquake. Both memories
were an excellent departure to understand the
relational mechanisms between the community,
Figure 7a, 7b. Loboc after Earthquake (by CoA-UPD)
the Church/convent and the village but this is not
enough because “memory is the earth on which we
walk, an indispensable ground for founding, but
unsuitable material for building.”
Similar to previous case studies, the study
of historical documentation showed that the
religious complex of Loboc could be considered
as the result of architectural-constructive events
that, characterized by a succession of events,
generated stratified palimpsests whose main
factor of continuity and stability was traceable
in the role of reference that the Church/convent
had represented and still represent for the
community. Thanks to its strategic position, close
to the main road and the Loay river, it mastered
in the housing settlement generating a system
of open and closed spaces located between the
land and the river, where history, traditions and
culture were intertwined through indissoluble
bonds (Fig. 8).
Over the years, the centrality of the entire
complex defined a square in front, surrounded
by public buildings; a back space in which all the
ecclesiastical buildings for collective use were
developed; and a lateral space characterized
by the main road and the river with its boats.
Each space interacted with each other, offering
a great opening of the community towards
tourists, becoming a reference point, both in
the residential area and in the whole island. A
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
point of reference that today could be returned
to the community only through a design that
could retell those multiple and detached
identities generated by the earthquake to
reconstruct the unitary identity of Loboc. To this
end, the constant work carried out on site, by
CoA Master students and by the DiArc student
(through interviews, meetings, and focus
group discussions), was fundamental to know
the real needs of the community. Primarily, it
emerged not only that “emotional needs are
as imperative as any utilitarian (functional)
need and therefore must be met” but that they
varied a lot from the time after the earthquake
to this day. The functional needs could be listed
because they are objectively recognizable in the
damages suffered, as well as in the composition,
distribution, interconnection, spatial and formal
dimension of the specific functions and then
they were attributable to a form. On the other
hand, emotional needs were strictly subjective
and were hidden in relationships, affinities,
evocations, memories and, therefore, they have
been sought through an active participation and
involvement within the communities.
So, if by emotional need, linked to “historical,
natural, social experience, and so on, we meant
the content” and if by functional need we meant
the form, which give a spatial order to the needs,
“it turns out that a new form, (...) can only be
born if we return to the content.” A form that, to
29
 satisfy the emotional and functional needs of the
community, “is never neutral, it is never static
and immovable, it is never substantialized: it
is always fluid, temporal, dynamic.” In order to
define the content and the form, it was necessary
to interpret the functional and emotional needs
by a lucid detachment for directing the most
appropriate design choices without conditioning.
A detachment that rejected attitudes based on a
psychological instance that reconstruct the form
as it was or, on the contrary, make a clean sweep
of what has survived. A detachment that allowed
the understanding the social problems and the
potential of the site; to proceed and gradually
correct the route; to overcome obstacles by
avoiding inadequate solutions. A detachment
that built a better normality than before through
a design that did not produce homologation and
estrangement. A design, whose setting started
from the awareness that there has been “a sudden
and violent change in the physical components of
the community” and therefore “the community
can no longer function as before” because “it has
suffered physical destruction.” A destruction that,
on the one hand, generated new relationships
between all the urban and architectural elements
of the area, and on the other, created new problems
in the community and has altered the old ones.
These problems needed important decisions that
would have repercussions on the transformed
physical characteristics and consequently in its
livability and vulnerability to future risks.

Figure 8. Historical reconstruction for Loboc (Photos by National Gallery Luther Parker Collection; Drawings Courtesy of National
Commission for Culture and the Arts elaborated by A. Mustilli and C.M.Vassallo). In 1596, Father Juan de Torres began his ministry by
building the fi rst Church, in light materials, on the site of Calvary (500 m from the current site) then destroyed in a fi re in 1638. The
construction of the second church dates back to 1670, attributed to the Jesuit Jose Sanchez, which corresponds to the heart of the
three-storey convent, and is the oldest religious building on the island of Bohol. In 1734, the current church in coral stone was built
and the process of decorating the walls ends when the Society of Jesus leaves Bohol in 1768. In 1768, the Augustinian Recollects
settled in Loboc and built the octagonal bell tower. From 1863-1896, many changes were made by the Recollect Priest Aquilino
Bon: addition of the portico to the Jesuit façade with roof covering with tiles (1873); construction of the hexagonal Mortuary Chapel
(1867-1868). Finally, the successors of Bon took care of reinforcing the walls with stone buttresses (1896).

30 es pa syo 9
After two years, the Bishop’s Curia built the new
Church in reinforced concrete, the position of
which, being decentralized from the square,
inevitably created new relations with the square,
with the pedestrian bridge, with the surrounding
public buildings, and with the river. Relations and
uses through which the community, guided by
its needs, has appropriated new open spaces to
construct a sort of apparent everyday life within
an interrupted, suspended identity, waiting for
a more concrete normality. In this daily life “the
stratification of the changing of the uses, of the
advance of the timeline and of the history of
human living” transformed the value and the
charm of the whole context through new and
authentic meanings.
technological, economic concomitant reasons,
and “many other complementary reasons that
refer to the organization and quality of the forms,
to the ability they have to mean and communicate,
towards society. A society that follows the stimuli
of increasingly intense emotional stress,” which
has suffered a break in its identity, which has new
needs to be met, which is forced to accept the
past, to react in the present, to project itself into
the future more immediately. Consequently, the
design becomes a means to reconstruct a balance
in which time and space dissolve, in a dynamic
way, to accommodate the natural evolution of
collective living, to create that “coherent whole
(...) with a common language” in which the space
and the social process are not seen as separate.

To date, the design must question itself on these Applications

new and authentic meanings in order to “absorb
the dynamics of time, elaborating strategies
able to annex, select,” integrate relations and
uses by placing itself in continuity with the
stratifications found. In this way “the crisis
condition becomes a resource” through the
design “which can still indicate a road, prefigure
and propitiate a world that does not exist today,
but that could exist.” Therefore, “the variable
time is one of the essential characters” and, “the
more the design and the built space are able to
refer to this dimension, the more it will receive
a value that of its adherence to real needs and
its eventual transformability” and adaptability
to future risks. For this purpose, the “flexible,
changeable, adaptable, and growing designs” are
the most appropriate for different sociological,
After studying the practical/theoretical concepts,
the DiArc students applied the process for the
post-earthquake design of the religious complex
of San Pedro Apostol in Loboc. A method that
led their choices in urban, architectural, and
structural design, reducing the planning time to
three days; guaranteeing the three fundamental
dimensions of an appropriate post-emergency
design: social responsibility, economic
responsibility and environmental sustainability.
The intent of the course was not to provide a rigid
scheme to be used, slavishly and mnemonically,
but to guide the students in the construction of
their design intervention process so that it was
assimilated and used in the best way, in order for
it to be useable in the future as well. Following
the same transformative logic, in each design

Figure 9. Loboc, General Plan, study of religious geometric relations: the side of the Church and the parts of the convent follow
the river side with a rotation of 21° compared to the North (7 deadly sins x 3 trinity), the 12° watch tower with respect to the
Church (12 Apostles of Jesus) and the baptistery of 9° respect to the North (3 x 3 trinity).

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 31

 intervention process, the actions were defined
on the basis of the same elements, the same
contextual conditions, the same design variables,
the same objectives, but, having been processed
differently, they led to different and interesting
design solutions. Each intervention made it
possible to identify the current potential (social,
cultural, economic), to re-construct a normality
better than before for and with the community
of Loboc, through an analysis and an accurate
“vertical” study of the architectural and urban
elements, of the limits, the vulnerabilities, the
multiple identities, and the new needs.
In practice, the “lateral” development of actions
(concomitant and interconnected) allowed us
to have a critical reading: of the identity of each
architectural element (ruins, new Church, public
buildings, houses etc.); of the relationships that
each architectural element has established with
the other surrounding architectural and urban
elements (road, river, bridge, pier, tourist services
etc.); of the limits and specific vulnerabilities of
each architectural and urban element; and of the
spaces, open/closed and/or new/existing, where
to place the new functions to meet the different
needs (Fig. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).
This critical reading identified three disconnected
areas: the river with the pier and the boats for
tourists; the ruins with the square in front;
and the new Church with public buildings for
the community. Paradoxically, the emptiness
surrounding the ruins, with a sunny square,
Figure 10. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol island, Philippines, M. Loffredo
32 es pa syo 9
clearly separated the community from tourists
who crossed Loboc just to take the boat and go to
the Chocolate Hills to the south and jumping-site
to the north (Fig. 9).
Similar to Alburquerque, Dimiao, Dauis and Loon,
the focus for Loboc was not only on damaged
buildings but on the transformation that these
damages generated in the whole site. Therefore
it was not just the conservation and restoration
design of the Church/convent which restored
the centrality of the religious role, but rather it
was the setting of an urban design process that
would build a balanced and orderly open system
in which the Church/convent returned to the
community with a new role to consolidate its
social role in the whole area. An open system that
“on the one hand undermined all the principles
of un-contamination, autonomy, self-sufficiency,
which have made the architecture impenetrable
to its public.
On the other, it paved the way for the
transformation of the design into a process by
reaffirming the existence of a mutual necessity
relationship between the way of organizing
the environment and the continuous evolution
of the context for which the environment was
organized.” An open system that encompassed
all the surviving spaces between indeterminacy
and stasis, such as the widening of the new
Church and the ruins, the banks of the river, and
developing the potential of the space below and
above the reinforced concrete pedestrian bridge.
An open system that allowed a fluid interaction
between the three areas, bringing tourists
together with the village community. An open
system composed of new architectural elements
that meet the new requirements by grafting with
the existing architectural and urban elements
(Fig. 10).
Specifically, the functional needs were identified
in the damages caused by the earthquake: the
collapse of the porch (narthex) of the façade and
the entire transept of the Church, of the entire
wooden structure of the third floor and the roof
of the Convent, and most of the watch tower.
The Church, cut into two parts, and the convent,
reduced to a six-meter-high coral stone fence (the
oldest religious building in the Bohol island), took
on a new spatial configuration that inevitably
called into question the whole system, creating
possibilities for different uses that were more
similar to real needs. After five years of waiting,
the main need of the community of Loboc was to
restart its economy, by consolidating the Church/
convent, improving services and tourist facilities
with a museum, collective spaces for events,
market area, shaded and equipped green areas,
parking for public buildings.
On the other hand, from a first confrontation with
the exponents of the Bishop’s Curia, interpreting
the emotional needs meant entering in the deep
bond that united the faith to the community
through a space that, more often than not, lost
its sacredness for dressing the strong traditions
of daily life. To date, the National Museum is
carrying out the consolidation and restoration
works following the common desire to rebuild the
Church to its original configuration. Alternatively,
the students applied the process for the definition
of a design that followed the opposite, to give a
new use to what remains of the Church/convent
without erasing the memory of the disaster,
as expressed in the last years by a part of the
community.
Indeed, it was the memory that took on a
different meaning and function in a space
where the community would no longer just
meet God through prayer, but rather to thank
him for life through its music, songs and dance.
The community had the emotional need to
reconstruct its normality, that is, the habitual
condition of daily living, on the awareness of what
has happened, following the deeper meaning of
living together. A meaning that every design tried
to follow through new elements, intervening on
the destroyed sacred space, placing it in relation
to all the spaces that, directly and indirectly
connected, since the earthquake manifested new
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
potentialities not always coinciding with those of
the past.
These new elements were not only to be considered
as the form of new functions but as connectors that
restored an order able to welcome the collective
disorder by making dialogue with the multiple
identities that have coexisted five years after the
earthquake. The identity of the building before the
disaster (already the result of multiple factors) was
interwoven and overlapped with the transformed
identity after disaster in which the building
becomes ruin/memory. First modified by security
works and then by consolidation, this situation
returned in another condition with another identity,
the function of which was immediately challenged
by the identity of the new Church that created
new relational dynamics with the identity of the
expanded public buildings. In this regard, the
detailed survey work carried out through
“a direct experience in the place was
fundamental with a concentrated and
participated attention on the sensitive
experience; a consideration of the place (...) as
an entity in relationship with the world and in
direct relation with the context; an ability to
activate, evoke, liberate, deploy levels, fields,
quality of knowledge (cultural memory);
a custom to memorize isolated images or
sequences (...), colors, compositions and
details and then recover them, sedimented,
through a process of restitution from which
the details that define the whole emerge
little by little (communicative memory); an
ability to detach oneself to understand the
meaning of the transformations that have
occurred; a synthetic capacity that could re-
activate the identity process (...) for design
purposes.”
In each design, the new architectural elements
included the services and facilities for tourists
(bus stops, info points, refreshment areas, the
new pier, equipped green areas) on the upper
bank of the river, close to the main road, allowing
an integration into the whole system and, on the
other, reducing territorial vulnerability (flooding,
landslide etc.) with the reconstruction of the
river banks. The same elements also solved all
the filter spaces between public buildings and
streets, such as the entrance/exit areas from the
school, the car parks, the market area.
These new elements have been designed starting
from a detailed study of the traditional local
construction technologies that identified the
materials (stone, bamboo and coconut wood)
and techniques (bahay kubo, tabique pampango)
better suited to be improved for reducing
structural vulnerability.
33
 Figure 11. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol island, Philippines, S. Cuntò

34 es pa syo 9
Figure 12. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol island, Philippines, A. Mustilli

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 35

 Figure 13. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol, Philippines, A. Buonfi glio, M. De Falco, C. Mascolo

36 es pa syo 9
Figure 14. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol island, Philippines, A. Balbo, F. Volpe

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 37

 Figure 15. Post-earthquake design process for Loboc Parish Church, Bohol, Philippines, N. Scognamiglio

38 es pa syo 9
These elements, which could be adapted to
different spatial configurations, were composed
of low-cost, lightweight, modular structures
that could be made in self-construction, simple
and quick to assemble, to disassemble, to
move, to maintain, to replicate, to transform,
to be economically sustainable in accordance
with the evolution of the present and future
needs of the community. This type of choice,
so rooted in traditions, could also reduce social
vulnerability because the community, actively
involved (from implementation to maintenance
to future evolution), somehow re-established the
existential fracture due to the loss of orientation
and identification, suffered with the collapse of
these buildings (Fig. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,15).
With reference to the ruins of the Church/
convent and the watch tower, it was essential
to know the structures, the decorations, their
significance and their weight in the tradition and
local customs to have a basis on which to set up
restoration, recovery and reconstruction design.
The opportunity was to graft and distinguish
new partial and circumscribed elements on the
masonry structures being consolidated by the
National Museum. Following the same approach
as for new elements, the roof, the façade of the
nave, the apse of the Church and the convent were
designed with a modular structure in bamboo
and/or coconut (Fig. 11, 12, 13). Some designs
have adopted an attitude of total respect for the
memory that survived the disaster, which became
a fence under the sky to wrap the community, as
for the Church of Santa Cruz in Manila in 1945
(Fig. 14, 15).
The Church and the convent welcomed a new
and important collective function in which faith
became the form to host the important musical
events that were a strong identity connotation
for the Loboc community and to build, outside, a
sort of scenic backdrop towards the square. But
faith could also become the content, preserving
the sacred space in the area of ​​the apse and the
transept to mend the old bond between the old
traditions and God (blessing of the cows and seeds)
(Fig. 13). In the restored convent museums, art and
craft workshops and restaurants were placed. In all
cases the transept was not covered but took on
a new role as a square uniting, in its transversal
crossing, the river, the memory, the new Church,
and the tourists at the community life.
From the reading of the results, it clearly emerges
that the procedural method was applied and
assimilated in a correct way, in fact it allowed to
dissect and analyze the problems to be resolved
and to achieve appropriate design solutions in
order to rebuild a better normality.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Solutions that, following a transformative logic,
within the strong contextual limits, have had
to confront multiple identities to be related;
the functional and emotional needs to be
interpreted; and the vulnerabilities to be reduced
by developing local resources. What unites the
designs were, undoubtedly, the desire to build
a balance, to bring tourists and the community
together through an open system, with elements
that could be dismantled and transformed, at
the service of the users and to be “able to update
themselves” continually when it will happen, (...)
to effectively respond “to future natural calamities
by assuming a new “own domain of stability.” An
open system in which the community could orient
itself and identify itself to welcome and involve
tourists in their own disordered normality.
A system that was built around the memory of an
important architecture that became a cultural,
social, economic, tourist reality and, at the same
time, was an expression of new forms and new
relationships. Forms that, in order to fully satisfy
their new functions, would have the task of
remaining in time without blocking the evolution
of identity (relative permanence) or of emerging
or renewing in new relationships starting
from the past and projecting into the future
(emergency in continuity). Relations that are
woven into awareness “that shaping our physical
environment does not mean applying a fixed
formal pattern, but rather a continuous, internal
development, a conviction that continually seeks
the true, at the service of humanity,” in simpler
words “there is no terminal point in architecture,
there is only uninterrupted change.”
CONCLUSION
The Churches of Alburquerque, Dauis, Dimiao, Loon
and Loboc are very significant cases, since they
present different conditions and damages opening
the way for interesting comparisons between
elaborate design procedures and proposals. Their
focus is on the design as a process which could
be extended to Bohol’s entire religious heritage
(affected by earthquakes) and also to other areas of
the Philippines, where religious presence acquires
a very important role for the community. A design
that is not simply built upon a functional program,
but which deals with the issues related to the use
of urban and architectural spaces in the time of
transition from the earthquake to reconstruction.
Spaces, of variable dimensions and uses, require a
great capacity of continuous physical re-perimeter,
both in the architectural scale, where it makes little
sense to set up the building in isolation, and in the
urban scale, where the network of relationships
and concatenations change suddenly, where
the places of new settlement and the places of
abandonment are continuously multiplied.
39
 In such a complex scenario, the problems related
to the important issues of identity and needs can
only be resolved through a renewed strategic role
of the architectural design. A role that is defined
starting from an innovative process method
that organizes “a systematic set of planning,
design, construction, de-construction and re-
introduction actions of the available” architectural
and technological resources. A method that
analyzes and studies in an interactive way all the
architectural and urban elements in relation to their
own vulnerabilities, limits, identities, and needs,
thus identifying their potential for social, cultural,
economic and tourist development. A method
that does not follow a rigid scheme but rather
lends itself to different elaborations, as emerged
from the experimentation of the students, to lead
to a design integrated in the social transformative
process triggered by the earthquake. A method
that allows the development of a design “closer
to local resources, to local production rules and
therefore able to respond effectively, quickly and
flexibly to the contextual request” in the present
and future.
A design that, to offer a normality better than
before, is conceived as a process in which “every
modification remains impressed and permanently
transforms the existing matter, preserving its
characteristics, where even traumas,” like disasters,
“are reabsorbed, in which the shape of the buildings
of the village,” of the territory, is obtained by
successive, continuous transformations “that took
place in the past and which will take place in the
future” starting from an original material with its
own ductility.” In simpler words, “every design is
(...)a process provisionally completed and waiting
to be continued” from its community addressing
to the “world of life with renewed attention to the
particular forms of tradition.” Renewed forms that,
in an open and balanced system, welcome the
disorder of normality allowing the natural evolution
of everyday life. A “disorder that, unlike the order,
is not designed. Who tried to do it, designed a
disorderly order, that is still an order. In fact, the real
question is not to reproduce the outward aspects
of disorder, but to establish the conditions in which
disorder can freely manifest itself.”
40 es pa syo 9
ENDNOTES
1
The International Agreement between the Department of
Architecture, UNINA (coordinator prof. P. Miano, co-coordinator
PhD C. M. Vassallo), and the College of the Architecture,
UPD (coordinator prof. G. R. Lico) was signed in 2015 and
renewed for other fi ve years with the scope to provide for
cooperation and interdisciplinary collaboration in the design
of postemergency reconstruction in the Philippines.
2
Missions: - 2015, DiArc in the Philippines: P. Miano
(coordinator) and C. M. Vassallo (PhD and co-ordinator); -
2016, DiArc in the Philippines: A. Mustilli, S. Schiazzano, F.
Sommella and F. Vardaro (students);- 2016, CoA in Italy: G.
R. Lico (coordinator); J. D. Alegre, C. B. S. Bulaong and J. D.
Silvestre (teachers); M. C. A. Luna and M. R. Maglalang Santos
(tutors); D. M. Fuentebella and T. A. Ong (students).
3
PhD in Architecture, “Emerging from disaster: postemergency
process ← >design for public buildings in context with limited
resources”, A A. 2016/2017, C. M. Vassallo tutored by P. Miano.
Th esis in Architectural and Urban Design: Design strategies
after 2013 earthquake for Albur (S. Schiazzano), Dimiao (F.
Vardaro), Loon (F. Sommella), A.A.2016/2017 e Loboc (A.
Mustilli) in progress tutored by P. Miano.
4
Master in Architectural Heritage and Conservation, A.A.
2015/2016, N. Aquino, M. M. Belgica, J. d. Cobilla, R. J. M. De
Guzman, A. L. Hiwatig, M. C. Luna, C. d. S. Redulla, M. R. M.
Santos, H. A. Vasquez, Z. L. Villamor tutoring by R. L. S. Mata
and C. B. S. Bulaong. Th e study for Alburquerque, Dimiao,
Loboc, Loon was published in N. L. Aquino et al. editor by R. L.
S. Mata, Rebuilt the Spirit. Th e conservation of the churches
of Bohol, UPD, Quezon City, Philippine copyright, 2015
5
Miano P., “Post-emergency and project: procedural dynamics
and architectural themes” in Heritage, temporality and
materiality. Perspectives exchange between Italy and
Philippines, editor P. Miano, Clean Edizioni, Napoli, 2017, p. 12
6
Rossi A., L’architettura della città, Quodlibet (ed.originale
1966) 2011, p. 116
7
Vassallo C. M., Emerging from disaster: post-emergency
process← >design for public buildings in context with limited
resources, PhD in Architecture, DiARC-UNINA, A A. 2016/2017,
p. 83 http://www.fedoa.unina.it/11915/1/vassallo_candida_
maria_29.pdf
8
Miano P., 2017, ivi, p.13, 21
9
Miano P., Vassallo C. M., “Post-earthquake Design: Restoration
Process for Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Dauis,
Bohol” in ES.PA.SYO’ Journal of Philippines Architecture and
Allied Arts, Vol. 7, National Commission for Culture and Arts,
Philippines, 2016, p. 28 Miano P., 2017, ivi, p. 22, 23
10
Miano P., 2017, ivi, p. 25
11
Miano P., 2017, ivi, p. 27/33
12
Vassallo C. M. “Emerging from disaster through a
postemergency design process: The Church of Dauis in Bohol
Island, Philippines” in Heritage, temporality and materiality.
Perspectives exchange between Italy and Philippines, editor P.
Miano, Clean Edizioni, Napoli, 2017, p. 111
13
Miano P., Vassallo C. M., 2016, ivi p.32
14
Vassallo C. M., 2017, ivi, p. 113
15
Miano P., Vassallo C. M., 2016, ivi, p. 34
Neo-Gothic Imaginary
of Manila
San Sebastian Church and Revising the City for the Global Age
JOVINO DE GUZMAN MIROY
Jovino de Guzman Miroy earned his post-graduate degree in
Philosophy at the Katholieke Uniersiteit te Leuven, specializing
in the History of Ideas (Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern).
He is interested in understanding how the Medieval City relates
to modernization and development in the Philippines. He has
published on the intersection of visual culture and historiography
of Philosophy in the Philippines. He teaches Philosophy and Arts
Studies courses at the Ateneo de Manila Univeristy.
ABSTRACT
This paper explores how built space could
provoke serious considerations of how we
might re-understand Manila as a modern and
global city. The paper focuses on the experience
of seeing the San Sebastian Church, and its
associated meanings and responses to modern
architectural formation. The paper proposes that
seeing the Neo-Gothic church paves the way for
deploying important ideas that would help revise
Manila, including urban imaginary, narrative of
privatization, and communal space.
Keywords: Neo-Gothic, Urban imaginary,
Communal Spaces, Medieval Spaces
INTRODUCTION
The Basilica of San Sebastian in the heart of
Manila, as a built space, is a concrete locus of
the cultural turn in re-understanding cities – a
turn which interrogates the reduction of the
city to economics and uses the category of the
Neo-Gothic to re-introduce moral and political
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
concepts (such as justice and dissent). This paper
articulates a deeper analysis of cities though its
built environment. Our aim is to use the built
environment to determine the imaginary of an
urban space vis-à-vis its projection and relation
with other built spaces. The encounter with the
San Sebastian might lead to an understanding of
the city that is less privatized and more communal
and shared.
Principally, the article asks the question of how
we could revise the urban imaginary of Manila.
Such a revision would require explaining urban
imaginary as emanating from built space. For
this reason, the discussion starts with a specific
experience of built space, namely, the San
Sebastian Church. This experience of “seeing” the
San Sebastian allows us to interrogate the idea
of modern, in relation to the medieval, the Neo-
Gothic, and the global. In the end, we suggest
that such an interrogation can lead us to a local
understanding of the modern based on culture
and humanism.
41
 Figure 1. Interior of a Gothic Church, a style which developed from 12th-16th c. characterized by its colossal height and pointed
arches as prominent designs.

Figure 2. Pointed Gothic arches

SEEING THE SAN SEBASTIAN

If we stood before the San Sebastian, what
would we see? We see a structure described as
prefabricated steel, 19th century, Belgian. We
would naturally ask about its style: is it Gothic, Neo-
Gothic, Medieval, or Feudal? In so doing, however,
we would also be asking, whether the Basilica is
modern. To what extent does its contested style
interrogate its relationship with modernity? To
what extent does its contested associations allow
us to revise our urban imaginary.
Most travel literature have described it as Neo-
Gothic. Historians of Filipino architecture would
say that the oldest Neo-Gothic church built in

42 es pa syo 9

Figures 4-6. Sto Domingo Church, Intramuros, earliest
NeoGothic structure: “Such height went with the design of
larger windows that allowed a greater play of light. American
Historical Collection, ADMU
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Intramuros, the Sto. Domingo Church (built after
1863), would give an impression as being Neo-
Gothic as it points heavenward. Such height
went with the design of larger windows that
allowed a greater play of light through stained
glass windows. In 1891, as re-designed by no
less a renowned architect Genaro Palacios, the
San Sebastian was built in the Quiapo district.
Interestingly, the Quiapo district is located outside
the walled Intramuros and now geographically
stands at the center of Manila City.
Accepted archival studies on the San Sebastian,
however, indicate that the church is not precisely
Gothic but as modulating it. They are less ready
to accept the idea that it is Neo-Gothic or Gothic
revivalist. We quote,
a. The material has modified the chosen style.
In Gothic stone churches, flying buttresses
push in the walls to keep them from buckling
under the weight of the stone vaults. San
Sebastian does not have buttresses because
the steel skeleton easily carries the light
steel plates of the vaults. Instead, the sides
are decorated with steel pilasters that rise
uninterruptedly from ground to roofline.
b. The two side aisles, for instance, are of the
same height as the nave. This is unusual.
Even in Spain, as in France, the side aisles
do not rise to the full height of the nave.
Instead, the nave soars up past them to
display its glorious stained glass windows in
the clerestory.
c. In San Sebastian, stained glass windows
appear on the upper story of the side aisles.
Interestingly enough, late medieval German
interiors are one enormous hall where the
aisles and nave are of the same height and
are aptly called Hallenkirche (hall church).
The lack of clarity and consensus about its style
is probably part of the seduction of the San
Sebastian. In the absence of a definitive study,
we might say that its supposed Neo-Gothic
style is contested. This paper, however, does
not aim to define the Basilica’s style, but rather
to ask how experiencing the San Sebastian and
interrogating its meaning allow for a revision of
urban imaginary.
WHAT DO MEDIEVAL, GOTHIC, NEO-GOTHIC,
FEUDAL MEAN?
The idea of Neo-Gothicism, however, has already
been introduced into the understanding of the
San Sebastian. To avoid possible confusion
about what we refer to, it is cogent to discuss
the definitions and associations of the following
terms: Gothic, Neo-Gothic, Medieval, Feudal,
and Modern. Firstly, Gothic architecture is a
style that emerged between 12th -16th century,
which is highly characterized by its colossal
43
 height and pointed arches as prominent designs.
Neo-Gothic (sometimes called as Gothic Revival
or Gothicism) refers to a style that has been
influenced or reminiscent of this earlier style.
Ironically, it is not difficult to conflate the modern
imaginary with the Gothic since both of these
styles have prominent attributes: “the modernist
utopia in its current corporate and consumerist
hubris, with its suburbs, ex-urbs, and gated
communities, right next to a modernity noir of
ghettos, shantytowns, and favelas mile upon mile
into the countryside.” Such description of the city
makes it indistinguishable from a medieval city.
Contrary to popular belief, however, “Neo-Gothic”
might mean something less medieval and more
modern. Neo-Gothic scholars have often argued
this modernism: “For them, the idea of Gothic
acquired a markedly Protestant, radical colouring,
its ancient virtues linking it to contemporary
themes of constitutional liberty and nationhood.”
Coherent to such views, they further posit that
“in the seventeenth century, Gothicism was
a dynamic force for political change in Britain
as nowhere else in Europe.” For instance, Neo-
Gothic architecture in Bombay naturally entails
Imperialism entwined with capitalism; a similar
entailing occurred in the Revival by Disney in his
theme parks.
This might be an incongruent position, but to
contend for a modernist-Gothicism of the San
Sebastian is to suppose that the prefabricated
Neo-Gothic style of the San Sebastian relates to
the Spanish colonizers’ earnest efforts to mitigate
effects of disasters in a calamitous archipelago like
the Philippines. Historical analysis allows us to see
that Neo-Gothic structures were erected around
the same time that Spain was losing its colonies.
In Manila at this time, colonial subjects turned
into revolutionary spirits and found shelter in the
founding of the Katipunan, the establishment of
the Academia de Dibujo, the teaching of Spanish
to Filipinos, etc. Witnessing various turns of
historical systems, the San Sebastian survives the
Philippine Revolution, the Filipino-American War,
and the Japanese Occupation.
Furthermore, we ask whether the Gothicism in
Manila is linked to the medieval and the feudal?
While there is universal consensus that the
“Gothic style” is medieval, the feudalism of this
style complicates matters. Such questioning
warns us that the articulation of the urban
imaginary arising from the San Sebastian in
Manila must not sever “the medieval” from
the feudal mode of production. For example,
the neo-liberal modes of production signified
in Gothic representations are present in
the Woolworth Building or the Neo-Gothic
44 es pa syo 9
structures of Northern England. The deployment
of the “medieval city” in our analysis of modern
cities in light of medieval and feudal modes of
production imposes complexity in historical
materialism. In other words, the term medieval
has an etymological and semantic independence
with “feudal mode[s] of production.” The question
that supervenes now is to what extent does the
Gothic carry both the notions of the medieval
and feudal?
To clarify this matter, there is a need to explain
how building cities in the Middle Ages fits into
the feudal system. Some scholars have argued
that the medieval city is a form of dissent against
the feudal system as they were produced by the
migration of enfranchised serfs: “Once the bonds
of serfdom were relaxed the peasant might move
to the city hoping to become lost in its anonymity.
There was a saying that Stadt Luft macht frei—‘the
air of the town makes you free.’” This means that the
city was an escape route from the feudal system
in the countryside where “unfree peasant[s] who
had escaped and lived in a town for a year and a
day” cannot be forced to go back into semi-slavery
on the land and have the “right to live there, and
[become] the citizen body. Having said that the
city bailed many out from the oppression of the
landlord, the same feudal system also appropriated
the city. As the cities proved to be profitable,
the lords themselves sought to establish cities:
“Feudal custom barely recognized the town, and yet
feudal lords saw profit in promoting new towns by
“[creating] institutions that lay outside the feudal
order and in the rise of a bourgeois class, which
was destined finally to overthrow them.” This
means that the invocation of the “medieval city” is
to recall that the feudal system was the impetus
for the building of cities during the Middle Ages;
furthermore, feudal lords appropriated the city,
either by building a castle in a city or establishing
a market in one area of his lands. The founding of
cities also led to constituting a set of rules (the
charter) which defined what citizens could and
could not do in the legal context.
Future study must ascertain to what extent
“city building” during the Spanish times in the
Philippines or in the 19th century or in the
American period perpetuated certain feudal or
semi-feudal systems. We must stress that the
idea of the medieval used here does not gloss
over the idea of the feudal; instead, we say that
the “medieval” with full resonance of the feudal.
We understand that medieval city building is
simultaneous with the birth of the Gothic style.
We also understand that remarkably, some
feudal systems ceased only in the 18th century,
like in parts of Russia. This means that Gothic
as a style theoretically and historically should
Figure 7. San Sebastian Church, pre-fabricated steel, 19th c., Belgian. Scholars dispute its Gothicism because its “steel skeleton
easily carries the light steel plates of the vaults. American Historical Collection, ADMU
not be confined to the Middle Ages alone. It is
unconscionable that people think the medieval
ages ended with the birth of new artistic styles.
If anything, these interconnections between the
medieval, the Gothic, the Neo-Gothic, and the
feudal politic point to the enduring significance
and imperative to carry out Medieval Studies
especially in the Philippine context.
Similar cases also occurred in Victorian England
when Gothic was seen as meaning of moral
reformation: “Also by the values of High Victorian
Gothic that were summarized at the time by the
word ‘reality’—the truth, seriousness and vigor
that were a means of striving against corrosive
doubts and anxieties. Here, indeed was a heroic
architecture.” This certainly was the meaning of the
Gothic during the High Victorian period (i.e. Gothic
Houses in San Francisco): “It is interesting that
while Gothic Literature features the nightmare of
social reality, in the suburban villas where they
were read, the solutions to these nightmares are
being lived out: social reform, religion, educational
initiatives, charity or domestic affection.” Is it too
facile to conclude that late 19th century Spanish
Manila would not have had the same Victorian
meanings? Would the idea of the Neo-Gothic
which we have inherited during the late Spanish
colonization as well as the early American Period
might also define “moral meanings?”
It may also be argued that architectural styles
are international, and with them, their meanings.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
It is possible that the use of the Neo-Gothic was a
sign that the Spanish colonizers at this time were
trying to “modernize,” even as they were trying
to answer engineering riddles. It is possible that
such modernizing and colonial spirit prompted
the native population to demand democratic
reforms; that is, assimilation and representation
in the Cortes and greater secularization in the
Church.
The Neo-Gothic (along with the “Gothic”) are
therefore multivalent – at once the symbol of
nightmare and light. The same can be said of the
San Sebastian Church. It also functions in light of
moral reformation to conserve status quo. Thus,
the Neo-Gothic structures deviated as a venue for
revolting masses during the Philippine Revolution
or even during the Japanese Liberation. Up to
now, ordinary people take to these structures
with less warmth than the Quiapo Church or even
San Agustin Church. Certainly, the idea or re-
imagining the Quiapo District would touch on the
meaning of the Neo-Gothic as moral reform, even
social and environmental reform. In the Marcos
era, as Gerard Lico expertly demonstrates, the idea
of the New Society was accompanied by building
projects, such as the renovation of Malacañan
Palace and the construction of the CCP Complex.
We still need to figure out how the construction
of the New Society coincided with the burgeoning
of Makati as a global city and analogously leads to
the forgetting of Manila.
45
 Figure 8. San Sebastian. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza. Despite its steeliness, the structure provide a sense of list and upward
orientation rendered in Neo-Gothic architecture.
SAN SEBASTIAN’S IMAGINARY
AND THE MODERN
The urban imaginary settles in our collective
fictions. We tend to associate the spires of San
Sebastian to the famed castles of Europe and
Quiapo with the Basilica of the Black Nazarene.
These sacred spaces are also known for their
masses and processions, for example the festivity
of the Black Nazarene attended by million Filipinos
yearly. Buildings are part, if not decisive, of the
urban imaginary of Manila, an imaginary, to say
the least, we immediately consider as not modern
enough. Does the San Sebastian negotiate its
way into our understanding of Manila as a modern
city? Moreover, were its precious stained glasses
surrounding the all steel building would be
precursors of the modern skyscrapers? But unlike
these modern buildings the San Sebastian is not
abstract and universal in structure and that it
sorely lacks meaning.
The conceptual difficulty we have in linking the
San Sebastian’s place in modern Manila, however,
lies in making a sharp distinction between the
medieval and the modern. This distinction would
be belied once we realize that some modern cities
were built on the foundations of medieval cities,
for instance as it prevailed in former Spanish
colonies. Lewis Mumford argues that when the
countryside and rural villages in Europe improved
in the 16th and 17th century, they naturally
adhered to former medieval patterns of city
building, and this medievalization was considered
an improvement. Thus, Mumford writes, “[t]his
46 es pa syo 9
improvement was expressed most happily in
the villages of central and northern Europe, from
Bavaria to the Netherlands and thence over to
England, right into the western countries.” The
process of medievalization is internal to our
colonial experience – people who used to live in
hovels were reduced into a compact community
with block streets around a central edifice that
could be a guild hall or market hall or a church.
Mumford further states that:
[a] similar change took place in the New
World, for it was there that the medieval
order renewed itself, …, by colonization.
In South America, the new colonial towns
were laid out in advance, in accordance with
principles laid down in the Laws of the Indies,
codified in 1532, at the time of the conquest
of Mexico. But these new towns looked
backward, not forward—for they followed
the standard Bastide pattern and carries
that standardization further by providing
for a forum, or plaza, ideally 400 by 600
feet, in the center of the town, with a church
dominating one side, leaving the plaza
itself open. The house blocks were strictly
rectangular in form and the streets wide....
This medievalism as the model of transformation
and improvement could very well justify our
proposal to deploy the San Sebastian to re-
understand and revise modern cities. To our
mind, such interrogation of Manila could and
should start with a prefabricated understanding
of (colonial) modernity in particular.
Be that as it may, another form of analysis could
also lead us to state that aspects of the “medieval
city” have been carried into our modern cities
namely, gatedness, informality, and the camp.
The medieval city is primarily characterized by
‘contested sovereignty,’ citizenship by virtue
of fealty bonds, or patronage. On the contrary,
centralized authority is a modern concept that
produced the Baroque City of long avenues
and boulevards. In the medieval city, there are
enclaves and ghettoes, Ducal and Bishopric
palaces, all of which are states within the states.
A citizenship that is not centralized and is more
private is characterized by ‘exceptionalism;’ space
that is created will be exclusive and informal.
Noting these comparisons, the privatization of
Manila has produced gated communities whose
powers culminate through private homeowners’
associations and ironically informal settlements
which actually legitimize formal authority, and
camps, where the rules are different.
The imaginary of Manila in relation to the estuary
systems from Quiapo to Paco, does not refer to
the glory of built architecture but to the contested
sovereignty that characterize Manila. It is the
triumph of privatization and the testament of
a weak state authority that inadequately plans
the urban condition according to civic virtues
and public needs hence, deeming contrary to the
present state of affairs.
The succeeding section of the article discusses
how the history of privatization of Manila has led
to a Gothicism associated with decay, ghettoism,
Figure 9. Main Altar, San Sebastian. Arches are reminiscent of the ones found in the old Sto. Domingo Church in Intramuros.
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
and contested sovereignties. But the discussion
attempts to answer its basic questions by
explaining that the encounter with the materiality
of the San Sebastian exemplifies the idea of
urban imaginary. This deployment of such notion
inaugurates the cultural turn in the understanding
of cities. At the end, we assert that the experience
of the Neo-Gothic pricks the conscience of the eye,
paving the way for a revision of a city that is more
communal and egalitarian.
MANILA’S NARRATIVE OF PRIVATIZATION
Does seeing the San Sebastian prod us to ask
how we should define the modern city? We
heretofore have often looked at cities as tending
towards modernization, projected by present
global cities prominent with private financial
enclaves. However, the history of Manila as a
city projects a movement from out the walls into
the arrabales. It is a movement marked by iconic
construction, such as the San Sebastian Church,
the Neo-Classical Civic Center, and the Cultural
Center of the Philippines, a movement which also
shows the rise of the culture of exclusivity and
privatization as seen in the urban/city planning
of Makati, Ortigas, and Muntinlupa. These spaces
are usually “economic zones,” and characterized
ironically by homogeneous function; a space of
commercial development. Within this movement,
modern global cities make expatriates feel “at
home” in streets arranged in grid patterns as they
resemble western architectonic of city planning.
Often marked by towering skyscrapers, these
global cities are designed to generate financial
activity at the expense of traditional public spaces
47
 and relocation of economically marginalized
classes to the city’s periphery.
Historians consider this as a story of “exceptional
intensity of privatization.” In Metro Manila,
especially after the Marcos Era, the state
inadequately understands and regulates urban
and regional planning. What results then is an
awful urban imaginary of a Manila lost in the
alienating circumstances of a market-driven
economy and persisting in a dark association with
slums, floods, and traffic congestion. Perhaps this
can be traced to Philippines’ long colonial history
that resulted to convoluted mix of architectural
confusion. Consider this: “Metro Manila can also
be regarded as a city with a long history and
exceptional intensity of privatization in urban
and regional planning, going back to the political
and administrative transformations under U.S.
colonialism in the early twentieth century.”
Manileños’ pretention to globality is best
understood in the mall-centered construction
of towns, municipalities and cities for “[malls]
not only replaced other forms of consumption
and public spaces in the city but, …, have also
“emerged as perhaps the most familiar landmarks
and spectacular monuments of urban Philippine
society and culture today.” Malls have replaced
public spaces and other forms of consumption,
such as open air terraces or shop houses. In
the Philippines, the original concept of The Mall
as traced to Civic Center proposed by Daniel
Burnham, had become air-conditioned temples
of consumerism where everything had been
Figure 10. Stained glass windows, San Sebastian. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza. Future study of icography of the windows may reveal
more evidence of medievalism.
48 es pa syo 9
incorporated from educational, residential, and
even religious spaces. Such misunderstanding
of The Mall is best exhibited by SM Mall of Asia
which is touted as the largest mall in Asia.
In the early 21st century, “recent years have
witnessed some degree of ‘revitalization’ and
gentrification of some selected inner-city areas.”
Urban development has been characterized
by private driven organizations with nominal
government interventions. Boris Michel’s
study of Bayani Fernando’s MMDA and Rockwell
Development partnership in developing urbanity
illustrates two examples of this partnership:
“[t]he first example deals with a recent
state-led beautification project aimed at
symbolically reclaiming the inner city for the
state and the middle classes and preparing
it for (international) investments. The
second example focuses on an upper-class
mixed-use community that can be regarded
as a spearhead for redevelopment and
gentrification in Metro Manila.”
This partnership, despite having aesthetic
results, imposed state-sponsored (thru MMDA)
stricter forms of marginalization of informal class
in favor of financial sectors. The MMDA has tried
reclaiming the inner city for middle and upper
classes to accommodate foreign investments
and market which coerced the urban sprawl
into neighboring provinces, such as Laguna
and Bulacan. Facing issues of extensive urban
sprawling and desperate economic development
as shown by malls and other commercial spaces,
Metro Manila develops as a city following colonial
patterns vis-à-vis radical privatization of life in
harmony with the State’s (in)efficiency in urban
planning. Such narrative of several major cities of
exclusive gentrified enclaves have marginalized
informal settlers in favor of the richer few.
Having understood the history of Manila arguably
as a narrative of privatization, the rest of the essay
discusses the consequences of “seeing” the San
Sebastian Church anew, a process which enacts
the cultural turn in urban studies and might lead
to revisioning, if not revising, of the modern city.
BARRIO SAN SEBASTIAN’S LOCALITY
Critical urban theorists have decried the possibility
that Manila would turn out to be the same as
Los Angeles. Due to homogenization issues (i.e.
structural similarities of airports), the search
for more unique aspects of urban spaces would
radically interrogate the notion of modernity.
For this reason, recent debates on modernity
and postmodernity of urban spaces centered on
cultural analysis of spaces and globalization. A
cultural analysis of cities could yield a greater
emphasis on the locality of a place. Thus, the role
of locality in economic development prompts us
to declare that there are diverse and competing
views of modernity. Together with cultural analysis
of spaces would be the articulation of a more local
kind of modernism – a Filipino variant of modernity.
 invisible and visible component of a cityhood.
Our essay shifts to this unique space in Manila,
namely, the Quiapo district, with special
emphasis on the Barrio San Sebastian, as it is
expressed best in a Filipino adage “that all roads
lead to Quiapo,” [but mainly because of Nuestro
Padre Jesus Nazareno, the city’s most important
religious icon]. The combinatories out of wedded
religious and political history make Quiapo a
unique architectonic in the world. The strong
sense of religious space as exemplified by Quiapo
Church, combines with a democratic space, the
Plaza Miranda. The annual procession of the
Nazareno is arguably the original people power.
With our confrontation of local modernity, we
understand that some cities are yet to be modern
or pre-modern at least to conform to a normative
definition of modernity. With more varied views
on the definition of the constitution of the
modern, some cities are still in the transitional
stage, that is, in the pre-modern or in between the
medieval and the modern.
The introduction of the cultural analysis of cities
would engage the universalist understanding of
cities (that is, to understand them as univocally
global), and would emphasize their locality, that
is, their difference and how they diverge from the
norms of modernity. For this reason, the concepts
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
of urban imaginary and medieval modernity
underscores the city as post-modern. In other
words, our proposed method of using the San
Sebastian as take off point of re-understanding
the urban imaginary does not propose a reversion
to Medieval Ages as a dark precursor of modern
enlightened history, but to use the Neo-Gothic
trace to prove Manila’s advanced modernity. This,
in effect, criticizes modern interpretations of
cities to produce a variant local modernism. This
would also lead to asking how cities became less
systematic and less structured (for the benefit
of capital-driven aims). In subtle accentuation,
we are arguing how cities can become spaces for
difference and divergence; for example, “the park
can help mediate between private individuals and
the chaotic street life of a growing 19th century
New York,” which in the face of postmodern
evolution became “more fragmented and
semiotically assaultive.” This strengthens the
claim for “the need for protected spaces that allow
for individuals to better assimilate difference….”
URBAN IMAGINARY AND THE CULTURAL TURN
In his novel Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino says:
“No city can ever be grasped in its present or past
totality by any single person.” That is why urban
imaginaries differ depending on a multitude of
perspectives and subject positions. That is why
the urban imaginary of Manila constitutes both
The existence of a Neo-Gothic architectural
presence in the core of Manila’s cityhood
interrogates the city’s ontology of global and
capital aspects. The cultural turn in urban
understanding leads to the questioning of the
idea of the global city itself; that is, of urban
modernity as city-dwellers, making us realize that
we cannot understand the city apart from the idea
of medieval origins. We think that modernity is
not absolute for some parts of it are pre-modern.
You might object that by referring to the San
Sebastian, one is replacing the modern with a
medieval mindset that theoretically privileges
religion over secular society. This is to make it
clear that San Sebastian’s imaginary does not re-
enforce a medieval aspect. The San Sebastian’s
steely significance is an assault to the sensibility,
which means that the understanding of the city
is spiritual, but not diametrically opposed to the
material. We all know that the Neo-Gothicism of
the San Sebastian Church can make an engaging
material and empirical impression.
In the a ge of hyper-reality, people have thought
that real space is in danger of being abandoned
in favor of the technological virtual space. When
one enters a coffee shop, for example, it is a
common scene to see a person cocooned in his
49
 gadget. This virtual imprisonment of sensibility is
due to the unsecured real space where people are
satisfied in taking refuge in virtual dimensions.
At the same time, insecurity arises from the
fact that real space has become a space for the
hyper-real personality, a celebrity identity, of
privileged individualities. We desire for a comfort
region where our ordinariness and everydayness
are subtlety expressed. We long for something
smaller and more manageable. At the same time,
however, as we remain in our virtual cocoons,
real space decays. Thus, as real space becomes
endangered, there is a relentless creation of
global villages promoting virtual intensities.
Hyper-reality and globalization are less desirable
when they lead to the loss of local culture. In the
sixties, Ayala Commercial Center, with its outdoor
cafés and quaint sculptures, was a charming local
suburban community. But as the Philippines
became “mallified” in the 90’s with the introduction
of the box-type establishments, this space has
become brutally antiseptic and soulless. A mall
attached to an MRT station, for instance.
For decades now, enlightened urbanites have
longed for real space that is local and unique. This
according to a growing number of humanist urban
advocates can be achieved through a cultural and
humanistic understanding of the city. Two ideas
underpin such longing: the idea that real space
would yield to virtual space, which in turn would
lead to a mistaken assumption that bounded
and centered space would lose their traditional
function. Moreover, because of the opposition
between the local and global, cultural dimensions
of globalization remained inadequately
understood. Local sites like parks and markets
are authentic because they are “subjectively
shared by a given community.” Concrete
communities, by having such shared space, thrive
in real conditions. Usually a radical development
resembles exclusive spaces cohering with
isolated and gated individualities (less sense of
communal living) while less developed areas are
unique and subjective. The recreation of space
as normatively real are comprised of “economic
processes and technological change” perceived
as universal and global.
For this reason, there is a pressing call for an urban
imaginary made by scholars of the city. Usual
urban imaginaries include “utopias of the good
life,” haunting specters of “crime, corruption, and
decay” as intensified “modernist urban utopia.”
Seldom do we take urban imaginaries apart from
its contiguous areas; that is, the decaying parts
detached from the new ones, the light one apart
from the dark ones. One basic sense of urban
imaginary are the associations we have attached
to the city in general, which are often derived
from the medieval city: for example, a city on
the hill or great whore of Babylon. Cities tend
to be associated with light (Paris) and darkness
(downtown Baltimore).
The city is our experience of its built environment,
its materiality. Urban imaginary is not “unreal,”
instead it adheres to the material constructs of a
space as it relates to its inhabitants. Controlling
the imaginary, one organizes the experience and
life of the city. This is called re-imagineering.
At another level, the imaginary is at once visible
and invisible. Imaginary is what we think about a
city and how we perceive it; but this “idea” of the
city adheres to its materiality. Thus, to define:
An urban imaginary is the cognitive and
somatic image which we carry within us
of the places where we live, work and play.
It is an embodied material fact. Urban
imaginaries are thus part of any city’s reality,
rather than being only figments of the
imagination. What we think about a city and
how we perceive it informs the ways we act
in it.
Therefore, the urban imaginary is how we conceive
of a city not as a fiction but a built space.
The memories of a city would certainly be decided
not only by the architecture of it (or its built
environment), but also what we people experience
in relation to the architecture. For instance, the
author’s mother’s imaginary of Quiapo emanates
from the memory of her father rising at dawn on
a Friday to attend mass at the Basilica Minore.
Furthermore, the great shrine’s imaginary as
sanctuary of the Nazareno obscures its actual
name as “The Church of John the Baptist.” As for
the author, the memory of the Mendiola Massacre
imbues the intersection of Mendiola and Legarda,
not only a Benedictine community but also an
imaginary socio-political life. The idea of the
urban imaginary is our experience of the urban
space that coheres with memory and materiality
of that space. Material can refer to both the
architecture and socio-economic life expressed
as people’s “everydayness” of the city. Thus, the
Quiapo district is considered center not only of
a mercantile trade nor religious place of worship
but how people conceive the center itself based
on their everyday encounters.
EVERYDAYNESS
To see the haze of the Neo-Gothic imaginary is
to see the city but with “the conscience of the
eye,” a conscience that is both political and moral.
We refer to morality here not as imposition of a
ready-made system of values but as a praxis of
compassion. The abandonment of real space for

50 es pa syo 9

Figure 11. Main door of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Just like in
the Middle Ages, this façade has been a backdrop of various
community gathering.
Figure 12. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, seen here after its renovation: “a generation ago the cathedral was the site of protests for racial
civil rights.” Roger Ong.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
the virtual has led to exacerbation of apathy. The
assaultive encounter with the San Sebastian
seeks to make us realize our forgotten relation
with real conditions of space. In his book
Conscience of the Eye, Richard Sennett points to
moral and political meaning which an urban Neo-
gothic structure (St. Patrick’s Cathedral) carries.
He wrote,
A generation ago the cathedral was the site
of protests for racial civil rights. Many people
then felt the archdiocese of New York was
not helping vigorously enough, or at all, in
the struggle of Blacks to cross the bars of
discrimination in schools, in public places,
and in the Catholic Church itself. In this
generation, the cathedral has become a place
to protest the church’s response to AIDS,
the disease of deficiencies in the immune
system, whose sufferers in New York are
mostly homosexual men or drug users.
We want to recover a moral sense that the Neo-
Gothic built environment hopes to remind us.
For Sennett, this recovery of moral sense is a
medieval character akin to monuments, for
instance, when protests converge on the steps of
St. Patrick’s: “The police barricades seem to have
cast the magic spell of the old zone of immunity,
the empty streets around the cathedral seeming
51
 to transpose it into a space of its own—in the very
center of the city but at this moment divorced
from it.”
We traverse the abyss of apathy by heading
back to real space and immersing ourselves in
the urban miasma. Unlike virtual spaces, urban
spaces are not neutral, they are constructed
by our subjective experiences and memories.
Including the cultural aspect of urban space,
especially the life and lifestyle attached to certain
built spaces, we introduce the idea of “difference”
and “divergence” into urban theory that fully
articulates these varying aspects. This espouses
moral and political values as complex acts for
these spaces gather a dichotomy of public and
private ideas, as well as issues of inclusion and
exclusion.
We propose that in understanding cities we
subvert prescribing forms of rationality and
to desire to contribute to the idea of the urban
imaginary. We return to the things themselves
by way of the city, insofar as “all cities are
palimpsests of real and diverse experiences and
memories.” A city is the experience and memory
of it, which naturally arise from the built spaces
comprising it. A city is what we remember of it,
the product of a whole community’s engagement
and a creation of collective meanings. In the
same way that much of the imaginary of Paris
would arise from museal experiences that differ
gravely from the imaginary of commercial and
virtual fascinations. Another example, Leuven in
Belgium has an imaginary of a university, while
Brussels has that of the Grand Place. For this
reason, one can assert that the San Sebastian
would afford an imaginary unique to itself veering
away from negative connotations.
This is not to convey that the district illustrates
a “religious imaginary;” for as shown above, Neo-
Gothic itself in its history has been multivalent.
In the same way we wish to see the city as
irreducible to the financescape, our engagement
of city through the Neo-Gothic does not wish to
reduce it to a religious imaginary, and even more,
a univocal understanding of religious (i. e., a body
of beliefs). We wish to comprehend the city as
engagement of everyday experiences. The city,
therefore, is our engagements within a specific
space with various people, events, memories in
built environment.
Urban imaginary is the articulation of the meaning
of the city that is inseparable from not only what
one sees, but also how one describes what he or
she sees. This is consistent with Richard Sennet’s
notion of the conscience of the eye. We see the
city through its very materiality, a materiality
52 es pa syo 9
that must be seen simultaneously with the moral
and political conscience of the eye. This does not
mean we impose a pre-digested singular morality
on the city. The idea of locality is the encounter
with the built space of environment, our
recognition, negotiation, and interactions with
everyday life. In other words, one’s subjectivity
cannot be separated from the locality in which s/
he lives and generates.
The idea of urban imaginary we use adds to the
idea of urban studies as merely an analysis of
world-systems. It is also the analysis of culture,
both global and local, and the dialectic between the
two. As such, the articulation of urban imaginary
requires not only engaging the city but also the
community, its locality, and the built structures
that have survived the vicissitudes of history. Thus,
an urban imaginary depicts the “way city dwellers
imagine their own city as the place of everyday life,
the site of inspiring traditions and continuities as
well as the scene of histories of destruction, crime,
and conflicts of all kinds. It is a form of realism that
is achieved through experience.”
The idea of the urban imaginary permits for an
understanding of cities from the point of view
of Cultural Studies and the Humanities. For the
study of urban imaginaries “emerged from world-
systems theory and the new urban geography and
how one can think about its relation to cultural
and historical issues, the primary focus of the
humanities.” A humanistic understanding of a
city, let us say Singapore, can be more accurate if
it is not purely focused on economic lens. A local
example would be San Juan (Metro Manila), where
the merchant class culture of Chinese immigrants
helped to transform it from a site of the revolution
(Pinaglabanan) to a vibrant Asian city.
Urban imaginary as the humanistic way of
experiencing the city indeed leads to the
understanding of the “two worlds” that often
imbue the urban imaginary. These great contrasts,
which have been there since the beginning of
urbanization, have shed its peculiarity. Mountains
of trash that scavengers scour for treasures no
longer sear those who have spent the whole night
at the eat all you can buffet. Those who spend too
much time in the hyper-real world of commercial
centers often ask about the condition of the poor
and underprivileged sector of society making
them at times objects of their studies. Therefore,
the hyper-reality that global cities created have
led to the sharp contrast between the two worlds
of the have’s and have not’s. Lost in virtuality,
what has become unreal are the poor to which
privileged people reach out through temporary
social programs, like clean ups of Manila Bay. In
truth, what is not real is the glossy and shiny world
Figure 13-18. Rockwell Development, an example of upper class mixed-used development. It testifies the narrative of privatization
of Manila and its built space simultaneously contrast and reminds of the San Sebastian’s Gothicism.
of the commercial and virtual worlds. This means
that the task of describing the urban imaginary
is the project of recovering this peculiarity, if not,
disgust for social inequality and injustice.
REVISING FOR COMMUNAL SPACE
What is our response to question of how we
should revise the urban imaginary of Manila for
the Global Age? We have discussed how the San
Sebastian and its environs direct our gaze on the
city in its materiality. Seeing its highly contested
style and associations might point to its
uniqueness, locality, and difference that latch on
its steeliness; an everydayness that is not other-
worldly but present in the here and now, bringing
forth questions at once personal and communal,
making us interrogate the nature of hyper-real
world of the commercial and the technological.
The modern city, as exemplified by the cocooning
of subjectivity allows for greater interiority,
subjectivity, and individuation, and total neglect
of the formation of “civic virtues,” or sense of
nationhood that we desperately need. Paradoxically,
the colonial period provided some spaces like plaza,
parks, and theaters where civic-mindedness were
taught and experienced. However, the eradication
of public spaces in the late twentieth century
becomes prevalent at the exact time that when
politically the Malacañan Palace started to become
a veritable medieval fortress.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
On the other hand, the re-imagination of the San
Sebastian we propose here must include the effort
for urban spaces to give a sense of community.
The park, for example, while it is about communing
with nature, is also about the promenades where
people from all walks of like meet and assemble.
In a typical medieval city, the façade of the Church
faces a large public square (markt or place) where
people assemble communally either as a market
or holding of an important event. This exemplifies
the centrality of the church in everydayness where
“cathedrals used to be the central institutions in
the city in the Middle Ages and the marketplaces
were usually located in front of the cathedrals or
close to the churches because the inhabitants
gathered together frequently in the churches.”
Rather than merely echoing mystical interiority,
the idea of a whole complex being built around
churches must create this sense of community. For
this reason, the potential of the San Sebastian for
community development could not be discounted.
The San Sebastian reminds us of a piece of
medievalism that is extremely relevant today,
namely, the intersection between the market,
church, and town hall. Again, we do not wish
to enact a literal return to the medieval city,
but to use the Neo-Gothic to remind us of the
concordance and balance between economic
growth, politics, and community that are sorely
lacking in our society today.
53
 Such a confrontation with the Neo-Gothic is part the city while dissenting to the universal and
of the semantic construction of Metro Manila global orientations.
as a Global City Imaginary. A task which is also
philosophy has to say: The meaning of San Sebastian as built space
can produce an urban imaginary that conduces
We may call this knowledge philosophical, to the re-definition of modern cities as reducible
not to imply that it is universal or absolute, to techno-capital dimensions. This includes the
but because it represents a type of thought
that can confront the statistical sublime
furtherance of shared/communal spaces to which
on its own terms. These are the terms that an understanding of the city is not compromised
underlie the dominant financial imaginaries as either spiritual or religious; moral or symbolic;
of globalization. or material or economic hence an understanding
of the city as articulator of justice. It is an
Here we (re)-define philosophy as engagement understanding of the city that does not only
with the city, which simply address philosophy’s have space for the poor, but rather a space for
constitution on relating experiences to the larger the disenfranchised to seek justice and growth.
context of the city’s body. Philosophers have We need to become conscious of the imbalance
understood experience in a more dominantly in this process of modernization, which often
personal sense. We need to nuance this idea, obscures the uniqueness of spaces resulting to
and present a less personal and more communal/ the loss of shared and communal lives.
social idea of experience, through the engagement
of the city and its built environment. The idea
of the urban imaginary tells us that when we
experience, we are engaged if not connected to
the urban space as city mirrors these experiences.
The Neo-Gothic imaginary of Manila might open
up understanding the city from a communal,
public, shared point of view instead of a strictly
and intensely private and individual point of view.
Rather than re-enforcing the virtues of wealth
creation as the Gothic Revival did in Victorian
England, the idea we propose is that the seer
through the conscience of the eye re-understands

54 es pa syo 9
ENDNOTES
1
Martinez, J. M. and Salvatierra, N. (1993). The Basilica of San
Sebastian. Manila: Order of the Augustinian Recollects.
2
A Neo-Gothic outside Manila is the Molo Church (Javellana,
R. [2010]. La Casa de Dios The Legacy of Filipino-Hispanic
Churches in the Philippines Photographs by Betty Lalana and
Lino Arboleda. Pasig: Ortigas Foundation Inc., p. 168); another
one is the San Vicente Ferrer Church (Calape, Bohol) [Ibid., p.
238; with some Gothic elements are the Lourdes Church in
Intramuros, the Vincentian Church in San Marcelino, Ibid., p.
320). Beyond the Spanish times, another example is the Baguio
Cathedral and the Anglican Church on Taft Avenue.
3
Quimpo, M. L. and Zialcita, F. N. (2004). Sites, Structures, and
Streetscapes. In Zialcita, F. N. (Ed.). Quiapo: Heart of Manila.
Manila: Department of Sociology, Ateneo de Manila University,
pp. 173-174.
4
Ball, P. (2008). Universe of Stone Chartres Cathedral and
the Invention of the Gothic. New York: Harper. Cf. Bednorz,
A. (2004). Gothic Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting
Photography (R. Toman, Ed.). Potsdam: Ullman.
5
Huyssen, A. (Ed.). (2008). Other Cities, Other Worlds Urban
Imaginaries in a Globalizing Age. Durham: Duke University
Press, p. 5.
6
Brooks, 1999, pp. 38, 44. “Scholars started to believe that they
were not merely raking through the dying embers of antiquity,
but were minting fresh thoughts. They were creating a kind of
modernity….This was the pivotal point for European civilization:
the Age of Reason began here, and we should the intervening
period—the rather dismal and disorientated fourteenth century
and the slow recovery of the Renaissance—as the aberration,
rather than imagining that the novelty and vitality of the
thinking that informed the High Gothic era were somehow
isolated and distinct from modern times” (cited from Ball, 2008,
p. 283).
7
We do not wish to conflate here the medieval with the Gothic
as well as the Neo-Gothic, but historians are agreed that both
terms refer to the medieval.
8
Alsayyad, N. and Roy, A. (April 2006). Medieval Modernity:
On Citizenship and Urbanism in a Global Era. Space and Polity,
10(1), 16.
9
Pounds, N. (2005). The Medieval City. London: Greenwood
Press, p. 9.
10
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 99 ff; see Maitland, F. W. (1961). Domesday Book and
11
Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England. London:
Collins, p. 214.
12
Morley, I. (March 2011). The Cultural Expansion of America:
Imperialism, Civic Design and the Philippines in the Early
1900s. European Journal of American Culture, 29(3), 229-251.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
13
For the economic context of the Gothic cathedrals, cf. Ball,
2008, 256.
14
Brooke, The Gothic Revival, 307.
15
It is also interesting that according to Chris Brooks, “High
Victorian gothic’s outstanding imperial creations are in Bombay.
There a more developed Gothic complex could be found (Brooks,
C. [1999]. The Gothic Revival. London and New York: Phaidon.
377 ff.). Singapore and Malaysia also have Gothic structures.
This internationalism is the basic function of the Gothic in
modernity, the prime examples of which is the Castle in Disney
World: “The principal modern function of medieval buildings is to
be looked at, prize exhibits of a patrimony in part democratized
and increasingly international, but also homogenized for easier
consumption as spectacle or product. History is repackaged
as Heritage, the open-endedness of historical sites tidied into
cultural theme parks. The process has created an economic and
social base for architectural conservation, an acceptance of
the integrity belonging to the things of the past that is also a
measure of our divorce from it. The buildings of the Middle Ages
are now cared for more assiduously than at any previous time.”
(409). Cf. Aldrich, M. (1994). Gothic Revival. London and New
York: Phaidon.
16
See Brooks, 1999, p. 346; in the US, Frank Furness’ building
also served the same moral purpose. This makes one wonder
how Bank architecture serves the same purpose to instill
corporate values of: material honesty against deceit and
corruption; effort against civic sloth; primitivism against
smoothly decadent sophistication; gothic “reality” defiant in a
world of moral dereliction.”
17
Mumford, L. (1961). The City in History Its Origins, Its
Transformations, and Its Prospects. London: Secker & Warburg,
p. 329.
18
Ibid., p. 330.
19
Alsayyad and Roy, 2006. See also Alsayyad and Roy, 2006, pp.
1-20; cf. also for differing views, King, L. (August 2010). Liberal
Citizenship: Medieval Cities as Model and Metaphor. Space and
Polity, 14(2), 123–142. Lilley, K. D. (September 2004). Cities of
God? Medieval Urban Forms and Their Christian Symbolism.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 29(3),
296-313; Valverde, M. (2011). Seeing Like a City: The Dialectic of
Modern and Premodern Ways of Seeing in Urban Governance.
Law & Society Review, 45(2).
20
Michel, B. (2010). Going Global, Veiling the Poor Global City
Imaginaries in Metro Manila. Philippine Studies 58(3), 383–
406; cf. Shatkin, G. (Winter 2005-2006). Colonial Capital,
Modernist Capital, Global Capital: The Changing Political
Symbolism of Urban Space in Metro Manila, the Philippines.
Pacific Affairs 78(4), 557-600.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
55
 23
Ibid.

24
Huyssen, 2008. Cf. Westwood, S. and Williams, J. (Eds.).
(1997). Imagining Cities Scripts, Signs, and Memory. New York:
Routledge; Highmore, B. (2005). Cityscapes Cultural Readings
in the Material and Symbolic City/ New York: Palgrave; Blokland,
T. and Savage, M. (Eds.). (2008). Networked Urbanism Social
Capital in the City. Cornwall: Ashgate. For the relationship
between cities and development, see Beall, J. and Fox, S.
(2009). Cities and Development. New York: Routledge.

25
Kosnoski, J. (February 2011). Democratic Vistas: Frederick
Law Olmstead’s Parks as Spatial Mediation of Urban Diversity.
Space and Culture 14 (1), 63.

26
Calvino, I. (1972). Invisible Cities. San Diego: Harcourt Brace
Jovanonich. The invisible parts of a city are the parts which
are hidden, e. g. historically, Intramuros, the American Colonial
Governor’s Building, and Malacanang after 1972.

27
See Jacobs, J. (1993). The Death and Life of Great American
Cities/ New York: the Modern Library.

28
Andreas Huyssen, 2008, pp. 11-12.

29
Ibid., 5.

30
Ibid., 3.

Sennett, R. (1990). The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and

31

Social Life of Cities. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 37.

32
Ibid., 39.

33
Ibid.

34
Ibid.

35
Huyssen, 2008, p. 8.

36
Cf. Tung, A. M. (2001). Preserving the World’s Great Cities the
Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis. New York:
Clarkson Potter/Publishers; Brumann C. and Cox, R. (2010).
Making Japanese Heritage. New York: Routledge.

37
Lico, G. (2003). Edifice Complex, Power, Myth, and Marcos
State Architecture. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University
Press.

38
Xing, N., Wai, K., and Siu, M. (2010). Historic Definitions of
Public Space: Inspiration for High Quality Public Space. The
International Journal of the Humanities, 7(11). Retrieved from
http://www.Humanities-Journal.com.

39
Martin, R. (Winter 2011). Financial Imaginaries: Toward a
Philosophy of the City. Grey Room 42, pp. 60–79.

40
Analysis might be made to explain the genealogy of
a dominantly personal understanding of experience in
contemporary philosophy in the Philippines.

56 es pa syo 9
Urban Vertical
Expansion:
A Study on Reclaiming the Vertical Space above RROWs to create Public Space
RONALD S. BALANE
Ronald S. Balane is a graduate of the School of Urban and Regional
Planning and the College of Architecture, both in the University
of the Philippines Diliman with a graduate degree in Urban and
Regional Planning and an undergraduate degree in Architecture.
He currently works as an Assistant Professor and is a registered
and licensed Architect.
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION
The Road is an agent of transportation that has
always been an indicator of progress. In cities,
it is very common for double lane roads to be
expanded several times to accommodate more
traffic as the adjacent areas become highly built
up and densified. However, despite being a sign
of progress, it also brings along with it pollution
emitted from the vehicles that use it. The Road
is also a resource that is underutilized. While
alienable and disposable lands can be densified
several times over depending on the zoning, the
Road is most of the time two-dimensional. It
rarely goes up to the third-dimension in the form
of flyovers and elevated railways. It is an agent of
transportation that needs a makeover.
This research explored developing the vertical
space above roads into different developments
that can be used as linear expansions for the city’s
inhabitants. There has been a recent trend of
reclaiming the vertical space on top of roadways
thru adaptive reuse of existing structures and
plans of building on top of existing ones. The
common theme among them is the push to make
cities more livable for its inhabitants and to move
away from auto centric developments. In the
Philippines, the push for similar developments
is slowly gathering momentum. This research
examined the applicability of such and how
it can be developed further by examining
several existing policies on building and land
use regulations. This research also examined a
recently inaugurated public space in Ortigas and
how it has managed to follow existing policies and
what can be done to further explore its potential.
Keywords: Public Spaces, Elevated, Urban Design
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
As humanity progresses, city centers will
inevitably get over-crowded. In 2007 more than
half of the world’s population (3.3 billion) were
living in urban areas. By 2030, nearly all of the
world’s population growth will be experienced
in cities. In Time’s Special Report, Metro Manila
ranked 9th of the 10 fastest growing cities of
tomorrow, being the most densely populated
city with 46,000 people per square mile, which
is twice that of New York City. With a projected
population of 12,775,900 by 2020 in the National
Capital Region, at a growth rate of 1.64 for 2015-
2020, Metro Manila’s population shall continue
to grow. Left uncontrolled, the overflow of
population would lead to urban sprawl, where the
surrounding countryside at the fringes of the city
urbanizes and will be converted into residential
subdivisions and commercial facilities.
With the need for more space for residential
and commercial facilities, parks that used to
serve as lungs for the city are sacrificed for more
profitable ventures. Such cases can be illustrated
by the conversion of the North Triangle in Quezon
City that contains the Ninoy Aquino Parks and
Wildlife and Manila Seedling Bank in Quezon City
into the next Central Business District and the
Arroceros Park in which a third of the forest park
was concreted to house the Manila Division of
City Schools. Idle private lands that once hosted
numerous trees are converted to towering office
buildings similar to Ayala Triangle and its planned
transformation of more than half of its existing
area into an office tower and hotel.
Undeniably, there is a need for urban expansion.
Uncontrolled, it would lead to urban sprawl. Urban
densification is the best solution to counteract
57
 the outward expansion because it encourages
efficiency and conservation. However, concreting
and building on open spaces like parks would lead
to the eventual loss of the city’s green lungs. A
delicate balance needs to be struck to consider the
needs of the city for expansion and at the same
time care for the environment which sustains
the people. How can cities of the future expand
without increasing its footprint when all the city
blocks have become multistorey structures? The
answer is the Road which is an unused resource
for expansion.
Roads in the Philippines only serve one physical
function. They provide the means for wheeled
vehicles to travel from one location to another.
Currently, Metro Manila has 4,900 kilometers
of roads. Moreover, because of its relative
imperviousness to liquids and undersized
drainages, roads now serve as catch basins for
floods during monsoons when not designed
properly. They also serve as thermal masses that
absorb the infrared radiation and release it later
at night. It is true that roads perform a major role
in the economy as it is an agent of movement
of goods and people, but the road itself is
underutilized up until now. Roads are owned by
the government except in cases where it is within
a private property. Nonetheless, the majority is
available at the disposal of the government. It
occupies the X and Y planes and rarely does it go
to the third, vertical dimension except in flyovers
and skyways. In most cases, the vertical aspect
of the road is an underutilized space that can be
used by the government.
Utilizing the vertical space above Road Rights
of Way (RROW’s) is nothing new, in fact, the
technology for such already exists as can be
seen in skyways and flyovers. However, auto
centric developments are a default configuration
especially in the Philippines. An example is the plan
of the Department of Public Works and Highways
(DPWH) to build a flyover above the Lacson
and España Avenue intersections fronting the
University of Santo Tomas (UST). In the article of
Augusto Villalon in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, it
is stated here that according to Professor Rizalito
Mendoza of the UST College of Architecture, “The
flyover’s autocentric design dehumanizes the
city, separating the people because of its focus on
vehicular rather than pedestrian mobility.” The
author goes further in discussing the demerits of
autocentric developments by using Los Angeles
as an outdated development model that is
“vehicle-friendly but people-unfriendly, divides
neighborhoods, isolates sections of the city from
each other, destroys the human activity of simply
walking, [and] has been proven to be harmful to
community life.”
58 es pa syo 9
But despite being an autocentric, development-
oriented country, the United States can be looked
at as a model in changing this default mindset in
the Philippines by using the vertical space above
the road and turning it into a development that
is people-centric and benefits the inhabitants
within its area. There are plans in the US where
expressways that usually cut through the level
of the common streets are “capped” or covered
to create a park or green space above. Another
precursor to such an idea is the New York High Line
where the old elevated railway is adaptively reused
as a park and common space for the residents.
The researcher’s main query is how can a people-
centric urban expansion be realized in the built
environment thru reclaiming the vertical space
above RROWs? The idea is then broken down into
the two questions:
1. What are examples of such
developments in the urban context
in other parts of the world?
2. What restrictions in the current
Philippine laws may come in conflict
with the idea?
Urbanization and Densification
As the quantity and quality of urban service decline,
urbanization reaches its tipping point and now
grows outward. According to Professor Serote, “…
much of contemporary urban development takes
the form of extension of the urban edge of existing
towns and cities….” Furthermore, he said that “…
at this stage, urbanization reverses itself into a
centrifugal growth pattern or a deconcentration
of population and jobs. The latter phenomenon
is called suburbanization….” This phenomenon
eventually results in urban sprawl. Though it is
a natural process of urbanization, sprawl is not
the most efficient way to deliver utilities to the
population. There will come a point when the
utilities would be too spread out that the losses
incurred during transmission will not be a viable
business enterprise.
As such, the answer to urban sprawl is
densification. There has been a push in recent
years by the country’s big developers in building
high rise condominium properties in Metro
Manila. Although this maybe market-driven,
the same fundamentals are still in place. They
push for higher density projects to be closer to
‘locational advantages’ such as proximity to the
place of work, availability of utilities, convenience
of having everything close by, etc. The denser the
development is, the more people can become
closer to their ‘locational advantages.’ However,
despite numerous projects of these private
developers, developments for the public good
seem to lag behind. For that reason, some cities
have resulted to reclaiming the usable space
above thoroughfares. This is more prevalent in
the modern metropolises of the world where
there is a lack of public space. Such examples
already exist in cities such as Paris, Chicago, and
New York.
Adaptive Reuse for Public Good
Promenade Plantée (Figure 1) was built in 1859
and was meant to be the Vincennes railway line
linking the Bastille station to Verneuil-l’Etang.
It was closed after a decade of service and fell
into disrepair. When the Bastille station was
demolished in 1984 and replaced with the Opera
Bastille, other sections of the railway followed
suit in its redesign. It was then renovated in
the 1986, with the top of the abandoned railway
incorporated into the surrounding park. It was
then inaugurated in 1993 with Jacques Vergely
and Philippe Mathiex as the landscape architects.
The 10-meter high elevated park is supported by
arches which have been converted into shops
for crafts, furniture, cabinet makers, interior
designers, violin and flute makers, tapestry
restorers, and many other workshops known
collectively as Viaduct des Arts. The viaduct then
terminates at the Jardin de Ruilly, a circular lawn
with an open-air cafe where people can gather.
The High Line (Figure 2) was a 1.6-kilometer
elevated freight rail line adapted into a public
Figure 1. Promenade Plantée, Paris, France.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
linear park by the Friends of the High Line. It is
located at Gansevoort St. to W. 30 St. between
Washington St. and 11 Ave. in Manhattan.
According to the website of the High Line, it
was originally a part of a massive public-private
infrastructure project in the 1930’s called the
West Side Improvement. Originally the freight
trains for Manhattan’s largest industrial district
were on street level but were lifted 30 feet in the
air to prevent accidents that has plagued the 10th
Avenue street level traffic. It was designed to go
through the center of the city blocks connecting
directly to the factories and warehouses thereby
allowing the trains to roll right inside the
structure. But the growth of interstate trucking
eventually killed off the High Line in the 1980’s.
When a group of property owners lobbied for
its destruction, the Friends of the High Line
was founded to advocate for its preservation
and adaptive reuse into a public space. Then, in
March – September 2004, the Friends of the High
Line and the City of New York selected a team
in charge of the design for the High Line. It was
given to James Corner Field Operations which
was composed of a landscape architecture firm,
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, an architecture firm, and
experts in horticulture, engineering, security,
maintenance, public art, and other disciplines.
Construction of the first section began in April
2006 and was subsequently opened to the public
59
 in June 9, 2009. The second section opened on
June 8, 2011 while the third and final section at
the Rail Yards was saved and was donated by CSX
Transportation, Inc, the owner of the rail line, to
the City of New York in July 25, 2012. The first in
the three-phase construction was set to open in
2014 after its groundbreaking in 2012.
In Asia, a recent development in South Korea
further solidifies this trend of making cities
livable for its inhabitants. Seoullo 7017 (Figure
3) is more than a kilometer-long elevated park
above the Seoul Railway Station that is now
home to 24,000 trees and plants in giant pots
Figure 2. The High Line, Manhattan, New York City, NY, USA.
Figure 3: Seoullo 7017, Seoul Station, Seoul, South Korea.
60 es pa syo 9
that serve as benches. The elevated park doubles
as event spaces, shops and eateries. It was
initiated by the two-term mayor Park Won Soon
to make Seoul “a great city for walking” and was
inspired by the New York’s High Line. Seoullo
7017 used to be an abandoned overpass for cars
and was initially set for demolition. But instead
of tearing it down, Mayor Park Won Soon decided
to “transform it into a pedestrian road...aiming to
not only revive the elevated road but also turn
it into a place where people can come together”
and further stated that the momentum given by
this project would serve to catalyze the renewal
and revival of the adjacent areas in the city.
Figure 4. Hollywood Central Park, Los Angeles, California.
All three examples are adaptive reuse of old
structures, the concept of having a reclaimed
space above the road level can be feasible and
is actually contributing to the growth of the city.
Moreover, these developments raise the property
value of the adjacent communities.
Public Good and its Correlation to Home Values
and Property Taxes
In a paper by Michael Levere entitled The High
Line Park and Timing of Capitalization of Public
Goods, he investigated the impact to house
prices of the opening of the High Line Park which
attracts five million visitors annually that have
caused the rise in home values and property
taxes within a third of a mile and attracted new
businesses in the area. By measuring house
prices, he can be able to measure economic
improvement. As the prices of the house rise,
so does the property taxes collected by the
government therefore it is in the best interest
of the government to fund such projects
wherein the cost of such shall be recovered
thru higher property tax. His conclusion was
that “…the opening of the park led to a one-year
increase in home values of approximately 10%
for apartments within one-third of a mile of
the park… Given the increase in property taxes
suggested by these coefficients, the park likely
paid for itself.”
A similar study was done by Voicu and Been
in 2008 that used similar data from the New
York City Department of Finance wherein they
measured the effect of community gardens
on property values within the proximity of the
gardens. It was found that proximity to such
developments leads to an increase in the sale
price of the house upon the opening of a garden
and the boost in property taxes coming from the
opening of a community garden far outweighs
the cost of building and maintaining the garden.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
As with all great metropolises, the issue of
public open space such as parks giving way to
buildings can be a touchy subject. Metro Manila
is no stranger to this. A couple of years ago, the
Arroceros Park was supposed to be leveled down
to make way for a few buildings for the city of
Manila. One-hundred eighty-seven (187) fully
grown trees and thousands of younger ones were
cut down to make way for the buildings of City
Schools Division Office, despite the ecological
tragedy, the plans to totally level the place did
not push through. However, Americans seem to
have found another solution to create space for
parks, the Hollywood Highway 101.
Reclaiming Space Out of Thin Air
The Hollywood highway 101 (Figure 4) is a
project that seeks to connect neighborhoods
cut off from each other by the construction of
a freeway. They plan to do this by “capping” the
sunken highway with concrete slabs and then
creating a linear park on the cap.
In the Southern California Association of
Governments’ (SCAG) report of Compass
Blueprint, the idea of capping the freeway had
been around for at least 25 years. The Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce recently proposed the
Hollywood Freeway Central Park to “ create a
much-needed street-level public park and bring
two separate areas of Hollywood back together
again.” The highway is currently bisecting
a community below the street level and by
“capping” the freeway, it would be possible to
create additional space and the new street-
level park will not only be “stitching together
two halves of a community long divided, the
park will also help reduce local freeway noise”
.Although it is still in the proposal stage, the
Southern California Association of Governments
has amended their Regional Transportation Plan
(RTP) to include “Cap Parks” last March 2013.
61
 In the local context, a recent development called
The Ortigas Elevated Plaza (Figure 5) has just been
recently inaugurated on March 20, 2018. It is part
of a project called the Ortigas Walkway Project of
the ADB and the Department of Transportation
which is a network of elevated walkways that
“provide adequate, secure, comfortable, person
with disability-friendly, weather-protected
pedestrian links from the EDSA MRT to Guadix/
Poveda/Robinsons/Ortigas Ave. to the north and
SM Megamall/ADB Avenue/Opal/F. Ortigas Jr./
Onyx/Meralco Avenue to the east.”
The Ortigas CBD Elevated Plaza rises on top of the
intersection of Julia Vargas and F. Ortigas Avenue
and it features “wide pedestrian areas, covered
walkways, landscaping, and a fountain with a
dome skylight that allows natural light below.” It
was designed by Architect Paulo Alcazaren with
his design firm PGAA Creative Design-Urban
Designers and Landscape Architects. It was
“built as a safe area for pedestrians to cross the
congested intersection of Julia Vargas Avenue
and F. Ortigas. Avenue”
METHODOLOGY
Pertaining to the different building laws, codes
and policies, certain provisions have been lifted
that may concern elevated public spaces in
general and these shall be used to examine the
case study of the Ortigas Elevated Plaza.
Figure 5. Ortigas Elevated Plaza, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
62 es pa syo 9
A. Policy Evaluation of the Existing Buildings and
Land Use Regulations
1. PD 1096 National Building Code - General
Classification of Use/Character of Occupancy of
Building/Structure
Group E – Business and Mercantile
(Commercial)
Group H – Assembly for less than 1,000
(Cultural and/or Recreational)
The structure currently does not fall into a
particular type of occupancy for structures due to
the fact that such type of structure has not been
built yet when the IRR was last revised in 2004.
However, two possible classifications can be
thought of for such. It can be classified as either
Group E – Business and Mercantile (Commercial)
or Group H – Assembly for less than 1,000
(Cultural and/or Recreational). Only upon the
determination of the complementary use can it
fall under any of the classifications.
Zoning Classification
C-1 (Commercial One or Light Commercial)
UTS (Utilities, Transportation and Services)
PRE (Park Structures, Recreation and
Entertainment)
Since the structure will be built on top of the
RROW, it does not have a specific zoning to which
it belongs to. However, if the structure will be
integrated into the existing intermodal transport
network, it can be classified as falling under the
UTS classification. If the structure would have
other uses, it can be classified as C-1 if it has
commercial establishments within, and/or as PRE
if it has recreational or entertainment functions.
Section 707. Maximum Height of Buildings
Commercial 1 (C-1) – 10.00 – 15.00 meters
Parks and Open Recreational and
Entertainment Spaces – 15.00 meters
There is no conflict for C-1 and Parks with the
structure. The structure can connect along
the podium level of the adjacent multi-storey
structure essentially clearing the ground level
and connecting at the second level and beyond.
However, the structures should not go beyond the
height limit for its zoning. It can be limited to about
a two-storey structure on top which will amount
to around 10 meters from the road level if a 4.8
meters clearance from the road level and about 5
meters structure height is considered on the top.
However, building height limit maybe subject to
clearance requirements of the Air Transport Office.
Table VII.4 Minimum Required Off-Street (Off-
RROW) cum On-Site Parking Slot, Parking Area
and Loading/Unloading Space Requirement by
Allowed Use or Occupancy
Division E-1 Transit Stations and the like
(UTS) – in case of elevated mass transit
stations, on road terminals or on RROW
terminals on both sides of the RROW may be
considered
Division E-2 Neighborhood shopping center/
supermarket (C-1) – One (1) car slot for every
100.00 sq. meters of shopping floor area
Division E-2 Restaurants, fast-food centers,
bars and beerhouses (C) – One (1) car slot for
every 30.00 sq. meters of customer area
Division H-1 Public recreational assembly
buildings such as theaters/cinemas, auditoria
– One (1) car slot and one (1) jeepney/shuttle
slot for every 50.00 sq. meters of spectator
area; and one (1) bus parking slot for every
two hundred (200) spectators
Parking however, would pose a problem
considering it specifically states on the code
that the parking should be located off street for
Division B-1, Division E-2, and Division H-1 which
would be impossible because the structure is on
top of the street. However, the structure could be
considered as something similar to an elevated
station of an MRT/LRT that is typically built
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
right on top the RROW. It would only require on
roadway or on RROW terminals on both ends in
order to fulfill the requirements of the code.
Guidelines on Easements, View Corridors/Sight
Lines, Streets/Road Right-of-Way (RROW),
Sidewalks, Arcades, Basements, Lots, and Public
Buildings/Structures
B. View Corridors and/or Sight Lines
b. To dignify very important public or historical/
culture building/structures, all forms of
commercial signs intruding into RROW leading
to or away from such buildings/structures shall
not be allowed. Specifically disallowed from
such RROW are commercial signs supported
from any building projection (such as arcades).
d. In case of allowed structures within the
RROW for transportation, e.g., elevated ramps,
flyovers, tracks, stations, terminals and the like,
the appropriate designs shall be adopted to
maximize light, ventilation and view.
C. Streets/Road Right-of-Way (RROW)
1.b. Disallowed and Prohibited Structures/
Development at RROW
(a) Any form of semi-permanent/permanent
or semi-enclosed/enclosed commercial
structure/use and like structures/uses;
(g) Unauthorized recreational or
entertainment usage and the like which
will only benefit certain entities and which
will ultimately result in inconvenience/
nuisance/safety problems to the general
public
d. The RROW consists of three (3) different
physical levels as follows:
i. RROW ABOVE GRADE – refers to the
portion of the RROW reckoned from the
finished surface of the roadway/carriageway
and/or the sidewalk/arcade all the way up to
the air. If this level of the RROW is utilized
for whatever purpose, the Air Rights or the
right to develop, benefit and profit from
the use of the RROW above grade is given
up by the government/general public and
should therefore be compensated, i.e.
leased and paid for by the proponent/end-
user/beneficiary of the proposed building/
structure. The minimum clear height for
the utilization of air right above RROW shall
be 4.27 meters from the finished crown
elevation of the roadway/carriageway.
View corridors are very important in terms of
placing significance or dignifying a specific
historical or cultural site. If the view is partially
or totally blocked, the significance of such site
would be diminished in value to the viewer. The
structure may come into conflict if it will block
views of vertical structures from the road level.
On the other hand, the structure could also serve
as a better viewing platform given enough set
63
 back from the historical/cultural site giving the
viewer an alternative viewing angle.
On provisions disallowing structures or
development on the RROW, commercial
establishments would have to be similar to
pop-up stores that can be easily put up or
disassembled. Recreational activities such as
public performances or concerts that can cause
nuisance to the residents would have to be limited
to certain hours but parks and playgrounds should
be allowed since it will benefit the community.
Ideally, the structure should be constructed by
the Government since it will become a public
good that will benefit the stakeholders within
the site. It would not be ideal if a private entity
will develop the structure since it would become
a commercial venture that may result in the
developer charging users of the structure thereby
limiting the users to those that can pay for the
usage of such facility.
2. PD 1185 Fire Code of the Philippines
Division 7 – Places of Assembly
Occupancy and Occupant Load
a) Definition of Place of Assembly: Place[s]
of assembly include but are not limited to
all buildings or portions of [a] building used
for gathering together fifty (50) or more
persons. Places of assembly shall include
those facilities used for such purposes
as deliberation, worship, entertainment,
amusement or awaiting transportation.
Occupancy of any room or space for assembly
purposes by less than fifty (50) persons in a
building of other occupancy and incidental
to such other occupancy shall be classed as
part of the other occupancy and subject to
the provisions applicable thereto.
b) Classification of Places of Assembly. –
Each place of assembly shall be classified
according to its capacity, as follows: Class
A, capacity one thousand (1,000) persons or
more; Class B, capacity three hundred (300)
to one thousand (1,000) persons; Class C,
fifty (50) to three hundred (300) persons.
Division 11 – Mercantile Occupancies
1) Mercantile occupancies shall include all
buildings and structures or parts thereof
with [an] occupancy as described in Section
3.301 “E.”
a. Mercantile occupancies shall be classified
as follows:
Class A. All stores having aggregate gross
area of two thousand seven hundred eighty-
seven square meters (2,787) [and] more or
utilizing more than three (3) floor levels for
sales purposes.
Class B. All stores of less than two thousand
seven hundred eighty-seven square meters
64 es pa syo 9
(2,787) aggregate area, but over two hundred
eighty-seven square meters (287), or utilizing
any balcony, mezzanine or floor above or
below the street floor level for sales purposes
except that if more than three (3) floors are
utilized, the store shall be considered Class
A, regardless of area.
Class C. All stores of two hundred seventy-
eight square meters (278) or less gross area
used for sales purposes on the street floor
only.
Since the structure is a new urban form, it
does not fall into a specific category as stated
above. It would mainly be an assembly area
since people would be constantly using it much
like a pedestrian overpass on top of the roads.
It would only have a bigger capacity and offer
other amenities. However, its functions can be
categorized under the different classifications
once its complementary uses are determined for
a particular site. Once it is known, provisions for
such classifications would have to be fulfilled in
order to follow the requirements of the law.
3. Batas Pambansa Blg. 344 The Law to Enhance
Mobility of Disabled Persons
Rule I - Scope and Application
4.2.1 Streets, highways and transport related
structures to be constructed -Streets,
highways and transport related structures
shall be provided with the following barrier-
free facilities and accessibility features
at every pedestrian crossing: ramps and
other accessible features in buildings of
the sectoral offices and attached agencies
of DOTC; transportation terminals and
passenger waiting areas for use of disabled
persons;
a) Cut-out curbs and accessible ramps at the
sidewalks.
b) Audio-visual aids for crossing
Exception: Requirements for accessibility at
pedestrian grade separations or overpasses
and underpasses may be waived.
Appendix A
Minimum Requirements for Accessibility
Illustrations for Minimum Requirements
5. Open Spaces
5.1 Where open spaces are provided, the
blind can become particularly disoriented.
Therefore, it is extremely helpful if any
walkway or paths can be given defined edges
either by the use of planters with dwarf walls,
or a grass verge, or similar, which provides a
texture different from the path.
Similar to other structures, provisions for
Persons with Disabilities (PWD) should be
carefully considered since the structure is
elevated. Although the provisions discussing
PWD accessibility waive the requirement for
overpasses and underpasses, it should still be
considered for the structure. The change in
elevation would alienate certain demographics
of the city especially PWD’s if the provisions of
BP 344 are not strictly followed. Barrier-free
facilities would greatly enhance the universal
design of the facilities allowing not only ease of
use for PWD’s, but for the elderly and children as
well. The rest of BP 344 should be followed to
allow PWD’s to enjoy the benefits of the structure
to its users. Since portions of the structure would
be mostly open space, PWD’s especially the blind
could easily get disoriented in such space. By
following the provisions such as well-defined
edges, proper signage and ground markings that
help the blind orient themselves, the structure
can become a structure responsive to the needs
of the differently-abled.
4. R.A. 7160: The Local Government Code of the
Philippines, Section 448-458: The City
Article III
The Sangguniang Panlungsod
Section 458. Powers, Duties, Functions and
Compensation.
(5) Approve ordinances which shall ensure
the efficient and effective delivery of the
basic services and facilities as provided
for under Section 17 of this Code, and in
addition to said services and facilities, shall:
(i) Provide for the establishment,
maintenance, protection, and conservation
of communal forests and watersheds, tree
parks, greenbelts, mangroves, and other
similar forest development projects;
v) Regulate the use of streets, avenues,
alleys, sidewalks, bridges, parks and other
public places and approve the construction,
improvement repair and maintenance of
the same; establish bus and vehicle stops
and terminals or regulate the use of the
same by privately-owned vehicles which
serve the public; regulate garages and
the operation of conveyances for hire;
designate stands to be occupied by public
vehicles when not in use; regulate the
putting up of signs, signposts, awnings and
awning posts on the streets; and provide
for the lighting, cleaning and sprinkling of
streets; and public places;
Policy
PD 1096 National Building Code
Zoning Classification
UTS (Utilities, Transportation and Services)
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Upon examining the Local Government Code, one
can see that it specifically states in its provisions
that the Sangguniang Panlungsod of a Local
Government Unit (LGU) will be responsible for
the development of parks and public places. It
will fall within their duties to maintain, repair, and
regulate such public good. Therefore, the structure
will fall under the jurisdiction of the LGU of the
site it will be built upon. It is therefore ideal that
for such development to occur, the entity funding
the construction should be the LGU since it will fall
under their jurisdiction and its own constituents
would directly benefit from the public good.
5. HLURB CLUP Guidebook Vol. 2
Annex 17 – Standards for Recreational Facilities
Sports and Recreation:
“1. A minimum of 500 sq.m. per 1,000
population for city or municipal park”
The LGU, being the entity responsible for the
development of city or municipal parks, must
provide the given area in proportion to its
population. If a particular LGU does not satisfy
the provisions of the guidebook, this can become
a justification for the creation of elevated public
spaces. However, the provision does not state
how it shall be distributed within the LGU which
shall leave the provision of such to the LGU’s
discretion. If the public good is not equitably
distributed, some will not have easy access to
such an area.
6. HLURB CLUP Guidebook Vol. 3
Section 10. Interpretation of Zone Boundaries
The following rules shall apply in the interpretation
of the boundaries indicated on the Official Zoning
Map or Plan:
Where zone boundaries are so indicated
that they approximately follow the center of
streets or highway, the streets or highways
right-of-way lines shall be construed to be
the boundaries.
Where zone boundaries are so indicated
that they approximately follow the lot lines,
such lot lines shall be construed to be the
boundaries.
Where zone boundaries are so indicated
that they are approximately parallel to the
center lines or right-of-way lines of streets
Conflict No-Conflict Remarks
x the structure can be classified
as such since it has a
community support function
65
 Policy
C-1 (Commercial One or Light Commer-
cial)
Section 707. Maximum Height of Buildings
C-1 – 10.00 – 15.00 meters
PRE – 15.00 meters
Table VII.4 Minimum Required Off-Street
(Off-RROW) cum On-Site Parking Slot,
Parking Area and Loading/Unloading
Space Requirement by Allowed Use or
Occupancy
Division E-1 Transit Stations and the
like (UTS)
Division E-2 Neighborhood shopping
center/supermarket (C-1)
Division E-2 Restaurants, fast-food
centers, bars and beerhouses (C)
Division H-1 Public recreational assem-
bly buildings such as theaters/cinemas,
auditoria
Guidelines on Easements, View Corridors/
Sight Lines, Streets/Road Right-of-Way
(RROW), Sidewalks, Arcades, Basements,
Lots, and Public Buildings/Structures
B. View Corridors and/or Sight Lines
d. In case of allowed structures within
the RROW for transportation, e.g., ele-
vated ramps, flyovers, tracks, stations,
terminals and the like, the appropriate
designs shall be adopted to maximize
light, ventilation and view.
C. Streets/Road Right-of-Way (RROW)
1.b. Disallowed and Prohibited Struc-
tures/Development at RROW
(a) Any form of semi-permanent/per-
manent or semi-enclosed/enclosed
commercial structure/use and like
structures/uses;
(g) Unauthorized recreational or enter-
tainment usage and the like which will
only benefit certain entities and which
will ultimately result in inconvenience/
nuisance/safety problems to the gener-
al public
d. The RROW consists of three (3) dif-
ferent physical levels as follows:
Conflict No-Conflict Remarks
x There are two kiosks on
the side which is a possible
provision for some com-
mercial space
x Height is 5.1m plus an
approximate ht of 4m for
the roof ridge= 9-10m
x
There are no on-site
parking slots since the
structure resides on top of
the RROW but there are
existing parking lots adja-
cent and close to the site
x -same-
x -same-
x -same-
x -same-
x Elevated Plaza has an
oculus in the center that
allows passage of light in
the middle of the intersec-
tion
x There are two kiosk on the
side which is a possible
provision for some com-
mercial space
x Possible conflict if there
will be private events that
would be held on the plaza

66 es pa syo 9
 Policy
i. RROW ABOVE GRADE - ...the Air
Rights or the right to develop, benefit
and profit from the use of the RROW
above grade is given up by the gov-
ernment/general public and should
therefore be compensated, i.e. leased
and paid for by the proponent/end-us-
er/beneficiary of the proposed building/
structure....RROW shall be 4.27 meters
from the finished crown elevation of
the roadway/carriageway....
4.2.2 PD 1185 Fire Code of the Philippines
Division 7 – Places of Assembly
3. Occupancy and Occupant Load
c-1) As assembly area of concentrated
use without fixed seats such as an
auditorium, church, chapel, dance floor,
and lodge room: sixty-five hundredths
(0.65) square meters per person.
Division 11 – Mercantile Occupancies
1) Mercantile occupancies shall
include all buildings and structures
or parts thereof with occupancy as
described in Section 3.301 “E.”
Batas Pambansa Blg. 344 The Law to En-
hance Mobility of Disabled Persons
Rule I - Scope and Application
4.1.3 Streets, highways and transport
related structures to be constructed
- ...Exception: Requirements for acces-
sibility at pedestrian grade separations
or overpasses and underpasses may be
waived. ….
HLURB CLUP Guidebook Vol. 2
Annex 17 – Standards for Recreational
Facilities
Sports and Recreation:
1. A minimum of 500 sq.m. per 1,000
population for city or municipal park
Table 1. Policy Evaluation Matrix
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
Conflict No-Conflict Remarks
x No conflict if the local
government will own the
structure. It will have to be
leased if a private compa-
ny will be the one that will
develop it. As long as the
minimum clearance of 4.27
meters is maintained, it
will not come into conflict.
x It can be classified as an
assembly area of concen-
trated use without fixed
seats.
x can fall in this category if
the 2 kiosk are turned into
commercial purposes.
x Accessibility may be
waived but it was consid-
ered in the design except
for the connecting pedes-
trian bridges which had no
ramp access despite the
numerous level changes
x The city of Pasig has a
total of 23.87 ha of parks,
playgrounds and sports
facilities well below the
needed 33.48 has for its
population of 669,773 in
its 2010 census . The el-
evated plaza will increase
this value further.
67
 Figure 6. Adjacent parking facilities (red box) Ortigas Elevated Plaza (green box)

and highways, such zone boundaries shall

be construed as being parallel thereto and
at such distance there from as indicated in
the zoning map. If no distance is given, such
dimension shall be determined by the use of
the scale shown in said zoning map.

By this definition, Zone boundaries exclude the

right of way of the road by defining the RROW
as the boundary to any zoning; therefore, the
road will not be a part of the computation of
the zone area. It will only be the area within the Figure 7. Possible semi/permanent commercial Kiosk 1 and 2
in Pasig City, MM. July 11, 2018
lot including the private circulation within the
development that is part of the zoning. This is
apparent in some LGUs wherein the tabulation
of the computation of the areas has an exclusive
entry for roads’ area. However, some LGUs does
not separate the quantity and combine it with
other land use such as Open Space (for the case
of Pasay) and Infrastructure Transportation and
Utilities (for the case of Manila) thus distorting
the true amount of available public open spaces
for that particular LGU.

7. PD 957: Subdivision and Condominium Buy-

er’s Protective Decree
Section 2. Design Standards and Guidelines for
Residential Condominium Projects Figure 8 & 9. Constricted sidewalk in Pasig City, MM. July 11,
2018.
C. Design parameters
Parks/Playground and/or Other Recreational
Areas a.1.2 Projects with ten (10) or more condo-
minium units. Except when the condominium
a.1 Parks/Playground (exclusive of easements, is part of a subdivision project or a park/play-
access roads, driveways, parking space) shall ground not more than or 800 meters away and
be required for: in reaching it, the pedestrian will not be unduly
exposed to hazard.
a.1.1 Projects with a gross saleable area of
1,000 square meters; or

68 es pa syo 9
 a.3 Parks/playground or other recreational fa-
cilities may not be required if the condominium
is located not more than or 800 meters from
a publicly accessible park/playground/or other
recreational facilities.
The provisions of the law would allow condominium
developers to waive the development of
Parks/Playground and/or Other Recreational
Areas which are essential to any high-density
development if there are publicly accessible
of the same nature nearby. However, the size
of the park/playground or recreational facility
that is publicly accessible is left undetermined
therefore the capacity of potential users of the
park would be questionable. A scenario where
there is a publicly accessible park with several
condominium developments adjacent to it are
sharing on the same public good. The HLURB
CLUP guidelines should therefore govern for such
scenarios wherein ‘a minimum of 500 sq.m. per
1,000 population for city or municipal park.’
ANALYSIS
A. Policy Evaluation Matrix
Using the Ortigas Elevated Plaza as the case
study, it will now be determined if the structure
followed all the necessary provisions in the
Building Code and determine additional features
that can be added in the policy making to further
improve the open space.
Approximate size: 600-700 sqm.
Height clearance from the road level: 5.10m
Access Points: 2 Handicap Elevators, 3 Escalators
and Stairs on the corners of the Plaza
1. PD 1096 National Building Code
With the NBC, the parking requirements could not
be addressed since the development is directly on
top of the road and there is no way to get an off-
street parking unless the private lots would allow
for parking in their facility. However, there is a
parking lot (Figure 6) adjacent to the Elevated
Plaza that can serve as parking for the visitors
and there are other offstreet parking lots within
the vicinity as well.
Another possible source of conflict would be the
View Corridors/Sight lines. Since the structure
would be built on top of the road, it may obstruct
vertical sightlines especially if the vantage point
used is underneath the structure. However, there
are no significant or historical structures that
can be blocked by the structure. Also, since it is
elevated, the position would give a better view for
appreciating the sightlines as long as it has proper
setbacks that would allow for a proper view.
Another conflict would be regarding the Road
Right of Way. Some of the provisions there
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
specifically does not allow for semi-permanent/
permanent areas for Commercial, and Recreational
use (Figure 7).
This provision however should be reviewed and
should consider if the structure is to be considered
a viable solution for reclaiming the vertical space.
Commercial areas would be downgraded to simple
pop up stores that can be removed easily. As for
the Recreational, use of the area shall be limited
to a certain number of hours so that it will avoid
conflict with the sleeping hours of residential
condominiums much like in amenities areas of
condominium developments.
Another hindrance in terms of handicap usage
are the access points underneath. Despite having
considered PWD’s thru the provision of elevators,
the means of getting to the entrance could be
difficult. (Figure 8) shows the entrance to the
elevator with a small sidewalk below the required
1.2m minimum clearance as required by BP 344.
It may allow a wheelchair to pass thru but with
great difficulty. (Figure 9) however only allows for
a single person to pass thru but not a wheelchair.
The connecting pedestrian bridges (Figure 10)
that span the length of J. Vargas Ave. do not have
provisions for ramps which totally prevents the
use for wheelchair-bound individuals.
Furthermore, on grade access from the street
level (Figure 11) also has become constricted
due to the addition of the connecting pedestrian
bridges. The columns have taken a fair share of the
sidewalk and in some cases, it also has restricted
it below the 1.2m minimum width as required
by BP 344. A wheelchair can still pass but only
barely. For a wheelchair bound individidual, they
would have to cross the intersections below that
have been marked with a ‘No Jaywalking’ sign.
DISCUSSION
An elevated public space is a possibility that has
now become a reality thru the Ortigas Elevated
Plaza. Thru these types of developments, the local
government unit can create public space for the
use of its stakeholders. However, there are still
some details that need to be addressed to further
improve the public space.
National Building Code
The National Building Code requires parking for
such structures, however, since its part of the road,
it would not be possible to do so without taking
some road lanes underneath. The corner of J.
Vargas Avenue and F. Ortigas Road is already fully-
utilized and parking slots would further constrict
the flow of traffic. This part of the code should
exempt such structure from this requirement.
69
 Figure 10. Stairs going up to the Elevated Plaza from the connecting bridges in Pasig City, MM. July 11, 2018.

Figure 11. Constricted sidewalks blocked by the connecting bridge columns in Pasig City, MM. July 11, 2018.

Provisions on the Road Right of Way specifically Elevated Pedestrian Bridges that cross several
do not allow for a semi-permanent/permanent intersections.
area for Commercial and Recreational use. This
provision should also exempt the structure to HLURB CLUP Guidebook Vol. 2
allow such spaces for use of the public as intended In its 2010 census, the city of Pasig has a population
by the designer of the Ortigas Elevated Plaza. of 669,773 and for this, it needs to provide 33.48
hectares of sports and recreation areas. However,
Batas Pambansa Blg. 344 it currently has a total of 23.87 hectares of parks,
Despite the law waiving the requirements for playgrounds and sports facilities --well below the
accessibility for overpasses, universal design required amount. The construction of the Ortigas
principles should always be considered by the Elevated Plaza will increase this value further.
designer. The Ortigas Elevated Plaza itself has Having such structure could increase the amount
installed elevators for handicap access and of sports and recreation areas in Pasig City.
for easy crossing across J. Vargas Avenue.
However, the sidewalks leading to the elevators
need to follow the minimum width to allow for
ease of access of wheelchair users. There are
constricted portions and plantboxes that may
prove to be a challenge for such users. They can
however be improved by widening the sidewalk
and removing such obstructions. Ramps should
also be considered to allow PWD’s to use the

70 es pa syo 9
ENDNOTES
1
Wharton. (2012, October 10). Global Initiatives - Southeast
18
europeantrips.
Asian Megacities: Big Challenges, Bigger Opportunities.
Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://global.wharton.
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europeantrips.
upenn.edu/southeast-asian-megacities-big-challenges
bigger-opportunities/
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europeantrips.

2
Carbone, N. (2011, October 26) The 10 Fastest-Growing
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europeantrips.
Cities of Tomorrow. Retrieved on July 20, 2018, from
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/rtic
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europeantrips.
le/0,28804,2097720_2097718_2097716,00.html
23
Baan, I. (2011). Diller Scofidio + Renfro: The Highline -
3
Philippine Statistics Authority. (n.d.). Statistics - Population Section 2 - 2011 - New York. Retrieved March 27, 2016, from
Projections. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from http://www.nap. Iwan Baan Photography: http://www.iwan.com/photo_Diller_
psa.gov.ph/secstat/d_popnProj.asp Scofidio_+_Renfro_Field_Operations_Highline_Part2

4
Aurelio, J. M. (2012, April 7). Quezon City’s next power
address. Retrieved September 27, 2012, from Inquirer News:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/173175/quezon-citys-next-
power-address

5
Roces, C. (2012, April 1). The menace of Arroceros. Retrieved
September 28, 2012, from Inquirer Lifestyle: http://lifestyle.
inquirer.net/41845/the-menace-of-arroceros

6
Vergara, A. Y. (2015, June 14). There will be more open
space after new project, Ayala Triangle developers promise.
Retrieved October 15, 2017, from http://lifestyle.inquirer.
net/196803/there-will-be-more-open-space-after-new-
project-ayala-triangle-developers-promise/

7
Leung, A. S. (2016, February 8). The Key to Green Cities and
Mindsets: Densification. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from
http://meetingoftheminds.org/the-key-to-green-cities-and-
mindsets-densification-14887
8
Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre. (2008). Other
Research Reports. Retrieved October 14, 2013, from APERC:
Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre: http://aperc.ieej.or.jp/
file/2010/9/26/Urban+Transport_2008.pdf, p.62.

9
Villalon, A. (2012, August). Lacson-España flyover takes
off despite protests. Retrieved June 25, 2018 from http://
lifestyle.inquirer.net/60807/lacson-espana-flyover-takes-off-
despite-protests/

10
Villalon, A.

11
Compass Blueprint. (2008, November). Progress: SCAG
Report. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from Hollywood Central
Park: http://hollywoodcentralpark.org/sites/default/files/
docs/3.1%20SCAG%20%20hollywood_report_web.pdf, 2.

12
The High Line. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2013, from City
of New York Parks and Recreation: http://www.nycgovparks.
org/parks/highline

13
Serote, E. M. (2004). Property, Patrimony & Territory. Quezon
City: UP PLANADES, p. 304.

14
Serote, 327.

15
Mercurio, R. S. (2015, December 15). Real estate boom to
continue next year. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://www.
philstar.com/business/2015/12/15/1532606/real-estate-
boom-continue-next-year
16
Serote, 327.

17
europeantrips. (n.d.). Promenade Plantee - The First
Elevated Park in the World. Retrieved September 17, 2013,
from europeantrips complete traveling guide: http://
europeantrips.org/promenade-plantee-the-first-elevated-
park-in-the-world.html

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 71

 Quantifying Aesthetics
A Study On The Application Of The Salingaros Scaling Coherence Rule
to Quezon Hall of The University Of The Philippines

NADIA L. MAÑALAC
ANNA RUTH VILLAREAL
LUIS MARIA T. BO-OT
RINGER T. MANALANG
Nadia L. Mañalac obtained her undergraduate degree in
Architecture from the University of the Philippines in 2003. She
is currently with the Project Management and Development Office
of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Anna Ruth Villareal obtained her undergraduate degree in

Architecture from the University of the Philippines in 2003. She
is currently with the Store Development Group of Rustan’s Coffee
Corporation based in Makati.

Luis Maria T. Bo-ot is an Associate Professor at the University

of the Philippines (UP). He has an undergraduate degree in
Architecture from the same instiution, a graduate degree in
Physics from the Russian Friendship University in Moscow, and
a post-graduate degree in Physics from the National Institute of
Physics in UP.

Ringer T. Manalang is with the Office of the Campus Architect of

the University of the Philippines (UP). He is currently pursuing his
post-graduate degree in Architecture from Kyoto University and is
a Lecturer at the College of Architecture in UP.

ABSTRACT
Since time immemorial, the relationship between
mathematical scale, proportion, and aesthetic
beauty has intrigued architects from Pythagoras
to Penrose. Among them is Salingaros who linked
the smallest scale to the largest scale through
a hierarchy of intermediate scales connected
with a scaling factor approximately of equal to
e = 2.718. Salingaros argues that the number e
is fundamental to structures that are found in
nature.
In this paper, the Salingaros scaling factor is
applied to the principal facade of the Quezon Hall
of the University of the Philippines in Diliman and
see the effects on the form of the building. The
entire principal facade is taken to be the boundary
scale. The boundary scale is further broken down
into its main component architectural parts called
bounded scales: namely the left facade, right
façade, central void and top facade. Architectural
elements within each bounded scale were
then identified. The area measurements of the
architectural elements were then subjected to
Salingaros scaling which resulted in a modified
front elevation. The original and the modified
elevations were subjected to a survey of senior
architecture students who rated these in terms of
aesthetic preference and impression.
A quantitative method to develop and explore
architectural forms should be available to aid
architects in their study of form. The Salingaros
scaling factor is an example of a proportioning
system that can be applied for effective design
thinking.
Keywords: Design, Scale, Salingaros, Quezon Hall

72 es pa syo 9
INTRODUCTION
Is it possible to quantify architectural elements
and their relationships in order to produce a more
beautiful and appealing building?
There are numerous posited views of architectural
order affecting proportion and scale. The concept
of Pythagoras that ‘all is number’ is a classical
reference when it comes to seminal studies
concerning proportion.1 Euclid’s Golden Mean
leads to the Fibonacci Series which has been
observed in many natural settings.2,3 Basing on
the diameter of a column, the Greek and Roman
orders represented proportioning of architectural
elements as an expression of beauty and
harmony.4 During the Renaissance period, the
work of Alberti on the geometry of a cube,5 and
the writing and works of Palladio illustrated the
principle that ‘parts are related to the whole’
through mathematical terms .6 In the last century,
prominent examples that continued to explore
quantitative bases of beauty and harmony include
Le Corbusier’s Modulor proportioning system7
relating space to anthropometrics and the more
complex Penrose tiles for pattern formation8 as
applied to architectural ornamentation. Further
studies on mathematics and its relation to
architecture were also undertaken by Marcel
Breuer and Louis Kahn and the geometries of
their architecture 8. And of late, such studies have
been applied to non-western architecture9-12 and
even urban development.13
In a series of papers14-16, Salingaros postulated
on three laws of architectural order which were
obtained from basic physical principles and
he put forth that these laws may be used to
create buildings that would be at par in terms
of emotional comfort and beauty as those of the
world’s great historical buildings. The three laws
state that:
(1) Order on the smallest scale is
established by paired contrasting
elements existing in a balanced
visual tension,
(2) Large-scale order occurs when
every element relates to every other
element at a distance in a way that
reduces entropy, and
(3) The small scale is connected
to the large scale through a linked
hierarchy of intermediate scales
with scaling factor approximately
equal to an exponential number of
2.718 because exponential growth
is argued to be a fundamental law
of nature.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
The first two laws govern the two extremes of
scale: the very small and the very large while the
third law governs the linking of the two scales. We
apply the third law in this paper.
The linking of the two scales from the largest to
the smallest scale brings about the notion of a
scaling coherence that depends on the levels of
scale being close enough to relate to each other
yet remain distinct. Ordered growth is possible
only if there is a simple scaling so that the basic
replication process can be repeated to create
structure on different levels. Different structural
scales must exist, and they must be related,
preferably by only one parameter. Through the
different theories in proportion, mathematics
gained stronger grounding in the field of
architecture.
Salingaros takes math as a science of patterns
and applies this to architectural elements of a
structure and treats the elements as interrelated.
His core arguments are that:
(1) Natural forms are complex
systems that are hierarchically
organized,
(2) Engineering systems have
been found to follow the same
hierarchical organization as natural
systems, and
(3) The human mind evolved partly
to recognize structures in nature
such that artificial structures that
are not hierarchically organized are
perceived as alien.
Mankind generates patterns out of some basic
inner need: it externalizes connective structures
generated in the mind via the thinking process,
which explains the visual patterns found in the
traditional art and architecture of mankind. The
exponential scaling factor equal to 2.718 fits the
hierarchy of natural structures and stems from
studies in fractal patterns like coastlines and
snowflakes. 16
In this study, we take the principal façade of
the Quezon Hall, one of the key buildings of
the University of the Philippines campus in
Diliman and break the facade down into different
components and investigate the application of the
Salingaros scaling rule to the interrelationship of
these components. We this application we obtain
a new rendering, or a modification, of the façade.
We then subject the old and the new renderings of
the façade to a survey where senior architecture
73
 students are asked to gauge their perception of architectural scales. As shown in
the aesthetics of the old and the new. Figure 2, area a acts as a boundary
scale to areas b and c but area b
APPLICATION OF THE SALINGAROS SCALING is not a boundary scale to area c.
COHERENCE RULE Areas b and c are bounded scales
For purposes of this paper we refer to the of a as they are found within it. We
proposed scaling as Salingaros Scaling Coherence note that Architectural Scales b
Rule (SSCR). The application of the SSCR may and c are not necessarily the same
be divided into two processes – evaluation in value.
of an existing building, and its modification
towards a SSCR-scaled building. However, for a Scale Sequence. A scale sequence
more concrete application, the SSCR had to be is a set of boundary scales within
translated into working guidelines and equations a larger boundary scale. Note
on which the computation of the components of that a bounded scale can become
a building facade will be based on. We first define a boundary scale of a smaller
certain terminologies that will be used later. The architectural scale. Figure 2 has
following is the set of working definitions used: only one scale sequence which
is the sequence emanating from
Architectural Scale. For our boundary scale a. Figure 3 has three
purposes, we apply the term scale in
terms only of area (A) where (A) is
the product of width (X) and height
(Y). This would mean that changes
in height (Y) or width(X) would not
be accounted for independently. The
delimitation is deemed beneficial to
the study since differences in area
are more defined, and thus easier to Figure 1. Architectural Scales
determine, than those of height or
width alone.

Figure 1 illustrates how one generates one scale

(A1) according to area, and 4 scales (X1, X2, Y1
and Y2) according to linear dimensions. The
subscripts are for the delineation of different Figure 2. Boundary Scales
areas to be studied. The number of scales in a
façade varies depending on the architectural
design, i.e. ornamentation, proportion, and detail.
A more ornamented building can have more
architectural scales than a building with lesser
ornamentation.
Figure 3. Scale Sequence
Boundary Scale and Bounded Scale.
Bigger architectural scales act
as boundaries or contain smaller

Figure 4. Scale Sequences, Scale Levels and Scaling Tree correspond to Fig. 3

74 es pa syo 9
 scale sequences, with scales a, b
and c acting as boundary scales
to the architectural scales within
them respectively
Scale Levels. Architectural scales
are grouped together according
to what makes them distinct, i.e.
their boundary scales. For ease in
reference, we call these groups of
scales as ‘scale levels’. We note that
the aggregate areas within a level
may not be equal but their sum
should equal their boundary scale.
Scaling Tree. The scales, scale
sequences, and scale levels of a
building are represented by the
‘scaling tree’. Scales of the same
level are listed in a single column
and same color legend. The first
scale level is listed at the leftmost
of the scaling tree. Figure 4 below
shows the scaling sequence, the
scale levels and the scaling tree for
Fig.3
Next, to say that an existing building follows the
SSCR, the following steps were followed:
1. Tabulation of Architectural
Scales. Given the façade of a
structure, the existing architectural
features are considered as scales
made up of two-dimensional areas.
The scales were identified then
labelled and sorted according to
size in descending order resulting
in a scaling tree. Scale sequences
were determined, and boundary and
bounded scales were identified.
2. Computing for the actual
scale relationship (ASR). On a
per sequence basis, we start to
relate the bigger scale to smaller
scales thru their ratios. For a
scale sequence containing six
(6) architectural scales, say from
scales a to f as in Fig. 4 above,
the relationships are taken as the
ASR between scales a and b, then
assuming that b is greater than c
we take the ASR between scales b
and c. Subsequently we obtain the
ASR between b and d, then the ASR
between c and e and finally the ASR
between e and f, assuming that
scale e is greater than scale f.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
For Fig. 4, there are three (3) scale sequences.
Thus the ASR for a sequence is composed of the
ASR’s of the scales included in the sequence.
Now if the building facade follows the SSCR, all
of the ratios obtained from the ASR’s should be
equal to the value of 2.718 or whole multiples of
it. If we take the Ideal Scale Relationship or ISR
as equal to 2.718 then:
(1).
1. We now compare the ASR and ISR. The value
of k is then determined as the relationship
between the actual and the ideal scales, and
is given by:
(2).
where ISR is equal to 2.718. In the most ideal
of cases, k should be equal to 1. However with
scale sequencing in mind, k should result in a
positive integer number.
The sizes of the scales are then altered for the
building’s ASR to be closer to the ISR resulting
in a modified façade. As we compute for the
actual k’s in the scales sequences, it can have a
value containing decimals. In computing for the
modifications the following steps were taken:
1. The value of k is rounded off
to three (3) decimal digits. Three
decimal digits are chosen because
measurements in architectural
plans can be in millimetres as
practiced. Also, we took the value
of e as 2.718.
2. In moving k to be close as possible
to a positive integer value, we
further rounded k off to two decimal
places. This time in rounding off to
two decimal places, we chose the
value closest to a multiple of 0.25.
The value of 0.25 can be arguably
arbitrary thus this is viewed as
primarily for exploratory purposes.
Nonetheless, rounding off to the
nearest quarter values can be
encountered in everyday practices.
We also did not want to ‘stray far’
from the original measurements of
the areas. This new value for k is
called k-at-intervals and denoted
as kint
3. ISR x kint. The product ISR x kint is
now used for obtaining a modified
area. The ISR is equal to 2.718 and
75
 Table 1. Formula Masterlist

76 es pa syo 9
 kint maintains its closeness to the
original scale sizes. We take this
product between two areas within
a sequence. We differentiate scales
subjected by subscripts denoting
the areas where the first subscript
refers to the larger area.

4. Computing for the modified area. Picture 1. Front view of Quezon Hall facade
The area of the boundary scale
(biggest scale in the sequence) is
retained and used to derive the
modified area for the succeeding
scales in the sequence. As an
illustration, say boundary scale
area a and succeeding area b, the
modified area of b would be:

(3).

5. Area iteration. The total modified
Picture 2. Left wing view of Quezon Hall
area has to be equal to the total
original area. Due to the rounding
off process this is not the case; as
a matter of fact the total modified
area is usually less than the total
original after the initial run of the
modification based on the SSCR.
Thus the areas were subjected to a
process of iteration.

Broadly speaking, iteration is a repetition of

a sequence of instructions characterized by a
set of initial conditions, an iterative step, and
a terminal condition. Iteration distributes
errors based on reality. For the purpose of
Picture 3. Center facade view of Quezon Hall
this particular application, iteration is defined
as the repetitive application of the same

Figure 5a. Boundary Scale

Figure 5b. Bounded Scale

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 77

 mathematical formula to an initial condition
until it yields the desired terminal condition.
The desired terminal condition is zero. The
sum of all iterations gives the modified area
for a particular scale.
In applying the iteration, we repeated the
procedure mentioned above but using
only the remainder as ’start’ value for the
boundary scale. The value of ISR X kint
from the initial run was used to determine
the corrections to the bounded scales. The
iteration process can go on n number of times
until the total modified areas of the bounded
scales matches the total original area of the
boundary scale.
6. Finally, in distributing the
modified areas to their respective
lengths and widths, direct
proportioning based on the
dimensions of the original areas
was implemented.
As an illustration, in Table 1 is a summary of
the points mentioned for the evaluation and
modification as applied to Fig.4.
Figure 6 Sequence 1 of Quezon Hall Scaling Tree
APPLICATION OF THE SSCR TO QUEZON HALL
The University of the Philippines System is one
of the country’s premier learning institutions
and is composed of eight main campuses and
another eight satellite campuses. The central
administration is housed in the stately Quezon
Hall in the campus in Diliman. Designed by
National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil,
Quezon Hall was finished in 1950 in a style that
can be described as ‘stripped’ art deco.
The building’s façade is composed of two wings
linked together by a high and wide central void
capped by a long open pavilion (Pics. 1 and 2).
The wings have an architectural feature made up
of horizontal bands of concrete under casement
windows on all three floors covered by a tiled hip
roof (Pics. 1 and 3). Two wide brick walls flank the
central void where four pairs of slender column
shafts rise to support the open pavilion at the
fourth floor and a second-floor curvilinear open
corridor linking the two wings (Pics. 2 and 3).
78 es pa syo 9
Quezon Hall Scaling Tree
We begin to apply the SSCR to the principal
façade of Quezon Hall on a CAD file of the façade
using actual and original dimensions as shown in
Fig 5a. We proceed with determining the biggest
scale of Quezon Hall which is the whole structure
itself and consider this as boundary scale (Level
1) of Sequence 1. This is labeled as façade in Fig.
5a. The building is then broken down into the
next level components of the façade, considered
as the Bounded Scales (Level 2) of Sequence 1.
The whole facade which is the boundary scale was
broken down into left, right, center, top and void
sections which represent the next levels bounded
scales within the boundary scales. This can be
seen in Fig. 5b. Succeeding sequences of bounded
scales within a larger bounded scale, i.e. windows
within the left façade bounded scale, were
then determined down to the last identifiable
architectural detail of the building.
Figures 5a and 5b show the boundary scale and
bounded scales identified in Quezon Hall which
translate to its Sequence 1 as shown in the Scaling
Tree in Fig. 6. The complete Scaling Tree for the
façade of Quezon Hall is shown in Fig. 7. We note
that the color coding assignment for the scales
considered will be consistent and be carried over
in the application of the SSCR and the eventual
modification of the Quezon Hall principal façade.
See Tables 1a and 1b.
Elevation Modification
Tables 2a and 2b show the application of the
formula master list, i.e. the computations for the
values of ASR, k, kint, ISR x kint, to Sequences 1 to 7 of
Quezon Hall. In addition, Tables 1a and 1b contain
iterations applied accordingly. The columns
labelled Initial Modified Scales are results before
applying iteration; the columns labelled as Final
Modified Scales include iterations. Figures 8a to
8g show all the sequences and how the scales of
the various elements of the façade approach the
original scales after SSCR-modification and the
iterations.
Figure 9 shows the line drawings of the actual and
modified elevations of Quezon Hall following the
methods and procedures presented. Dimensions
are given in Fig.9. The height of the balcony was
retained for functionality purposes. In Fig.10
rendered drawings of both the modified and
existing elevations are shown. From Figs. 9 and10
we observed the following:
Figure 7. Complete Quezon Hall Scaling Tree

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 79

 Table 2a. Sequences 1 to 7 Application

Figure 8a. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 1

80 es pa syo 9
Table 2b. Continuation of Sequences 1 to 7 Application.
(Note: The colors are consistent with Fig. 7 for the respective bounded areas and the sequences. Use red line as matching point)

Figure 8b. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 2

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 81

 Figure 8c. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 3

Figure 8d. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 4

Figure 8e. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 5

Figure 8f. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 6

82 es pa syo 9
Figure 8g. Iteration of Areas for Sequence 7

Figure 9. Quezon Hall Actual and Modified Line Drawing

Figure 10. Quezon Hall Actual (top) and Modified (bottom) Rendered Drawings

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 83

 1. The modified elevation
pronounces the building’s height
more than its width. Note that
the façade length has changed but
the total area of the façade, and
its individual elements, have not
changed.
2. The modified elevation has a
narrower lobby.
3. Columns appear to be slimmer in
the modified elevation than those
of the existing elevation.
4. Openings and architectural
elements were hierarchically-
defined as opposed to the
consistent sizes of openings in the
existing elevation.
EXPERIMENTATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The researchers were curious to see the reactions
to, or perceptions of, the modified Quezon Hall
façade elevation so the existing and modified
elevation drawings were subjected to a simple
experiment. A survey was taken among senior
Architecture students of the University of
the Philippines and from non-students of the
university. The goal was to determine whether
the existing elevation or the SSCR-modified
elevation was more aesthetically pleasing. To
control the familiarity with the university’s
Figure 11. Presentation of the of Quezon Hall during the survey
84 es pa syo 9
prominent edifices, architecture students who
were not from the university were included in
the survey. Senior students and their peers were
chosen because these students would have a
better understanding of architectural design
principles. The survey group was composed of 90
students in total, chosen from the University of
the Philippines (UP), Far Eastern University (FEU)
and the Technological Institute of the Philippines
(TIP). The difference between FEU and TIP is that
the former is a school located in Manila while TIP
is also located in Quezon City.
The drawings in Figs 9 and 10 of appropriate size
were presented to the students. The students
were asked to view simultaneously the existing
and modified elevation drawings at eye level a
meter away. The drawings were placed beside each
other such that the drawings are along the same
line of sight. The subjects were asked to remain
in a room during the survey and were monitored
throughout the proceeding. Discussions with
peers were not allowed. Figure 11 shows this
arrangement during the survey.
While viewing, respondents were asked to
accomplish a questionnaire designed with simple
questions to determine the subject’s preferred
building (aesthetic preference) and their criteria
for judgement. The results of the survey are
shown in Tables 2 and 3. The questions are given
in the first column of the tables.
 Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
UP Diliman TIP Quezon City FEU Manila
Line Drawing of Quezon Hall
actual modified actual modified actual modified
elevation elevation elevation elevation elevation elevation
Question 1:
As a whole, which elevation do you prefer? 8 22 15 15 19 11
26.677% 73.33% 50% 50% 63% 37%
Question 2:
Which of the two elevation drawings appeal
to you best with regards to:

a. Size 13 17 20 10 20 10
43.33% 56.67% 66.67% 33.33% 66.67% 33.33%
b. Shape 14 16 12 18 20 10
46.67% 53.33% 40% 60% 66.67% 33.33%
c. Composition 10 20 16 14 21 9
33.33% 66.67% 53.33% 46.67% 70% 30%
d. Proportion 12 18 19 11 19 11
40% 60% 63.33% 36.67% 63.33% 36.67%
e. Detailing 10 20 16 14 19 11
33.33% 66.67% 53.33% 46.67% 63.33% 36.67%
Table 3. Results of Survey for Line Drawing of Quezon Hall

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

UP Diliman TIP Quezon City FEU Manila
Line Drawing of Quezon Hall
actual modified actual modified actual modified
elevation elevation elevation elevation elevation elevation
Question 1: 19 11 14 16 11 19
As a whole, which elevation do you prefer? 63.33% 36.67% 46.67% 53.33% 36.67% 63.33%

Question 2:
Which of the two elevation drawings appeal
to you best with regards to:
22 8 13 17 17 13
a. Size 73.33% 26.67% 43.33% 56.67% 56.67% 43.33%
16 14 12 18 16 14
b. Shape 53.33% 46.67% 40% 60% 53.33% 46.67%
19 11 19 11 13 17
c. Composition 63.33% 36.67% 63.33% 36.67% 43.33% 56.67%
19 11 13 17 11 19
d. Proportion 63.33% 36.67% 43.33% 56.67% 36.67% 63.33%
13 17 16 14 13 17
e. Detailing 43.33% 56.67% 53.33% 46.67% 43.33% 56.67%
33.33% 66.67% 53.33% 46.67% 63.33% 36.67%
Table 4. Results of Survey for Rendered Drawing of Quezon Hall

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is interesting to see in Table 3 that the replies
of UP Diliman students to Question 1 indicate
preference for the line drawing of the modified
facade than that of the actual façade. As seen in
Question 2, the reasons for the preference relate
more to the line drawing’s composition, proportion
and detailing. TIP Quezon City students were
divided in their preference between the actual and
modified facades, while the FEU Manila students
showed preference for the actual elevation. For
the FEU Manila students, there is preference for
the line drawing of the actual elevation also in
terms of composition, proportion and detailing.

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 85

 Except for the TIP Quezon City students, the data
is reversed when the students are presented with
the rendered colored drawings of the actual and
the modified elevations. In Table 3, the UP Diliman
students prefer the actual façade in terms of size,
composition and proportion. The FEU Manila
students preferred the rendered drawing of the
modified elevation in terms of size, composition,
proportion and detailing.
One can say that based on these initial surveys
there is no consistent evidence to support the
Salingaros Scaling Coherence Rule, but there
is also no evidence to disprove it. Architectural
aesthetics may be of a more personal preference.
Nonetheless, a mathematical method to develop
and explore architectural forms should be
available to aid architectural designers in their
studies, and these can be built-in or translated
into computer design programs.
The Salingaros Scaling Coherence Rule (SSCR)
is an example of a proportioning system that
can be applied to aid in architectural evaluation
and make for a more effective design thinking
strategy. Through it, architectural elements and
their relationships can be quantified such that it
can result in a beautiful and appealing building.
We note that based on Tables 3 and 4, the
rendering of an architectural design affects the
aesthetic appeal of an architectural form. These
can be seen in the reversal of data between the
line and the rendered façades. There is also
indication that one’s familiarity with a building
does not have a significant influence on one’s
perception of architectural aesthetics, if it were so
then the proximity of Quezon Hall for UP Diliman
students may have shown consistent marks for
the actual façade either in both line or rendered
drawings but this was not so. We reiterate
however the fact that these are initial survey
results, thus further studies related to these are
recommended.
In closing, we comment on the treatment of the
architectural components as two-dimensional
areas. This is an abstraction of the architectural
components and does not take into account
the environs where Quezon Hall is located. This
study is thus exploratory and symbolic but as all
architectural design processes involve multiple
studies leading to design schemes, this paper
exemplifies the importance of exploring and
simulating more qualitative bases for aesthetics
as a design exercise. In addition, the choice
of the scale factor can be further extended to
numbers like the infinite =3.1415926… , the non-
terminating but repeating √2 , or the centerpiece
of number theory -- the prime numbers.
86 es pa syo 9
ENDNOTES
1
F. Ching, Architecture: Form, Space and Order. Van Nostrand
Reinhold, New York, 1975.
2
N. Ramzy, Biophilic Qualities of Historical Architecture,
Sustainable Cities and Societies, 12, 2015.
3
D. Andrica, The Fibonacci Series and Other New Golden rations,
Arab. J. Math. Sciences, 22(2), 2016.
4
D. Cruickshank, Sir Bannister Fletcher’s A History of
Architecture (20th ed.). Architectural Press, London, 2001.
5
A. Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of Italian
Renaissance. Harvard Univ Press, USA, 2002.
6
C. Constant, The Palladio Guide, Princeton Univ. Press, USA,
1993.
7
Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture. Architectural Press,
London, 1927.
8
P. Calter, Squaring the Circle: Geometry in Art and Architecture.
Wiley and Sons, New York, 2008.
9
Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future,
K. Williams and M. Ostwald (eds.), Springer International,
Switzerland, 2012.
10
J . Hermoso, F. Hermoso, F. Tubio and A. Serrano, Geometry
and Proportion in Funeral Crypt of Sarenput II, Nexus Netw. J.,
17, 2015.
S. Datta, Infinite Series in the Construction Geometry of 10th
11
Century Hindu Temple Superstructures, Nexus Netw. J., 12,
2010.
12
M. Hejazi, Geometry in Nature and Persian Architecture,
Building Env., 40(10), 2005.
13
Batty, M, Cities and Complexity: Understanding Cities
with Cellular Automata, Agent Based Models, and Fractals.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005.
14
N. Salingaros, The Laws of Architecture from a Physicist’s
Perspective, Physics Essays, 8, 1995.
15
N. Salingaros, A Scientific Basis for Creating Architectural
Form, J. Arch. Planning Res., 15, 1998.
16
N. Salingaros, Hierarchical Cooperation in Architecture and
the Mathematical Necessity for Ornament, J. Arch. Planning
Res., 17, 2000.
Breaking and Entering:
A Case Study on Burglary-Prone Parts of the House in Cebu City
PEDRO B. RUBIA III
Pedro B. Rubia III is a practicing architect and a faculty of the
University of San Carlos (USC). Upon finishing his graduate degree
in Interior Architecture in USC, he continued his search for ways
to protect domiciles against calamities and threats of intrusions.
ABSTRACT
The study attempts to identify parts of the house
that are most vulnerable to burglary in Cebu City.
This study used qualitative research methods
with the casual comparative study through
triangulation of three (3) data sources namely:
data from victims within the period from January
to June 2016 to know what part of the house is
frequently attacked; the focus group discussion
of convicted burglars to gather first hand
information about the manner of attack; and the
interview with police officers from the Theft and
Robbery Section to know the prevalent methods
of burglary in the city. These were compared in
to identify the vulnerable parts of the house.
The study found that burglars seldom created
new openings to gain access and windows are
the leading point of entry. They only resort to
creative and unique ways of intruding when they
fail to enter through the windows and doors.
Keywords: House vulnerability, house burglary,
safe house, defensive design
INTRODUCTION
It has been observed that current design trends
are the primary consideration for architects in
designing a house, neglecting security in design.
As stated by Wright, R. T., Decker, S. H., & Geis,
G. (1994), “In the absence of this knowledge,
architects, designers and the owners might
fortify their houses in effect, ultimately reduce
the quality of life more than they alter the
opportunities for crime.”
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
House intrusion and burglary are examples of
crimes against property. Burglary is defined
under the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines
as breaking into enclosed premises or spaces
using special, extraordinary or violent means, and
is classified as serious theft with a fine of Php
12,000 to 24,000. Theft or burglary is a bailable
crime and police consider this as a petty crime.
Once the house is intruded the sense of security
fails physically as well as psychologically.1 In Cebu
City and the rest of the country, a group called
the Akyat –Bahay Gang runs amok. In Cebu City
alone in 2014 there were a total of 711 incidents
of Akyat-Bahay robberies where only 17% were
solved and in 2015 there were 423 incidents
and only 75 or 17.7% of the cases were solved. In
the first half of 2016, there were a total of 297
incidents of burglary where the overall crime
solution efficiency is only 27% with 80 cases
solved and the remaining 217 incidents remain
unsolved.2
Most often, it is after being victimized that
victims think about how to make their house a
defensible space. This research studies the house
as a territory, identifying the vulnerable parts of
the house that are commonly used as points of
entry by burglars.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to the theory of Oscar Newman,
“defensible space theory creates a social
structure that shields itself and aims at physical
87
 restructuring that helps the residents gain
control over the area of their home.” 4 House
design should maximize opportunities for
natural or passive surveillance of both dwellings
and their surrounding public spaces; create a
sense of neighborhood, and clearly mark the
boundaries between public and private spaces.
Surveillance is considered the most basic and
essential element in deterring crime by making
intruders feel conspicuous. Burglars do scan the
environment and make some reconnaissance
work before striking. Most of the time burglars
attack the area that is familiar to them and most
often the place where burglaries have been
undertaken previously.5
Residential Burglary
There is no effective formula or housing design
that can assure that it will be free from burglary
attacks. Burglars weigh the potential cost of
reward with the punishment for their illegal
action.1 Designing the house as an effectively
defensible space deters burglars thus sparing
the house from being targeted. Furniture should
be consciously arranged so that targeted items
placed on top cannot be easily seen from outside
the house. Burglars do some reconnaissance
work and scout their prospects, but they rarely
have a fixed target in mind. When they return to
the location of the house that they are planning
to attack, they may choose another target in the
area if it signifies better outcome in that given
moment.5
As the book Burglars on the Job: Street Life and
Residential Break-ins1 mentions, there is little
study on how burglars choose their targets. It
has been discovered however that burglars do
not spend the money they acquired on day-to-
day living or family survival, but on drugs, alcohol,
and status-enhancing goods. This shows that
burglary is not committed for family survival or
mitigating hunger but it is committed because
of socio-cultural conditions that influenced their
every day lives.
Target Hardening
Designing the house as an effective defensible
space that deters burglars and sparing the house
from being attacked is referred to by the police
as target hardening. This is the term used by
police for the practice of employing defensive
measures and creating a perception of security in
a certain territory.5 Walsh (1995) defined target
hardening as the technique that makes it hard for
these elements to get inside the house; making
the house a defensive space. Designing with the
concepts of defensible space in mind makes one’s
house less targeted since the design itself deters
burglars. It is when you are targeted that burglars
88 es pa syo 9
will study every aspect of the house and exploit
its vulnerable parts.
It is always a deterrent if the house is occupied.
Burglars assess if the property is occupied based
on visual cues such as lighting in the property,
cars parked outside, open windows, or the mere
presence of activity in the house. It is helpful
to be conscious of what burglars have in mind
as a guide to protect your house from attack.
Defensive design has a role in crime prevention,
but factors such as unemployment, poverty,
social stress, and bad management simply cannot
be designed out.6
METHODOLOGY
The researcher used the triangulation method to
corroborate raw and conflicting data from three
sets of sources:
1. Victims identified through
purposive sampling, based on the
list from the Geographic Information
System Based Crime Analysis (GIS-
BCA) of the Investigation and
Detective Management Branch
(IDMB) of the Cebu City Police
Office, within the period of January
to June 2016 of which there are
259 residential burglaries. Only
148 victims participated in this
study while the remaining 111
victims either declined or cannot
be located. Data gathered from
this would include the manner of
burglary, which part of the house
was attacked and what items were
taken.
2. A focus group discussion (FGD)7
was conducted on eight (8)
incarcerated burglars of the Cebu
City Jail who were undergoing
trial and have not posted bail.
These participants were randomly
selected by the assigned Bureau
of Jail Management and Penology
(BJMP) Prison Welfare Program
Head. An FGD was used to ensure
the accuracy of information and
was facilitated by a psychologist to
avoid violating the rights of these
detainees. Data gathered from the
FGD includes individual techniques
in intrusion and climbing, and
targeting of victims.
3. A group interview was conducted
on three (3) police officers8 of the
Cebu City Police Office – Theft
 and Robbery Section for their
expert knowledge on burglary. The
respondents requested to remain
anonymous as some cases that
might be mentioned may be under
litigation thus they are not allowed
to discuss them outside of the
courts. Data gathered from this
interview were about the manner
of burglary based on actual cases
handled in the field and what part
of the house is frequently attacked.
The data from the three groups were compared
for similarities and differences on how burglary
was committed. These became the basis in
establishing the vulnerable parts of the house.
RESULTS AND FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Burglars gained entry either by climbing over the
fence or gates, or destroying enclosures around
the area, then they proceed immediately to their
favored side of the house to attack, then chose
the weakest part of the house to either destroy or
remove to gain entry.
As shown in Figure 1, a large percentage of
houses were intruded through the doors having
59 victims or 40%, then followed by intrusions
through windows with 53 victims or 36%. The
unclassified entry points were those unique entry
points or those who were unsuccessful in entering
the house. The data in Figure 1 shows a small
difference between the doors and the windows
to be conclusive. To have a more reliable result,
the researcher considered the data of “E-Blotters”
that span thirty (30) months to produce more
conclusive findings than the data from the
respondents in Figure 1 that only spanned for six
(6) months.
Tables 1, 2, and 3 were obtained from the e-Blotter
System of GIS-BCA2 that covered the period
between January 2014 to June 2016, and was the
basis in establishing the leading point of entry.
This secondary data spanning a period of two and
a half years shows that windows were most often
favored by burglars as entry points. “The architect
should recognize the nature of burglary and
incorporate [this] in his design to identify weak
spots and enforced [sic] them accordingly.”9
Mode of Commisison No. of
Incidents
Baklas Bubong / Dingding / Ceiling 87
Detaching jalousies / cutting 393
window grills
Forcibly opening door using false 231
key / tool
TOTAL 711
Table 1. E-BLOTTER Period Covered: Jan to Dec 2014
Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
(GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City
Mode of Commisison No. of
Incidents
Baklas Bubong / Dingding / Ceiling 30
Detaching jalousies / cutting 212
window grills
Forcibly opening door using false 181
key / tool
TOTAL 423
Table 2. E-BLOTTER Period Covered: Jan to Dec 2015
Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
(GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City

Mode of Commisison No. of

Incidents
Baklas Bubong / Dingding / Ceiling 7
Detaching jalousies / cutting 65
window grills
Forcibly opening door using false 64
key / tool
Not Specified 161
TOTAL 297
Figure 1. Common Points of Entry, N= 148 Table 3. E-BLOTTER Period Covered: Jan to Jun 2016
Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
(GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective (GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 89

 The Window
The window is the leading entry point, consistent
with data from the burglars that jalousie type
windows are the easiest to intrude and that grills
would not stop nor deter burglars. For the period
of two and a half years, windows were the leading
point of entry by the burglars. There were varying
window types that the burglary victims had been
intruded through and each of the types were
incapable of securing the house from burglary.

As shown in Figure 2, detaching of jalousie

blades had 28 victims or 49%. Trailing with a
large gap was the destruction of window grills
having 7 victims or equivalent to 12%. There
were 6 victims or 11% that were intruded through Figure 2. Windows as Points of Entry
the back-kitchen window and 5 victims or 9% Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
where burglars passed through the most often (GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
unlocked T&B window. Burglars took advantage Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City
of comfort room windows since they were left
open to ventilate the room and were most often
an awning-type window that has a large opening
that provides easy access to the interiors. Grills
would not deter burglars, as 4 victims or 7%
reported intrusion through removal of window
grills and 3 victims or 5% were victims of burglars
passing thru awning and sliding windows.

The data showed that among the several types and

locations of windows, jalousie windows were the
most common points of entry used by burglars.
This was consistent with the police saying, “Do
Figure 3. Wooden window grills were destroyed to gain entry.
not use jalousie windows and discourage the use
of jalousie windows.”8 This was confirmed by In-
mate 4,7 “jalousie is the easiest to open.”

Some owners install window grills, but data

shows that grills were either destroyed or event
taken out to gain entry.

Figure 3 shows window grills that were destroyed

to gain entry through jalousie windows. This
window was located in front of a Closed-Circuit
Television (CCTV) camera, but this did not deter
the burglar. This is consistent with In-mate 67
saying that CCTVs can only record their acts but
will not alert the owners. They are more afraid
of an alarm sounding off since this alerts the
owners and will most often lead to apprehension.
SPO18 supports this saying, “Grills can be placed
but it will not stop them, it will only delay the
burglars.” This was consistent with the inmates
saying that it would not stop them; they merely
bring crowbars to gouge it open.7 But according
to Walsh (1995), “target hardening is making it
hard for these elements to get inside the house;
this was making the house a defensive space.”
Placing grills is one way of enhancing the security
of the house; if done properly. According to
Walsh (1995), burglars use common household
Figure 4. Window Grill Located on the Interior of the House
Source: Singapore Window Grill Design
tools. This was consistent with police interview
of SPO1,8 “Screwdrivers are the usual tools they
used.” It was confirmed by In-mate 4,7 “We usually
bring flat screwdriver[s] since it can be used to pry
things open compared to Phillips screwdriver[s].”
Flat screwdrivers are multi-purpose tools to
either pullout the grills, pick the locks or act as a
weapon. Flimsy grills ended up being destroyed,
and sturdy grills get forcibly removed.
Grills were effective when installed on the interior
side of a wall, as confirmed by In-mate 47 saying,
“it will be a deterrent if those grills are located on
the inner side that would create noise in taking-
out.” This was affirmed by In-mate 67 saying,

90 es pa syo 9

Figure 5. Doors as Points of Entry,
Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
(GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City
Figure 6. Location of Intruded Doors
Figure 7. Back door screen was destroyed to gain access to the
door locks.
“grills that are located inside is [sic] impossible to
intrude, but it will be a different story when the
attack is done on a vacant house.” If the house
is vacant, noise will not be an issue. It is always
advisable to leave someone in the house and
avoid posting your trips on social media.
As the police mentioned, these burglars do
reconnaissance work. Once they know the house
is vacant, they have all the time to get into the
targeted house without considering the noise
they are making. These burglars have no definite
target in mind, thus the best way not to be
attacked is not to become a target, that is, they
see something inside that is worth taking where
the assurance of reward outweighs all the risks.
The Door
Based on the victim’s data from e-blotter,2 doors
are the second most common point of entry for
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
burglars. Less-sturdy doors were destroyed or
attacked directly by picking the locks for some
incidents. Strong doors with double locking
system were less susceptible to forced entry.
As shown in Figure 5 the most common way to
gain entry through doors were to destroy the door
locks with 19 victims or 43%. 9 victims or 21%
reported opportunistic types of burglary where
doors were left open or unlocked. 7 victims or
16% had their doors destroyed. 4 victims or 9%
reported destroyed padlocks. It should be noted
that the latter belong to the lower-income group,
where the use of padlocks are more common.
Where doors are the point of entry, the back door
was the most favored entry point by burglars
with 32 respondents victimized through the back
doors based on Figure 6. Attacks at the rear of the
property were consistent with PO28 saying, “they
usually pass at the back” and concurred with In-
mate 7’s7 statement that he preferred to attack
the back door. The front door was not spared
with 25 victims where the burglars gained access
through the front door. This was the favored point
of entry by In-mates 1, 4 and 57 as it would be
less conspicuous if there is someone entering
the front of the property. A single incident was
reported where a sliding glass door was used as
entry point at the balcony going to the bedroom
as shown in Figure 5. This is the favorite style of
In-mate 4,7 “My favorite house to climb are those
having [sic] balconies, usually owners fail to lock
doors at that area. That was the usual case, the
lower level was locked then the upper level was
open. The owners were thinking that the burglars
won’t climb.”
There were conflicting responses between which
side of the house, whether front or rear, was more
vulnerable to attacks by burglars. Most of the
burglars who participated in the FGD7 preferred
to enter the front of the house, while In-mate 7
preferred to enter the back. Each burglar claims to
have a unique technique, but a majority preferred
entering the front. In-mate 57 commented that
attacking the rear is an old style.
The data from the victims show that intrusions
from the rear of the house are more common, as
shown in Figure 5. The police8 support this, saying
that burglars prefer to pass the rear of the house,
thinking that this is the least secure point of
entry. Through triangulation, it was determined
that the rear part was more vulnerable than the
front, as shown in Figure 7.
As the police8 related, there is no such thing as a
burglar-proof lock. Installing a deadbolt lock to
supplement the regular doorknob would provide
91
 better security. This corroborates the burglars’
statement that, “double lock is better since
the deadbolt penetrates deeper into the jamb
thus making it harder to pry the door open.” 7
SPO18 confirmed that deadbolt locks with keys
were an effective locking mechanism. In-mate
17 mentioned that keyed deadbolts were so
effective that no one could pick the lock open.
PO28 said “It would help to have a strong and
solid door. Even if you ram it, it would not get
damaged...” Easy access to locking hardware
was another feature that made the house a more
susceptible target, with burglars using simple
household tools.9 That explained why only 16%
of doors were destroyed, as shown in Figure 5,
since they prefer to pick the locks as it produced
minimal noise; especially when the owners
inside the targeted house are sleeping.
Unclassified Points of Entry
The types of burglary with a unique way of gaining
entry were the unclassified points of entry or
listed as “not specified” in Figure 1. These were
the entry points other than the windows and the
doors. Most of the time the windows and the
doors were secured with grills and locks, and these
unusual points of entry were the only option left
for the burglars.
This section shares some success stories of owners
securing the house effectively that burglars have
failed to gain entry. As shown in Figure 8, there
were 6 victims or 18% where the burglar passed
through the gates but failed to enter the house.
4 victims or 12% related experiences where the
burglar destroyed parts of the gate. There were
3 victims or 9% who were attacked by burglars
scaling the fence but failed to gain entry to the
house and settled for something less valuable
outside. Based on Figure 8, there were 7 victims or
22% who did not know where the burglar passed
but they were sure that something was taken.
Discussions done with burglars during the FGD7
pointed out that the ultimate target is inside
the house; being denied entry means that the
house is secured. The police noted some unique
modes of entry such as through aircon holes.
Burglars push the aircon unit inward thus having
an instant manhole to pass through. In-mate 47
preferred to pass through exhaust fan holes as he
sees it as the easiest access to enter or to escape.
It has been discovered through the FGD7 that
there are two (2) phases of burglary, first, the
“climb”. During this phase, burglars are vigilant
towards their surroundings that. In the event
that there are signs of someone around, any noise
from the inside or alarms going-off, they would
abort instantly. The second phase is when they
92 es pa syo 9
Figure 8. Unclassified Points of Entry
Source: Geographic Information System Based Crime Analysis
(GIS-BCA) at the office of the Investigation and Detective
Management Branch (IDMB), Cebu City
have gained entry. During this time, their mindset
shifts from being alert, vigilant and anxious to
being aggressive. For them they have conquered
the hard part and it is now payoff time. During
this phase, they do not fear the locks, the CCTV,
nor the owner. They are dangerous to confront.
They are ready to use the weapon they have with
them during this phase of burglary. It is wise not
to confront them but rather take refuge in a more
secure location. In this study it was discovered
that most often, it was after being a victim of
burglary that the household decides to secure the
vulnerable parts of the house.
CONCLUSION
Burglars in Cebu City seldom create new openings
in order to gain entry. They are conscious of making
noise during the initial part of the attack. They
resort to creative and unique ways of intruding
the house when they fail to enter through the
windows and doors. The windows and doors, if
neglected, become the most vulnerable areas
of the house. In this study, the window is the
leading point of entry used by burglars. Jalousie
windows are the easiest to intrude and are almost
impossible to secure. Securing it with window
grills will not deter burglars but rather only delay
them. The door is another vulnerable part of
the house with the rear of the house as a usual
target. Burglars take advantage of these existing
openings and its weaknesses. Closed Circuit
Television (CCTV) is merely records burglary, but it
does not deter burglars. Alarm systems are more
effective against burglary. Should the house be
intruded, there is a need to seek refuge in a more
secured location. It is therefore important for
architects to recognize these vulnerable parts of
the house in order to design the house as a more
defensible space.
ENDNOTES
1
Wright, R. T., Decker, S. H., & Geis, G. (1994, June). Burlgars
on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Break-ins. 247.
Northeastern University Press.

2
Investigation and Detective Management Branch. (2015).
Geographic Information System. Cebu City Police Office.

3
Newman, O. (1973). Defensible space : people and design in
the violent city. Architectural Press London.

4
Newman, O. (1996). Creating Defensible Space. Washington
DC: US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

5
Nee, C. (2015). Understanding expertise in burglars: From
pre-conscious scanning to action and beyond . Aggression and
Violent Behavior (20), 53-61.

6
Stollard, P. (1991). Crime Prevention Through Housing
Design. Spon Press.

7
Focus Group Discussion, facilitated by Psychologist Khael
Quinain, MA. Cebu City Jail, Cebu. January 17, 2017

8
Group Interview, facilitated by Pedro B. Rubia III, Theft
and Robbery Section, Cebu City Police Office, Camp Sotero
Cabahug, Cebu City, Dececmber 13, 2016

9
Walsh, D. (1995). Burglars on the Job, Streetlife and
Residential Break-ins. International Journal of the Sociology
of Law , 23 (3), 299-301.

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 93

 Algorithm Theories and
Heritage Conservation:
Applying Parametric Design on the Intendencia Building in Intramuros
MIGUEL G. FELICIANO
Feliciano completed his undergraduate degree in Architecture at
the University of Santo Tomas. He attended the summer school
at the Architectural Association in London. His research interests
include postmodernist architecture, Japanese Metabolism, and
Parametric Design.
ABSTRACT
The main idea of this undergraduate architecture
thesis is to highlight the importance of heritage
buildings within the urban context and integrating
this consideration of the building’s value with
emerging architectural theories and intervention
methods in determining conservation programs for
student contribution
heritage structures. The study takes a parametric
design-based approach in determining the building’s
spatial programming as applied on the Intendencia
Building in Intramuros, Manila, optimizing the
algorithm based on historical space assignments
and contemporary functional demands. This study
hopes to make a case for quantifying the historical
and contemporary contextual space-use patterns
and applying such methods to computer-aided
design strategies for use in heritage conservation.
Keywords: Parametric design, Conservation
Introduction
This case study stems from two considerations:
first is the realization of the limitations of
modernist architectural practice, in that it is
constrained by permutations of basic geometric
forms to determine its morphology. Second is
the intersection of the inherent organic patterns
of damage and obsolescence with the former,
ironically leading to a homogenized and repetitive
building form that is designed for imminent
obsolescence, in turn expanding into a contextually
disjointed urban morphology. These concerns
extend into and pose challenges in the realm of
conservation practice, where professionals must
94 es pa syo 9
balance economic considerations with working
within an existing building fabric.
This case study intends to see beyond the
limitations of modernist design practice vis-à-
vis an obsolete edifice within an urban context.
Inevitably, horizontal urban development would
deplete the supply of greenfield or brownfield
plots. It would not be possible to create new
structures from scratch, without posing a threat to
what may eventually be heritage buildings. With
this, how can an architect work within the given
parameters of existing, albeit obsolete building
fabrics, and balance it with current or future
pressing functional demands?
New Theories vis-à-vis Existing Damaged Fabric
In contemporary discourse, Modernism has been
superseded as the principal architectural school
of thought. The current architectural discourse
rejects the reactive nature of Modernism and
embraces a more proactive approach, especially
for those who advocate heritage conservation.
One of the emerging schools of thought is
Parametricism, pioneered by Patrik Schumacher
of the firm Zaha Hadid Architects. Parametricism
eschews the invented forms, basic geometry,
and standardization of Modernism, in favor of
experimental forms obtained through machine
learning and algorithms.
Parametric design is utilized in this study through
an application on an existing heritage building
shell, creating a design based on the functional
requirements given by a hypothetical client.
 student contribution

Figure 1. Diagram showing the application of the algorithms in the design process.

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 95

 Figure 2. Exterior view of the proposed design as seen from the Binondo district. The roof of the new structure is seen above the
original roof line of the old Intendencia.
Consequently, this study aims to open the discourse
for employing such measures in the practice
of conservation, replacing the shortcomings of
Modernist thought.
Parametric design has the potential to settle the
decades-old debate between form and function
from the theoretical and social perspective. In the
complex case of heritage buildings imbibed with
historical and social significance, the application
focuses on the optimization of the process: To
student contribution
introduce a new function to a given site, based on
the most appropriate spatial programming given
the building’s former context and programming.
This use of algorithm informs the design process
in a way that the heritage building is not merely
a shell accepting a new morphology, all the while
respecting the current form of the building and
being completely reversible, as contemporary
conservation processes require. This parametric
design process equips architects, who may not
necessarily have a background in conservation,
to undertake design interventions informed by
algorithm-based, context-specific choices.
The Project Site and Application
The site for this case study was chosen because of
the extent of the damage and layers of historical
activities that it contained: The Intendencia
building in Intramuros, Manila. Built as an Aduana
or Customs House during the Spanish Colonial
Period and damaged during the Second World War,
the building was heavily modified and reused post-
war before it was razed by fire in 1979 (editor’s note:
the site became the headquarters of the Philippine
Senate and National Mint before it was damaged
in the Liberation of Manila during the Second
World War. Post-war, it became the offices of the
Central Bank of the Philippines, and eventually of
96 es pa syo 9
the Commission on Elections before it was razed
by fire in 1979). The building has since laid in ruins
and has passed onto the ownership of the National
Archives of the Philippines. Four algorithms were
applied to create a design for the building: Space
Syntax, Stigmergy, Voronoi Diagram, and repitition.
The Application of Algorithmic Engines
This first algorithm applied onto the structure
is the space syntax based on the research of Bill
Hillier and Hanson that quantifies the language of
and fills in the gap between the historical building
fabric that no longer exists with what remains of
the structure. The algorithm recognizes spaces
that have lost their physical manifestation
but may still be intuitively deduced from what
remains, such as placement of windows, doorways
connecting rooms (even if the floor slab has
already disappeared), and collapsed staircases,
among others. These negative spaces can be
reactivated by mimicking their original function
and matching them to their relevant connections
within the entire structure. It is of note that the
original use of the Intendencia had its entrance
facing the river, and with the demolition of the wall
in this section and its integration of the new road
networks, the structure was reoriented to have its
rear as its principal façade.
The second algorithm applied after reactivating
the spaces is stigmergy, which connects the
building into function nodes. This engine connects
them based on attraction, a biomimicry algorithm
to search for nodes that require activity and nodes
that require privacy.
The final engine to fully realize the new design is
the Voronoi Diagram and repetition. This takes
the layout of both the new space programming
Figure 3. View of the interior courtyard in the proposed design showing the form generated through the algorithms that were
used. The new structure stands independently from the building’s original shell.
created by the architect and the existing fabric of
the building as reconstructed using the past two
algorithmic engines, and merging the two in a way
that the new space programming takes shape
based on its compatibility with the reconstructed
building fabric.
Parametric Design in Heritage
This application of parametric design proposes an
alternative to Modernism. Architects intuitively
take note of site conditions. In particular, they note
the built form, elements, and the former use of
spaces, prior to making any interventions. Defunct
spaces are analyzed through space syntax, allowing
the spaces to inform the algorithm. Through this
process, the spaces become candidates for re-use.
Spaces that are beyond recognition, damaged, or
virtually non-existent will continue to exist, albeit
as modified spaces. Its attributes and character
will remain. Otherwise, the space is bound to fail.
As an alternative to the biases of the Venice
Charter, which was biased towards modernism
and outright rejected reconstruction, this paper
seeks to propose a counter discourse in heritage by
proposing alternative approaches in conservation.
Whether or not Parametric design emerges as the
defining school of thought of the Post-modern
era, it is undeniable that heritage is important.
Heritage carries culture, memory, and identity in
the urban fabric. As such, it should be conserved
and protected. Whatever style or movement
emerges in the future, it should respect built
heritage and avoid the premise of Modernism
which requires a tabula rasa (a clean slate) because
of its inflexibility and rigidity of form.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
ENDNOTES
Schumacher, P. (2009) Autopoiesis of Architecture (Vol. 1).
Webley. UK.
Schumacher, P. (2012) Autopoiesis of Architecture (Vol. 2).
Webley. UK.
Hillier, B. (1996) Space is the Machine. CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform South Carolina United States
Hillier, B & Hanson J. (1984). Social Logic of space.
Five voices of Kisho Kurokawa. (n.d.).Japan Architect No.2
(Issued #18) (1995), pp. 14-19.
Wong, L. (2016).Adaptive Reuse: Extending the Lives of
student contribution
Buildings. Germany
Gerard Rey. L (2019) Reconstruction and Restoration of the
Intedencia as the National Archives of the Philippines.
Poole M, Shvartzberg M (eds.)(n.d)(2015) The Politics of
Parametricism Digital Technologies in Architecture. Bloomsbury
Academi
Ross MF. (n.d)(1978) Beyond Metabolism: The New Japanese
Architecture.Architectural Record,New York
____________. (2018, Sept 5 ). The Coloseum.net:Materials-
Timeline of the Valley of the Colosseum
Retrieved from: http://www.the-colosseum.net/architecture/
materials_en.htm
___________.(2018, Sept 5) TitleTod’s Official Online Store:
Italian luxury shoes & footwear: The Colosseum Restored by
Tod’s Retrieved from: https://www.tods.com/ww-en/stories/
tods-for-colosseum.html
____________(2018, Sept 5) The Windsor Castle fire: 25 facts
Retrieved:https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-
windsor-castle-fire-25-facts/
____________(2018, Sept 5) The Naked Hedgehogs
R e t r i e v e d : h t t p s : / / w w w. n a k e d h e d g e h o g s . c o m /
hedgehogsdilemma
____________(2018, Sept 5) Trafalgar Square Space Syntax
Retrieved:https://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/
archive/2003/07/transformation-of-trafalgar-square/
SOURCE OF INTENDENCIA ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS:
INTRAMUROS ADMINISTRATION LIBRARY
97

Dilao: Urban and
Cultural History of Paco
Gerard Lico
Lorelei De Viana
Publisher: National Commission for Culture and the Arts
ISBN: 9789718142325
Year of Publication: 2017
Bibliographic Infomation: 142 pages, paperback
Reviewed by:
Elijah Joshua Benjamin D.F. Aban
Dilao: Urban and Cultural History of Paco offers the
contextualization of the word Dilao, that was then derived
from the current context and translation of the Filipino
[RE]views
word which is equivalent to color “yellow.” After the brief
explanation about the color, there came the appropriation
and connection to the subject of the book which is the
present and historical setting of Paco, Manila. From the
Turmeric to the highlighted structures like, the Church of
San Fernando de Dilao, Paco Market, Paco Train Station,
Manila Gas Corporation, Esco Shoe Company, Paco
Catholic School and Plaza Dilao which are still existing and
operational, Arch. Lico and Dr. De Viana not only advertise
or showcase these structures or market the first resource
or commodity or remember/reminisce its past economic
roles but also offer a documentary-like, cinematic narration
of Paco, Manila in the form of a book.
The reader plunges through the narrative and traverses
Paco’s metamorphoses, not only through social or
historical contexts but also through the spectacularization
of the town and its past relations to the spaces within
its vicinity. This can be considered an attempt of the
authors to create an invigorating historico-geographical
and architectural analyses of and from Paco’s urban and
commercial settings, structures and its relationship to the
elements of power spaces and spaces of creativity, Arch.
De Viana and Dr. Lico’s analyses made a lot resonance to
98 es pa syo 9
32
Guy Debord’s “psychogeography” where spaces are defined
by means of spectacular tendencies.
Dilao precisely has brought back missing fragments
needed to see the clearest picture of Manila for the
Manileños. For once, we the current settlers of the urban
Metro Manila, thought the spaces in between the cities and
towns are just mere spaces for business and commerce:
we are blinded by these elements of development to
become a lousy idealist believer. Dilao is a pretty good
cathartic instrument to be added to the collection of
works that stream along the flows of emancipatory
architectural analysis and accurate historical narration
that can be subtitled as a “narration of childhood stories
and memories without being too cheesy.” With that being
said, Dr. Lico and Arch. De Viana have once again proved
that we are still learning about our identity, and prove that
the word yellow will change forever once you start reading
and viewing the images of the book that gives a more
authentic experiential narration to the reader, as well
as a montage of moving images that tells a rich culture
and history from the perspective of the authors who are,
themselves the offsprings of Paco, Manila. Besides their
artistic storytelling, Dilao can be a “call to arms” to us
people in these times of finding the truth within the many
forms of information.
Inside a society where historical revisionism became a
norm, in a country with a history defined by struggles and
search for identity, a limelight in a form of a book filled
with images was published to unravel forcibly forgotten
memories and spectacles of Paco, Manila. Once again, the
historico-architectural research duo of Arch. Lorelei De
Viana and Dr. Gerard Lico offer an enlightening narrative
through Dilao which solidifies my assertion that it offers
more than just superficial anecdotes or stories and
cultures of Paco, Manila.
Dilao: Urban and Cultural History of Paco is available at the
NCCA Publishing House located inside the NCCA Office,
Intramuros, Manila.

Tropical Architecture
for the 21st Century
BluPrint
Publisher: National Commission for Culture and the Arts
ISBN: 9789719466475
Year of Publication: 2017
Bibliographic Infomation: 259 pages
Reviewed by:
Maureen Anne Araneta
“Southeast Asian dwellings that work in hot and wet
climate” is a claim that the writers of BluPrint magazine
of One Mega Group, Inc. argue in the book Tropical
Architecture for the 21st Century through the presentation
of twenty-two built contemporary residential designs in
three Southeast Asian countries – five in Singapore, six in
Malaysia and eleven in the Philippines.
Properly composed photographs of interior and exterior
spaces are the first means by which the argument is
conveyed. Seeing the beautiful imagery, one can imagine
entering the spaces themselves. Supporting this virtual
entry is the narrative which describes how the design is
tropical, highlighting the strategies employed to elicit
natural cross ventilation and capture daylight into interiors
while mitigating heat gain. The narrative is punctuated by
comments of the architects and home owners themselves,
further serving as proofs of the suitability of the design
to its climatic situation. Concluding each feature are
the scaled presentations of floor plans, elevations and
sections overlaid with thermal displacement diagrams,
proving, yet again, how the design is tropical. QR codes
are also provided as access to additional content on the
featured works.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
When mentioned, the works featured in the Philippines
are generally located in Luzon – Antipolo, Metro Manila
and various locations south of the metropolis, with the
furthest located on Verde Island, nestled between Mindoro
and Batangas. All designs were conceived within the first
two decades of the 21st century, save for one project –
Casa de Nipa – which has its provenance in the early 20th
century. The editor qualifies that Casa de Nipa is included
as “the reconstruction [of the house] retains Philippine
vernacular architecture’s hallmark responses to tropical
climate. The local contemporary projects in [the] book are
part of its lineage.”
However, no matter how detailed and graphical the
description, the most acceptable proof that spaces are
indeed tropical is the passage of time. If no electricity-
consuming active means of cooling are added, if spaces
are inhabited even during the hottest part of the day, if
the upkeep of the house over the years is low, only then
can the design be declared as tropical architecture.
And yet this is not the final test. The success of a built
design is best seen not in how it fares in the typical hot
humid everyday, but in the infrequent yet devastating
times of monsoon and typhoon. To truly design with
the tropical climate is to design spaces which will not
only provide comfort, but be a steadfast shelter against
heat, humidity and torrential rain. The curated features
contained in the book fall short of this test through no
fault of the writers. The 21st century has barely begun,
after all, and certainly there are surprises yet to come in
this new millennium.
The beginnings of the argument of what constitutes
tropical design in the contemporary age is present in
Tropical Architecture for the 21st Century. However, there
is still opportunity for the argument to be propelled further,
given that the book is intended to be the first volume of
a Tropical Architecture series. Showcasing works which
demonstrate survival over at least a decade under various
volatile tropical stresses is worth considering given this.
In so doing, the writers of BluPrint will not only curate
what they assert as the “design sourcebook,” but rather
they can also be part of the broader and more contentious
architectural literature on post-occupancy review.
The book and its succeeding volumes can be more than
mere compendia. It and its succeeding publications can
book reviews
be conceived outside of the usual magazine publishing
paradigm. The Tropical Architecture series of BluPrint
has the potential to criticize the claims that architects
make in their designs, to serve as the objective voice in
a discipline whose personalities have the tendency for
self-proclamation. In the evolving concerns of tropical
architecture in the face of climate change, the voice
of objectivity is the needed beacon of reason that will
balance the popular architects’ practice of artistry and
functionality, the accommodation of the intangible with
the practical, and designing for the good of the few as
well as the good of the many. All these constitute the
collective responsibility of designers and its critics over
the sustainability of the built environment, especially as
we move forward into the next decades of the 21st century.
99

Architects in the
Margins
TAO-Pilipinas
ISBN: 9786219590907
Year of Publication: 2018
Bibliographic Infomation: 99 pages, 196 photographs
Reviewed by:
Maureen Anne Araneta
TAO-Pilipinas’ espousal of “development work as an
alternative career path” for the licensed architect, in a
discipline which is commonly practiced as a professional
service in exchange for monetary compensation, is
a defiant challenge against a system of neoliberal
[RE]views
tendencies. Addressing this advocacy to professional
designers and planners is the women-led organization’s
ardent call to convert the hauteured stance of technical
expertise into the catalytic path of technical aid. This
ideology is brought on by the founders’ realization of the
architect’s responsibility “to serve those in need, and those
in most need are the poor. They cannot afford the services
of technical professionals [but] as an architect, [one] can
create change in society.”
This perspective in the practice of architecture falls under
the ideological paradigm called Everyday Urbanism. Such
an idealogy is nothing new, but it is certainly self-effacing.
Douglas Kelbaugh (2001) notes that “Everyday Urbanism
[sees the designer] as an empirical student of the common
and popular rather than the ideal and pure. The design
professional is more of a co-equal participant who feels
privileged to enter the public dialogue, which aspires to be
very open-ended and democratic.”
100 es pa syo 9
With the non-government organization’s founding in
2001 by Arlene Christy Lusterio and Maria Faith Varona,
experiences in participatory planning are documented in
the book Architects in the Margins. The book “shares the
varied and meaningful roles technical professionals take
on in creating and re-creating communities [by giving]
users the power to choose which alternative would work
best for them from among the options available for
security of tenure.”
Imbuing this power to the powerless is especially important
when there are failures in the system – economic inequities,
social marginalization, the unintentional negligence of the
top-down approach, and the devastating effects of natural
disaster – which human agency built on consensus can
fill in. TAO-Pilipinas facilitates community endeavors
through participatory planning, resulting in what is
called the people’s plan, which includes the community’s
selected mode of implementation. The book, written by
the key members of the organization, documents the
projects and partnerships that TAO-Pilipinas entered into
over a span of seventeen years, giving particular focus
on the organization’s involvement with various informal
settlements affected by the Pasig River Rehabilitation
Program in Metro Manila starting in 2002.
There is the insistence among the membership of TAO-
Pilipinas to see themselves as “mere facilitators. Through
a process, we drew out and organized [the community’s]
ideas into a rational plan.” It is the recounting of these
experiences which betrays the seemingly odd mix of
idealism and practicality that marks the organization’s
success as catalysts for change. Perhaps what they have
discovered, and as conveyed by their recollections, is that
to be the facilitator with technical know-how is to be the
facilitator of another’s dreams, and that to be a co-creator
of space is the actualization of the true meaning of service.
There is also the tendency of the facilitator to avoid talking
about themselves, but rather to re-direct attention to
what others would call as beneficiaries, but what TAO-
Pilipinas simply calls the community. As a result, the
book translates into a collection of documentation of the
organization’s efforts with communities, but narrated in so
detached a manner that the purported “love story with the
poor” may be misread as a compilation of dry debriefing
reports on various projects.
But it is by this manner in which idealism and practicality
are married. What are recounted are the challenges
faced by the communities that are aided, which discloses
empathy towards their plight. What is told is an unfolding
of challenges as they are encountered, which suggests that
realities are unequivocally confronted. What is narrated
is the process of participation, not as the indispensable
purview of a single group, but rather, as the paradigm that
any group can follow.
The book is a love story indeed, since true love is
unconditional. And expressing such love through one’s
profession is TAO-Pilipinas’ motivation for true service.
Kelbaugh, D. 2001. Three Urbanisms and the Public
Realm. Proceedings of the 3rd International Space Syntax
Symposium
 An Architect’s Illustrated
Guide to R.A. 9514 Fire
Code of the Philippines
and its IRR
Edison C. M. Padilla
Ferdinand B. Estera
Year of Publication: 2015
Bibliographic Infomation: 106 pages

Reviewed by:
Lucas A. Mangulabnan

Valiantly attempting to navigate and decode the

myriad of provisions of the Fire Code of the Philippines
and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (R.A.
9514 of 2008), Edison Padilla and Ferdinand Estepa,
architects and fire safety advocates, have produced
an illustrated primer that distills the text of the Fire
Code into legible, three-dimensional digital drawings
for the benefit of students and design professionals
alike.

The authors’ experience in chairing and co-chairing

the Committee on Fire and Construction Safety and
the Fire Safety Practitioners Training Committee
at the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP)
gave them an intimate understanding of the
difficulty in implementing the provisions of the
Fire Code, specifically its comprehension by design
professionals and the codes’ enforcers at the national
and municipal levels. Addressing this, the book,
entitled: An Architect’s Illustrated Guide to R.A. 9514:
Primer on Means of Egress serves as a companion to
the Fire Code and clarifies provisions that are often
misunderstood by designers and officials. The graphic
representations minimize these misunderstandings
in the interpretation of the Fire Code. The illustrations,
thoroughly informed with research into local and
international codes, as well as inputs from members
of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), allow the reader
to visualize the spatial implications of the codes’ text,
while facilitating a deeper understanding of the nature
of fire safety and the importance of an unobstructed,
direct, means of egress in a building.
book reviews
While the Illustrated Guide to R.A. 9514 is a noble
attempt by Padilla and Estera at improving the
legibility of codified fire safety design practices,
there is much to be desired in the books’ graphic
organization and formatting. We look forward to a
future edition that is concise and comprehensive
to aid legibility. In doing so, the authors can better
achieve their ultimate goal of protecting lives and
property for the common good.

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18 101

 Regulating Colonial
Spaces (1565-1944)
Gerard Lico
Lorelei De Viana
Publisher: National Commission for Culture and the Arts
ISBN: 978-971-814-225-7
Year of Publication: 2017
Bibliographic Infomation: 367 pages, paperback

Reviewed by:
Elijah Joshua Benjamin D.F. Aban

Regulating Colonial Spaces (1565-1944): A Collection of

Laws, Decrees, Proclamations, Ordinances, Orders and
Directives on Architecture and the Built Environment During
the Colonial Eras in the Philippines will give its readers a
double deal.

The book is a compilation of primary source documents of

laws and provisions on how each colonial power shaped
each place the country has to offer. From the onset, the
title delimits the book’s scope. With a concise timeframe,
the book’s essence is to present the relationship of the
resources found within. The reader will also see the
metamorphosis of the places crafted through colonial
policy and how each colonial power projected their visions
of supremacy and authority on the colonized through
spatial manipulation. On the other hand, it also gives the
readers an empirical vision of how the former colonizers—
Spain, America, and Japan—managed the economic and
administrative landscapes that sustained their imperial
ambitions.

Anchoring the vast collection of sources are the

introductory essays by Lorelei De Viana and Gerard Lico.
De Viana’s introduction to the Spanish Period dissected
and defined Spain’s purpose on the Philippine Archipelago,
presenting a historiographic visualization of Spanish
initiatives in crafting a new colonial showpiece in the
Far East. Gerard Lico then gives a brief introduction and
commentary on the American Period. His nuanced
interpretation gives the readers a critical insight about
the Americanization of the Philippines as manifested in
architectural and urban design policies. His use of theories,
[RE]views

particularly the architectural analyses and biopolitics of

Foucault, imbued the text with discursive excitement.
The last section on the Japanese Occupation, also by
Gerard Lico, shows the Japanese government’s attempt
at stamping out western influences, albeit superficially, in
its short tenure in the country, ultimately ending in the
destruction of the Second World War.

Numerous accounts come to mind in the search for

literature on the former colonizers of the Philippines.
What is remarkable about Lico and De Viana’s book is that
it grounds the complexities of legalese in the context of
colonial architecture and urbanism. The book provides
a mirroring of the colonial spatial experience with the
current situation of the local built environment. This
book not only provides a compendium of past policies but
demonstrates an exercise in interpreting the spatiality of
power relations, shedding light on the historical experience
of space vis-à-vis the present.

102 es pa syo 9
Manila Cathedral: A
Legacy of Architecture
and Faith
December 8, 2017 - November 28, 2018
Manila Cathedral, Intramuros, Manila
Gerard Lico (curator/designer)
Exhibition Review by:
Lucas A. Mangulabnan
The public was given a rare glimpse into the rich history of
the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros through a compelling,
strikingly illustrated exhibit that narrated the cathedrals’
magnificent rise from the ruins of its destruction in World War
II; with video, text, archival photographs, memorabilia, and
artifacts.The exhibit, entitled: “Manila Cathedral: A Legacy of
Architecture and Faith” commemorates the 60th anniversary
of the post-war metropolitan cathedral church’s dedication in
1958 and the 437th anniversary of the 1581 founding of the
Manila Cathedral.
Destroyed seven times by fire, earthquake, and war in its
long, 437-year history, the Manila Cathedral has always been
rebuilt—grander and more majestic than the last inception.
In 1945, what remained of the 7th cathedral was only the
crumbling, arched façade and portions of the perimeter walls.
Miraculously saved from American bulldozers in the late
40’s, the remains of the cathedral became the springboard
of historical affinity and aesthetic continuity with the new
cathedral designed by Fernando Ocampo on the same site,
which broke ground in 1954. The construction commenced in
1956, under Archbishop Rufino Cardinal Santos using funds
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
from private donations and war reparations. With a daily labor
force of 250 workers and costing 3.7 Million pesos, the eighth
Manila Cathedral opened its doors on the 8th of December
1958: The Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Exhibition
Divided into intimately-sized segments, the exhibit is spread
across three side chapels at the Manila Cathedral, namely the
Sta. Potenciana, the St. Jude, and the Blessed Souls chapels.
exhibition reviews
The entire exhibit was made striking by its scarlet panels—it
being the color of cardinals, and the Episcopate of Manila being
the first in the Philippines to be honored with the distinction.
Its minimalist aesthetic and bold red hue contrasted with the
sandstone-colored walls and marble floors of the chapels,
highlighting the archival photographs and memorabilia on
display while framed within the ornate art and architecture of
the chapels.
Upon entry into the first installment in the Sta. Potenciana
chapel, a sumptuously illustrated graphic timeline led the
viewer through the cathedral’s tumultuous cycles of rebuilding
and destruction, culminating in the present-day completion of
restoration and modernization work; impressing on the viewer
a sense of awe to the longevity and resilience of the cathedral
and the faithful.
Harking back to the pre-war 7th cathedral, archival
photographs from the 1880’s to the 1930’s were on display,
as well as the original Molave statuary from the façade.
Fragments of architectural elements recovered from the
rubble were displayed, immersing the viewer in the period.
War and Re[Genesis]
The death and destruction brought about by the Battle of
Manila in 1945 was illustrated by photographs and an archival
video and opened the second segment of the exhibit in the
St. Jude chapel. Recounting the damage brought upon the
103
 cathedral and the city, powerful images brought a sense of
awe to the viewer. Particularly poignant was a photograph
which depicted the four main cathedral pillars standing
defiantly amidst the stone and metal debris.
Recapturing the hope and optimism of the 1950’s, the
exhibit then looked towards the cathedral’s reconstruction,
highlighting the art, architecture, and iconography of the
new cathedral, through the architectural plans and model of
Fernando Ocampo, the brand-new Dutch-made pipe organ,
and the original sketches of the stained-glass windows by
Galo Ocampo.
The display of Fernando Ocampo’s blueprints of the new
cathedral, coupled with photos of hand-drawn perspectives,
and a white scaled model of the new cathedral magnified the
sense of a renewal in the faithful; with the community coming
together in a shared endeavor.
Commemorating the momentous celebrations with the
groundbreaking (1954) and re-opening (1958) of the cathedral,
the third segment of the exhibit in the Blessed Souls chapel
presented various memorabilia, including the trowel used
by Cardinal Quiroga, then the Papal legate to the Marian
Congress in Manila, to lay the cornerstone of the cathedral.
The original dedication and blessing document, handwritten
in Spanish with elaborate calligraphy, read:
“On the eighth of December of the year of
the Lord of nineteen hundred and fifty-four,
The feast of the Immaculate Conception and
closing of the Marian Year (1953-1954) in
commemoration of the first Centenary of the
dogma of the Immaculate; gloriously reigning
his sanctity Pope Pius XII,... [T]he Second
Marian National Congress of the Philippines
blessed and placed the cornerstone of this
cathedral church rebuilt according to the
plans of the famous architect and engineer
Mr. Don Fernando Ocampo, on the ruins of the
previous one rebuilt in 1870, and demolition
in the year 1945 during the reconquest of
Manila by the North American forces, in
the Second World War, this being the sixth
reconstruction”
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104 es pa syo 9
Fragility and Restoration
Moving to the present, the exhibit underscored the frailty of
buildings as objects subject to constant external threats and
decay; and relates that restoration is necessary to prolong the
life of the cathedral as an architectural legacy and monument
to memory.
As the viewer has seen, the cathedral has borne witness to
cycles of destruction and rebuilding. If anything is to be
learned from the past, it is that buildings are at the mercy of
the forces of man and nature.
To the surprise of many, the cathedral closed its doors in
February 2012 to undergo a much-needed restoration that
would address issues that threatened the structural integrity
of the cathedral. The two-year closure allowed the cathedral to
renew itself by undergoing an extensive series of conservation
procedures, structural retrofitting, and technological upgrades.
This was demonstrated in a wall-mounted video presentation
outlining the rehabilitation works executed from 2012-2014.
The exhibit concludes with the reopening of the cathedral in
2014: The cathedral was restored to harmonize with Fernando
Ocampo’s vision, and continues to be a source of artistic
delight and spiritual inspiration for generations to come.”
The exhibit, possessing a broad collection of materials,
photographs, and artifacts, retold the fascinating history
of the Manila Cathedral. It was meticulously organized to
unravel spatially in sync with the tread of the pious viewer or
curious onlooker; experientially crossing temporal boundaries
within the confines of the three marble-floored chapels—a
fitting commemoration for the Cathedral’s Diamond Jubilee.
Mañosa: Beyond
Architecture
February 12, 2017 - May 12, 2017
National Museum of Fine Arts
Gerard Lico (curator)
Exhibition Review by:
Sam Rañosa
Before his passing at the age of 88, Francisco Mañosa was able
to turn galleries of National Museum into a repertory to his
lifelong works as Beyond Architecture sets here in 2017, a year
before he became National Artist. It might be momentarily
overlooked, yet an interesting aspect of the exhibition is how it
communicates Mañosa’s depth of experience by enabling the
museum spaces. The architect’s body of works conveniently
assumed the constraining boundaries of the museum through
the uses of graphic, filmic and dioramic representations,
or ones that reduce architecture into visual objects while
allowing gazes to capture its images visually.
The manner pieces are assembled became narratives that
extols its renowned maker who pioneered of neovernacularism
in architecture, or the philosophy of application of the
vernacular concepts and principles into contemporary
architecture. Premised at the entrance is Mañosa’s thriving
story in a timeline which charted the highlights of his
professional career. The entire exhibition is clustered into
themes varying the aspects of the architect’s philosophies
and practice, while implicating gestures of answering the text
“Why Filipino?” in a panel that confronts one upon entering
the exhibition premises. The first segments show a younger
Mañosa who speaks in a couple of pre-recorded videos, some
are projected in panels, while others are played in screens.
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
This is where the architect would discuss a rationale to
his concepts as he introduced a shift in the traditions of
architecture particularly in design development. He disrupts
the predominant practices of appropriation to foreign styles
as he returned to the vernacular as sources of architectural
knowledge and cultural identity.
Halfway through the exhibition gives light to Mañosa’s
dictum — I design Filipino, nothing else. Randomly placed
here are architectural models that act to represent the
exhibition reviews
architect’s designed structures. These miniatures make his
neovernacular style more ostensible, where the modern is
mediated with the local intelligence in construction and
inherited traits from the vernacular prototypes. His analogy
of form provides more literal approaches, and constructs
a pastoral air with a rustic appeal against urban settings.
This results to architectural translations such as San Miguel
Headquarters in Mandaluyong that is adapated from the rice
terraces, and the bamboo torch (sulo) inspired Centennial
Tower that was supposedly in Luneta. This principle is also
applied to his recollections of Maranao and Cordillera houses
in the Sulo Hotel and LRT-1 Stations, among his wide range
of designed projects which could make a repertoire of private
residential houses and social functions such as Catholic
churches, offices and various institutional buildings.
Most challenging prospect in the exhibition perhaps
was forwarding a notion of the Filipino space concept of
maaliwalas to consider a limited and enclosed space. In this
attempt, a documented film is projected in a panel that
simulates the premises of some his works. As the film can
be efficient in demonstrating the concept’s visual properties,
it finds difficulty in providing holistic understanding of the
phenomenon of maaliwalas as space is experiential. Exploring
the concept of aliwalas requires one to experience (danas) its
non-visual qualities. Open spaces might be efficient venues
to demonstrate Mañosa’s approaches in obtaining such
phenomenon. Patriotic, ingenious and an austere believer
of Filipino genius in architecture, but it may be forgotten
105
 that Mañosa also plays musical instruments and designed
furniture and wooden toys back in the 1970’s as showcased
in the last segment of the exhibition. Lugar ng Laro reveals
the architect’s extensive artistic potentials, tantamount
to the likes of multi-disciplined Renaissance artists. He is
an architect who is preoccupied with many possibilities in
art making beyond architecture, that is after all, makes a
significant conclusion that underscores the exhibition’s title.

Curator and author Cecilia dela Paz explains that museum

spaces transform authentic cultures from “everyday life”
into “displayed life”. Museums can be selective of the works
that shall be exposed and these objects can be used in the
principle of projecting a certain image to its audience. National
Museum serves a pedestal where objects are elevated in the
status of national treasures and emblems, as it is instituted
in the spirit of the national consciousness to be repository to
cultural heritage. Situating Francisco Mañosa and his works in
this context, is in a way, an act of ordaining the architect as a
national icon and his body of works to be symbolic of national
identity. The museum becomes the agent that propels the
architect’s nationalistic ideology to the viewing public.

Mañosa’s patriotism has further ignited the cultural pride that

is particularly evident from a nation that has experienced a
long history of colonization, and from the cultures that have
been dominated by the hegemonic ones. Responses from
various social media postings related to the exhibition are
even expressive of nationalistic sentiments, like singer Gary
Valenciano shares his thoughts for the Centennial Tower in an
Instagram post. The singer regarded the proposal as a “powerful
by showcasing a possibility through the efforts of a dedicated
statement to the world” or probably a tourism landmark that
advocate like Mañosa. But while the exhibition further
has potentials of being the country’s representation through
establishes the National Artist, it does not give conclusion to
this unbuilt monumental edifice.
the architect’s endeavors of redefining Filipino in architecture,
but rather become a reminder of a task that has remained
The exhibition helps in presencing the practices of architecture
contestable amid the palimpsest of cultures in the country
in the country that is usually unseen, and which processes
that are equally challenged in the event of globalization.
operate in the contained boundaries of the studios and offices.
Perhaps, aside from the exhibition’s responses to the question
The crowd navigating in the exhibition consisted of mostly
of “why Filipino?”, I feel that it would make more substance
architecture students, academicians and some industry
once we help this question answered by further determining
professionals who are tentatively observing the displays and
what would be relevant for a Filipino, by defining how is it to
taking pictures, are probably present to find sense belonging
live as a Filipino.
through reflecting traces of similarities, recognition amid the
toil and crudeness of the modern architecture practices, or
Moreover, cultural identity in architecture shall not only be
direction from the life of an established figure in the same
radiated in the facades. By looking at the images of Mañosa’s
profession. In this aspect, Mañosa’s exhibition served an
architecture, we might neglect an understanding of the
ephemeral locus for such acts of searching for relevance.
totality of architecture as form. Architecture is a lived form
rather than mere visuals, not like paintings and sculptures in
Occurring in a timely period, the exhibition becomes a graceful
the museum. Meanings will be found as we live in its spaces,
act that preludes the architect’s conferment of the Order of the
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as we subject our senses in the realities of architectural space.

National Artist, likewise to his passing. Beyond Architecture
It is always a better way we can understand architecture
reinforces the public consciousness of Philippine Architecture
completely, by experiencing the space.

106 es pa syo 9
The City Who Had Two
Navels
May 26, 2018 - November 25, 2018
Arsenale di Venezia
Edson Cabalfin (curator)
Exhibition Review by:
Paulo Alcazaren
The Philippine participation at the 16th Venice Architecture
Biennale was formally introduced at the National Commission
for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in Intramuros in May 2018.
The project was spearheaded by Senator Loren Legarda, and
NCCA Chairman Virgilio Almario. The Philippine Pavilion was
curated by Dr. Edson Cabalfin.
Cabalfin calls the Philippine pavilion The City Who Had Two
Navels. It is, as he puts it, “…a critical response to Joaquin’s
important literary work …and highlights the two “navels”
that are in constant dialogue: first, how colonialism impacts
the formation of the built environment; and second, how the
process of neo-liberalization alters the urban landscape.” He
further expounded that the concept follows, “… the call for
examining an idea of ‘Freespace’ set by the Biennale overall
curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. The Philippine
Pavilion seeks to interrogate architecture and urbanism’s
ability to empower and transform people’s lives.
“Freespace” or “Pookginhawa” in the Philippine context
underscores the strategies by which Filipinos use the built
environment as modes of resistance and appropriation in
the face of an ever-changing world.” The pavilion’s exhibits
were curated and designed by Cabalfin but augmented by
installations of a select group of future architects, planners
and designers, who were asked “to respond to the two “navels”
in the exhibition.”
The group was made up of Yason Banal, contemporary artist
and filmmaker; TAO (Technical Assistance Organization)
Pilipinas, Inc. a women-led, non-stock, non-profit, non-
government organization that assists urban and rural poor
communities; students and faculty from the De La Salle-
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND ALLIED ARTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 2017-18
College of Saint Benilde, the University of San Carlos-School
of Architecture, Fine Arts and Design, the University of the
Philippines Diliman, College of Architecture, the University
of the Philippines Mindanao, Department of Architecture.
Representatives from the schools also spoke briefly at the
event and outlined the areas of the city they interrogated
within the context of the curatorial direction.
The physical installation was a large square room, divided
by two oval convex free-standing panels, almost the entire
length of the room. These panels contained the projects of
the groups chosen to work on new ideas, which created an
area centered around Yason Banal’s video of landmarks within
and around the greater Metro Manila area.
exhibition reviews
The Commissioner of the Philippine Pavilion is Virgilio
Almario, head of the NCCA and Filipino National Artist for
Literature. Almario noted that, “…the Philippine Pavilion
places a spotlight on the discussion of how our cities have
transformed, an important global conversation seeing how
more than fifty per cent of the world’s population live in urban
settlements.”
Senator Legarda acknowledged the NCCA, the Department
of Foreign Affairs, and the Philippine Arts in Venice Biennale
(PAVB) Coordinating Committee for supporting her advocacy
and helping her turn this vision for Philippine culture, vis-à-vis
participation in the Biennale, into reality.
“As an advocate of the preservation of Philippine heritage,
I see architecture as a crucial element in building equitable,
sustainable and inclusive societies. Through our participation
in this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, we relate our truths
as we also learn from the realities of other nations. It serves
as a reminder of how architecture is not only about building
structures but also about inspiring life, shaping society, and
building a nation,” said Legarda.
Contemplating our architectural navels may indeed bring
enlightenment and lead us down the right path to create
viable constructs for nation, community, and identity.
107
 Framing the Spectacle
of Space: Juan Arellano,
Architect - Painter
October 28, 2017 - December 29, 2017
Metropolitan Museum of Manila
Gerard Lico (curator)
Exhibition Review by:
Edgar Allan M. Sembrano
Renowned American-era architect Juan Arellano has been
given a fitting tribute at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila
in the exhibit “Framing the Spectacle of Space, Juan Arellano:
Architect - Painter” featuring his works that define an era in
[RE]views
Philippine architectural history.
The exhibition which ran from October 28 to December 29,
2017 presents images, blueprints, and scale models of iconic
structures designed by Arellano in varied styles of that period
notably Neoclassical and Art Deco, and its later type, the
Streamline Moderne.
The exhibit’s curator Gerard Lico said “Framing” is about the
part played by Arellano’s works in the context of theatricality
and spectacle. The exhibition, he added “tackled the role of
Art Deco and the Metropolitan Theater in the formation of
national identity during the American colonial period.”
In his book “Arkitekturang Filipino: A History of Architecture
and Urbanism in the Philippines” published by the University
of the Philippines Press in 2008, Lico notes that Arellano
could actually be the “most creative and architecturally gifted
among first generation Filipino architects.”
Arellano ventured into the Neoclassic as well as the Beaux Arts
and Art Deco architectural styles but added local elements to
a number of buildings he designed.
108 es pa syo 9
“As an architect, he was credited in appropriating Western
architectural styles within local requirements and resorting
into stylized native motifs and forms in his works, thus
contributing to a highly nuanced idioms of neoclassic, art
deco, and nativist aesthetics in Philippine architecture,”
explained Lico.
Arellano’s nativist tendencies can be gleaned in the
Metropolitan Theater’s batik mosaic patterns, mango and
banana reliefs, and bamboo banister railings as well as in
government buildings across the country such as the old
Cotabato City hall which has elements of Tausug origin.
Aside from the Metropolitan Theater, his notable works include
the old Meralco Building on Marcelino Street in Manila, now
demolished, Legislative Building (now National Museum of Fine
Arts), old Jones Bridge, and the Manila Post Office Building.
He likewise designed the Manila Yacht Club buildings, Supreme
Court Building, Benitez and Malcolm halls of the University of
the Philippines in Diliman, and the Rizal Memorial Stadium
among others. Arellano also worked with his brother Arcadio
on the Gota de Leche Building, the old Casino Español, and the
Hospicio de San Jose building in Binondo.
Unknown to many, Arellano was also a painter, an aquarellist
to be exact or an artist who uses transparent watercolor
in their works. His 1913 work “A Forest” is considered one of
the first impressionist paintings done by a Filipino artist. In
impressionism, an artist tries to accurately paint visual reality,
adjusting to the colors and tones of the subjects as these are
normally done outside of a studio. Renowned artists using this
style include Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Paul
Cézanne. His paintings displayed at the Met Museum exhibit
include A Forest; Lake Como (1951), Two Disciples at Emmaus,
and an untitled work.
Also displayed are the various costumes recovered during the
early stages of the Metropolitan Theater restoration project.