Nestor Jardin, president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, has announced the launch of the New Cultural Center of the Philippines District Design Excellence competition. Open to Filipino architects and allied design professionals, the competition aims to generate schemes for new theaters and related facilities in planned expansion of the present complex we all know as the CCP.
Most people associate the CCP with just one building. The main theater was inaugurated in 1969. It was actually the first of several planned theaters and museum buildings laid out by National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin. This iconic building was followed in the next 10 years by the Folk Arts Theater and then by the Film Center – both structures were not part of the original master plan. Several other large structures were also built – the PICC, the Philippine Plaza and the Coconut Palace. These, too, were not part of the original vision but were add-ons driven by politics and the hubris of that era.
Today, most of these buildings are deteriorating. In 2002, CCP recognized the need to undertake much-needed renewal and redevelopment of this premier cultural site. The center commissioned a renowned Filipino planning firm – PROS, led by architects Manny Mañosa and Ronnie Manahan – to prepare a business and master development plan. In 2004, this master plan was finally approved and the CCP is now preparing to undertake its implementation.
The acceptance of this master plan has led to a capital opportunity to bring out the best in Filipino design. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Committee on Architecture and the Allied Arts, led by architect Tina Turalba, has joined hands with the CCP and initiated a design competition for the first two clusters of the new master plan.
Since the "New Cultural Center District" is conceptualized as primarily a complex of facilities in a landscape setting, the design competition brings a third and important primary proponent – the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects, with national president Mary Anne Espina handling this competition directly for the CCP and the NCCA.
In addition to these parties, the competition is sanctioned by all the important national design associations – the United Architects of the Philippines, the Philippine Institute of Architects, the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners and the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers.
The competition will be open in two categories: professional and students. The student category will be administered by all the schools of architecture in the country who will each select three entries from among their students.
Professionals can join as a group of individuals or as a registered architectural firm or partnership. All those who join have to be registered architects with updated licenses, and teams shall have a minimum of two members and a maximum of five. In all cases, after the registered architect, at least one member should be a registered landscape architect. Other optional team members, to complement the effort, shall be environmental planners and interior designers, all of whom should also be licensed. (The complete competition kit containing the terms of reference and the CCP design guidelines along with registration forms are available at the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects; call 922-4196 or 922-4157).
The competition will be in two stages. The first stage is for both students and professionals, and involves general concepts only. The submission is on July 1 for professionals and September 1 for students. The students’ submissions will be judged based on only this one stage while the professionals will be whittled down to seven semifinalists, all of whom will be given P 100,000 each to continue to the next and final stage of the competition. This second stage will end on October 14. Three winners will be selected, in no order or rank, and each will be given a final prize of another P100,000.
The winning student and professional entries will be featured in an exhibit at the CCP in December and will also be featured in a special edition of BluPrint magazine.
Although there is no guarantee that any of the winning entries will be the basis for the actual commission and construction, the competition will yield a bumper crop of entries, stir the creative juices of Filipino architects and landscape architects and give Filipino design a boost in the eyes of the public. It is this public, the private sector, that benefits from their patronage and a government that is supposed to support the arts that will also benefit from having the CCP and the arts in the spotlight once more.
Eventually, we all hope that the exercise will lead to the implementation of this master plan for a true cultural center for the metropolis and the nation. Metro Manila will benefit from this proposed new district – one that owes its existence to more than just politics or profit but loftier motives of providing open green space, world-class performance venues and design for future city life that focuses on culture and not just crass commercialism.