Tropical Fever

I’m suffering from mall-itis. Too much time spent in malls these past two weeks has made me a bit crazy. I’ve had to run around looking for stuff to furnish my new apartment with. I had prioritized my house moving, starting with what I considered the most necessary for my existence – my books and research materials. Forty-five thousand pesos worth of bookshelves later, I realized I did not have much else – you know, items like a bed, chairs and tables, TV, stereo and, yes, those kitchen things.

I promptly considered marriage again if only to get out of spending for cutlery, stove, ref, microwave, toaster and the like. It would have been a marriage of appliance. But sadly, I figured the effort of courtship, ceremonies and all that niggly nuptial nonsense would have made me even worse off. (Besides, where would I put the wife in such a small apartment?) Worse still was that it would take a miracle to reduce the image of a library that my flat had taken. I had to make over my place to give it a semblance of a person living there and not just books.

So what did I do? When in doubt about anything – I consult a book. This was not just any book. I turned to the new one by Liz Reyes (who is turning out to be the most prolific writer of coffeetable books on Filipino design hereabouts). Her latest effort is a follow-up to the best-selling Tropical Style, though it is not a sequel. Leafing through its lush, image-filled pages proves that it provides an even more sumptuous feast than its predecessor.

Fun, Fusion & Fulfilling Furnishings

Tropical Interiors goes inside contemporary Filipino homes to present an emerging Filipino style in furniture and accessories that is already being hailed in the west as the best from this part of the globe. Filipino artists, crafts people, furniture makers, sculptors and designers are creating, pounding, carving and almost literally weaving a name for themselves and all new things Filipino.

This creative bunch comes from centers of traditional crafts, not just from Manila. Cebu, Negros, Davao and other points in the north and south are producing the most delightful and seductive new products, which are elegantly featured in the book. The book presents an "embarrassment of riches" that we have in traditional materials like abaca, piña, shell, seagrass, bamboo and rattan. These are being transformed into magical materials that give a new twist and tang to modern geometry and function in Philippine furnishings.

Liz Reyes features the movers and the shakers, or rather the movements and tradition-breakers, in this newly evolved and still evolving style that fuses traditional and natural materials, modern technology and Filipino flair. She points to and features the work of the design consortium of "Movement 8" designers and others like Budji Layug, Kenneth Cobonpue, Ann Pamintuan, Leo Yao, Chito Vijandre, Val Padua, Carlo Cordaro, Lor Calma, Ramon Castellanos, Allan Murillo, furniture-makers/sculptors like Claude Tayag, Benji Reyes, craftspeople like Debbie Palau, Corito Escario-Yu, Lanelle Abueva, Christina Gaston, Dita Sandico-Ong, Sason, Ugu Bigyan, Tats Manahan, among a growing number of talents – who are making us all realize that we do not have to gaze beyond our balmy shores for inspiration in achieving modern/urban/elegant/tropical and fulfilling lifestyles. Yes, good design can do all that.

Getting Personal

The book is a source book, a picture book, a DIY reference with panache and a good bargain too (considering that its selling price at the bookstore is just a tad more than the cost of two foreign design magazines). The book provides a great variety of settings that mere city/apartment-dwellers like myself can use to emulate style (if we don’t have any) or elegance (even if we lack an elegant budget). If you cannot afford the stuff (a handy index to suppliers and designers complete with e-mail addresses and websites is provided on the last page), you can always improvise, appropriate or adapt – exactly the same process these designers go through anyway.

On a personal, utilitarian level, I love the way natural materials like rattan and bamboo, abaca and seagrass are used in modernist geometries by these new designers. They make for furniture and accessories that fit better in space-challenged apartments like mine. I also like the fact that we have finally broken out of the box, creating things that are lighter, brighter and airier. Magaan sa dating, magaan tingnan! What marks Filipino design is supposed to be what many architectural scholars say is a "lightness of being."

I hope that these "enlightened" stylistic trends filter down to the furniture available in the IKEA clones at our local mega malls. Some of the smaller items are already available. I’ve bought abaca rugs and hardwood accessories and I’m waiting to try out my own version of tropical elegant/eclectic. Besides, browns, khakis and natural colors have always been my palette of choice, no matter what stylista Elsa what’s-her-name says is the color of the year. You don’t have to be rich (or a bitch) to be stylish.

Going back to the book – it has loads, too, of visual richness and style. The pictures in this book are by Hong Kong-based photographer Chester Ong, who was also responsible for the images in Tropical Living. The images and spreads in this new book are in fact richer and more engaging. This may be because the focus is more on the details of furniture and settings. More likely it is because the settings were styled by Aida Concepcion. Aida, who is better known as the one of the country’s top production designers, is also an interior designer by training (PSID). She lends a natural creative touch that Chester captures in images that flow smoothly with Liz’s writing. (This book is a reunion of sorts for Chester and Aida. Both had worked earlier in their careers with tres cool photographer Raymund Isaac.)

Going Global

Beyond richness and style, texture and taste, the book also charts the audacious course that modern Filipino designers and craftspeople are taking. They are making waves, as Liz Reyes reports, in waters far from these 7,000 islands. Tropical Interiors, says Liz, celebrates Filipino interior design, "Filipino’s soulful creativity – the invention, experimentation and individuality of designs that swim ahead of the rest."

Feedback on the new Filipino Style from western design centers like Milan, New York and even Asian centers like Hong Kong and Singapore has been in the form of rave reviews and increasing volumes of orders. Filipino furniture has gone globally cutting-edge, breaking through barriers to a world market beyond mere exportation of raw materials or OCW labor (which includes a good number of Filipino architects, interior designers and craftspeople).

I can’t wait to finish doing up my apartment. I’m looking now to accessorize with some of those geomorphic lamps, maybe Ugu Bigyan pottery and local artwork (which I’ve commissioned after some brotherly negotiations with Johnny Alcazaren). I don’t think I can venture into another mall for a couple of months. Besides, I’m almost done decoratin’. If all else fails I’ll just display my copy of Tropical Interiors on my minimalist (budget) coffee table. That alone will give my living room a touch of class.

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Tropical Interiors, published by Periplus Singapore, is available at National Book Store and Bibliarch branches.

Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at citysensephilstar@hotmail.com.