History of Architecture 04

Essay 03

Topic: Spanish Colonial Architecture

Duration: 1 week

 Essay
 450 - 500 words
 Word document, A4 size
 Font: Times New Roman
 Font size: 12
 1.5 Spacing
 1” margin all sides
 Name and section, top left corner
 Title

Guide Questions:

1. Discuss briefly Spanish colonization/colonialism in the Philippines.

2. Discuss the Spanish authorities’ resettlement policy Reduccion.
3. Discuss the Laws of the Indies.
4. What is Spanish Colonial Architecture?
5. What is Maestro de Obras?
6. What is Arquitectura Mestiza?
7. Describe the bahay na bato.
8. Given a chance to design a Spanish contemporary structure, what design element will you

THE PHILIPPINES THEN AND NOW

The Philippines was very lucky because our country was rich in natural resources. And that is the reason
why many foreign countries had colonized our country. Spain is one of the foreign countries that
colonized our country for more than three hundred years. They are the reason why Filipinos
experienced suffered, hardship, persecution etc. during their colonization. But the Spanish had also
contributed good things in our country specially to us Filipinos.

Reducción aimed to consolidate colonial control over Philippine indigenous communities by compelling
prominent individuals to relocate into poblaciones within hearing distance of church-bells. Bell ringing
ordered daily life by signaling times to congregate and by marking special occasions.
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Reduccion policies - in areas where Filipinos lived scattered across the landscape in small hamlets, the
Spanish military employed a resettlement policy that they had used successful. This policy was called
reduccion, and essentially meant a forced relocation of small, scattered settlements into one larger
town.

· The policy was designed for the convenience of administration of the Spanish colony's population, a
way for a small number of armed Spanish constabulary to control more easily the movements and
actions of a large number of Filipinos.

· It was also designed to enable Spain to collect taxes from their Christianized converts. Throughout
Spanish rule, Christianized Filipinos were forced to pay larger taxes than indios, or native, unchristian
zed peoples.

· The policy also made it easier for a single Spanish Catholic friar to 'train' Filipinos in the basic principles
of Christianity.
The policy was successful in some areas but impossible to enforce. Spanish archives are full of
exasperated colonial officials complaining about how such settlements were 'all but abandoned' in many
cases after only a few weeks.

The Spanish Colonial is the ancestor of our ranch-style house. Limited ornamentation.
Ornamentation on these informal homes was often limited to arches on entranceways, principal
windows and interior passageways. More elaborate homes might feature intricate stone or tile
work, detailed chimney tops and square towers.

During three hundred thirty years of Spanish colonialization, the Philippine architecture
was dominated by the Spanish influences. The Augustinian friars, along with other religious
orders, built many grand churches and cathedrals all over the Philippine Islands.

Architecture in the Philippines hails from centuries-long of absorbing influences from its
colonizers. Being under the Spanish regime for more than 300 years, the Spanish colonial
period brought a huge impact on the architectural style still seen on many structures like
churches, houses, government buildings, and many others today. Here, let’s discover more
about the characteristics of Spanish colonial architecture in the Philippines, a part of the
various influences and cultures that makes the country a genuine melting pot of
architectural design.
Pre-Hispanic Era
Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the earliest records of architecture in the Philippines
were primarily caves and rock shelters. Early Filipino were nomadic. They had permanent
abode and had to move from one place to another to find food, either by fishing or hunting.
As such, they didn’t require to build actual structures and rather depended on nature for
shelter.

As tools and farming became available to get a stable source of food, settlements started to
arise. Filipinos began building fixed structures as their houses. Native houses were primarily
built on stilts, usually rectangular in shape. Being an archipelago composed of 7,107
islands, the materials used for these native houses varied immensely, depending on the
topography and climate.

With that, there are many differences between houses created by the people in the valleys
of Ifugao, the nipa hut of Filipinos in the lowlands, and the Maranao’s intricate torogan
(house of the nobilities), mala-a-walay (big house), and lawig (small house). Meanwhile, the
Mindanao region already saw the creation of stunning mosques with the religion of Islam
emerging even prior to Spanish colonization.

Architecture, as practiced in the Philippines during the Spanish era, was not by virtue of an
academic title. There were no architectural schools in the country and the only architects with
academic degrees were Spaniards. However, the first Filipino recorded architect was Felix
Roxas y Arroyo of Binondo, Manila. The closest the Filipino could aspire to practice as an
architect was as Maestro de Obras or Master Builder. The first academic school to train these
maestros was the Escuela Practica y Professional de Artes y Oficio de Manila, founded by the
Spanish government in 1880.

Maestro de obras: Architecture in the Spanish Era It was in the century when Miguel de Lopez and the
Spaniards claimed the Philippines as a colony of their country. After being a colony of Spain within a
span of 333 years. Many of their culture was adapted here in our country, one if it was their
architecture. Spanish colonial architecture reflects Filipino identity mostly through the Religious
Architecture. As what the world knows, Philippines is the only Catholic country in Southeast Asia; thus,
most of our structures all over the archipelago were Catholic Churches due to the influence of
Catholicism. Filipino Identity was basically patterned from the Spanish. During the late 16 ^ m century,
Spaniards bordered the city with spiked log palacel, and built inside civic and secular structures out of
bamboo and fatch. After a while the stone walled metropolis , the Spanish walled city, Intramuros, was
erected. Many of the structures that were built was heavily influenced by Spaniards. I think that one of
the most prominent are the Churches. We can see catholic churches in every corner of the Philippines.
Most of the colonial churches has parts like these: altar mayor; sagrario ; altares menores; koro ; and
more. Other than churches, many other architectural feats were adapted by our ancestors. One of this is
building houses or structures out of stone and tile. Another one is that one of the first building
regulations in the Philippines was implemented through a decree, made by King Philip , called Law of the
Indes. I think that this also laid down the foundation for building codes here in the Philippines.

It is one of the many architecture throughout the Spanish Empire known as Arquitectura
mestiza. The style is a hybrid of Austronesian, Spanish, and Chinese; and later, with early 20th-
century American architecture, supporting the fact that the Philippines is a result of these
cultures mixing together.
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Bahay na bato is a type of building originating during the Philippines'

Spanish Colonial Period. It is an updated version of the traditional bahay
kubo. Its design has evolved throughout the ages, but still maintains
the bahay kubo's architectural basis which corresponds to the tropical
climate, stormy season, and earthquake-prone environment of the whole
archipeybrid of Austronesian, Spanish, and Chinese architecture. Its most
common appearance that is organized.