Tropical modern architecture
December 10, 2005 | 12:00am
There is more to celebrate today than just our amazing showing at the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games. The Filipino’s golden talent was acknowledged recently not just in sports but also in culture and the arts. This is shown by the recent triumphs of furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue – who won the 2005 Design for Asia Award in Hong Kong for his innovative Lolah chair, which bested entries from 22 countries and regions – and film producer-scriptwriter Raymond Lee for his Blossoming of Maximo Olivares, which won the Best Film at the Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF) in Singapore last month, beating 233 submissions from 35 countries.
There’s more to celebrate. A new coffee-table book was launched last week at the Gil Coscolluela-designed LibertyStile showroom by international publisher Periplus. The book, 25 Tropical Houses in the Philippines, highlights 25 fantastic modern houses by 19 trend-setting Filipino architects and designers. It is the first of a series showcasing cutting-edge modernism from tropical Asia to be distributed internationally. That the Philippines was chosen as the initial offering is testimony to our standing as the region’s fountainhead of architectural and design talent. And the book’s images and text clearly show why.
The main author of the book is the celebrated writer Elizabeth Reyes. It is the third book she has put together for Periplus on the subject of Philippine architecture and furnishings (Tropical Living and Tropical Interiors precede the new one). Her equally acclaimed collaborator on the project is photographer Chester Ong, who is based in Hong Kong and shoots for international publications. Chester is Filipino but like Liz has extensively worked in the region and on numerous book projects covering travel, lifestyle and leisure.
I had the pleasure of working with Chester and Liz on the first book in 2000 and now on this splendid volume (I wrote the introductory chapter). The work started with an extensive search for modern tropical residential design. Liz and the publishers knew that beyond the resort homes featured in the first book and the award-winning furniture and accessory designs in the second that there was a treasure trove of new house designs that the Philippines could show off to the world.
It was an embarrassment of riches really as Liz and Chester considered several dozen new houses built in the city and in paradise settings like Punta Fuego and Calatagan. The number of young and newly discovered architectural talent was also surprising. The book features the work of established masters like Bobby Mañosa (his house for Gina Lopez is a fascinating study in tropical-pavilion design), Ramon Antonio, Ed Ledesma, Milo Vasquez and Budji Layug (who teams up with dashing partner Royal Pineda for a sprawling masterpiece in the suburbs).
The generation (not that there is too great an age gap) that follows is represented by ultra-modernist Ed Calma (whose white palace for Josephine Knox in Punta Fuego is scintillating as the book’s cover), Dom Galicia, Andy Locsin, Anna Sy, Noel Saratan, Manny Miñana, Conrad Onglao, Benji Reyes, George Yulo and Joey Yupangco. Featured, too, in the book’s image-filled 224 pages are talents worth watching for – multi-talented Jeff Isidro (veteran of Singapore tropical modernism), uber-techie Joseph Javier and University College London-trained Marta Pedrosa (whose cube house design for mother Carmen refreshingly stands out amid a landscape of bland Disney architecture that defines our suburbia).
The houses featured in the book were designed for a wide range of users – from National Artist for Sculpture Arturo Luz and his lovely wife Tessie to the Zobel family (hacienda houses by Noel Saratan), to bank presidents, lawyers, industrial designers (the magical Pasola-Gonzales house), industrial tycoons to young urban couples wanting to celebrate their modern lifestyle in appropriate settings.
The houses and their designers indicate the trend towards a redefined modernism. Contemporary materials and buildings methods are used with a confidence that belies familiarity with local conditions and accommodating local cultural requirements. Filipino architects are no longer just aping western idioms to suit copied tastes. The Filipino homeowner is showing a maturity that could lead to more opportunities for local designers to express more color and character in architectural expression.
Throughout the houses featured is evidence that Filipino furniture is given as much or more value compared to foreign pieces. The works of Kenneth Cobonpue, Claude Tayag, Benjie Reyes, Budji Layug and others of Movement 8, and a host of new ateliers are key elements in interiors and set the tone even for the architecture. They complement these pieces with spaces that seem more attuned to local temperament than even a few years ago.
The houses featured also show a growing sensitivity to environmental considerations, the realities of tropical living vis-à-vis circulation, glare and sustainability. Wide overhangs, brise soliel, screens and perforated walls abound. Landscape design in all of the houses also shows how well integrated planting and architecture, along with water and art, can be to yield beautiful architecture that delights.
Yes, there’s a lot to celebrate. How better to celebrate than by design?
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