Avid airports

Press reports on the selection of a new Tourism Secretary, Bertie Lim, have been positive. Secretary Lim’s quotes regarding the direction he plans to take Philippine tourism under his watch have been met with general approval, or at least by most everyone save resort operators in Boracay.

Philippine tourism clearly has a long way to go before it can hit any level close to our ASEAN neighbors. Many cite Thailand’s 13 million, Malaysia’s 10 million and Singapore’s nine or so million visitors last year, and compare these numbers to our measly three million (bloated, some say, by the inclusion of balikbayans).

Previous administrations have focused mainly on marketing, but no marketing effort will be of use if access to destinations is difficult or if the destinations themselves are lacking in quality, variety and visitor-friendliness.

Our problems with access have been highlighted in the last few weeks when technical deficiencies with our premier airport caused diversions of flights. If you consider that NAIA is the top airport in the country then one cannot blame international airline bodies and foreign countries for blacklisting the country.

Even if we are able to land planes safely, we are met with another big problem. Our airport terminals suck. The original Locsin-designed airport — the NAIA 1 — is so poorly maintained that it looks like a Philippine government building complete with stinky toilets, peeling floor tiles and air-conditioning conking out every so often. The terminal’s baggage handling equipment is inadequate and only operate if helped by personnel who (to the surprise of many a foreign traveller) clamber through the conveyor tunnels to help push things along.

Okay, I must admit that NAIA II is still in fairly good shape, but even this is starting to look worn; again as seen in the awful and inadequate toilet facilities, and deficiencies arising from using it as an international airport when it was originally meant to be our new domestic terminal.

The NAIA III, on the other hand, is a big white elephant, which can only be partly used because of legal impediments. It was supposed to open close to a decade ago and its design is from the 1990s. The terminal will be semi-obsolete before we can see it fully operational (note the old CRT displays when Chek Lap Kok, Changi and other regional airports use flatscreen displays).

In fact, the whole complex of three airports plus the remaining domestic terminal that dates from the 1950s fail to function as an integrated complex. Tourists are met with this mess, woefully trying to get connections that often require traversing through Manila traffic (and the obvious blight that surrounds the complex). When they do get these connections to island or provincial destinations, they arrive at airport terminals that suck even more!

Few provincial terminals come close to acceptable standards of design, aesthetics and functionality. Often, if new, they last a year or so before they are altered (read disfigured) by incompetent managers. Many are badly designed in the first place, with undersized spaces for check-in counters, uncomfortable waiting lounges and yes, grubby toilets and bad air-conditioning. How do we expect tourists to visit us again, or tell their friends to visit, if the first and the last impression of the Philippines (or any of its touted attractions) involve sweating it out on broken plastic chairs and dealing with waterless comfort rooms?

Even when some tourists manage to avoid the usual discomforts of Philippine air travel, the first and last impressions of the Philippines is through airports that have little to show in terms of Philippine architecture and design value. The last two NAIA airports were designed by foreign architects. Both lack much of anything to lend it Filipino cultural flavor. Neither boasts Philippine art or sculpture. Spaces and articulation of facades and interiors feel cold and foreign with little of the supposedly renowned warmth and hospitality of the Filipino.

For provincial terminals and island destinations like Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay, the feeling is even worse. The structures look like they were designed and built by the lowest bidder. The architectural and aesthetic design values of many border on the non-existent. Often they look no better than warehouses or glorified sheds.

Airport terminals are one of the dream projects of any architect, yet Filipino designers are rarely given the chance to apply their creative talent for this building type. With this in mind, BluPrint magazine, of which I am editor in chief, selected this design problem for its first Annual Visionary Design Competition (Avid) late last year.

The competition is meant to discover new talent in architecture and related design fields. For the airport challenge, the focus was on an island destination airport based on the Caticlan/Boracay situation but meant as a hypothetic al model for a small airport that we sorely need if we are to open up more than just one single island to the world.

Six finalists were chosen by a board of judges that included myself, renowned architect Bong Recio, the legendary architect Willy Coscolluela, multi-awarded graphic designer/multi-media artist Robert Alejandro, and former Tourism Secretary Narz Lim.

Heavy emphasis was put on creativity and originality. The finalists were architect Mario S. Dagdagan for “Banig,” a design based on the tampipi, our native luggage; architects Sherwin Z. Abad and Jelina Frances Dimaguila for “Bio-Diver-City,” modelled on the structure of corals; architect Kris Elix S. Zalavarria, who took inspiration from sea waves; architect John Patrick L. Buensalido for “Sculpted. Spp.,” another design based on coral reefs; architects Jonathan Kim Jimenez, Deo Alrashid Trevecedo Alam, and interior designer Stephanie Ellen Nubla Sy for “Ten Sails” based obviously on sails. The winning entry, “Tropical Transience,” was designed by architects Gabriel P. Limgenco and Raissa Gallemit with Sherwin Jason Ang and Rolando Aranag. Their structure was patterned after leaves, specifically tropical palm fronds.

All six entries endeavored to imbue their designs with an understanding of Filipino cultural use of space as well as requirements of local and international tourists. The designs were all expressive and exuberant. They all, of course, looked much better than the boxy, non-descript lumps of concrete and galvanized roofing that we now have masquerading as airport terminals.

I do hope that the new administration and the new tourism head look hard at improving tourism infrastructure. Our airports, their equipment and runways are a good place to start. We cannot have a tourism industry without first getting our tourist over here safely and in style. This is not just for tourists, by the way, but for all citizens and Filipino businesses to benefit from.

Finally, I do hope Filipino architects, interior designers, landscape architects, lighting designers, artists and sculptors, engineers and contractors are given priority in designing our new airport and terminal complexes. The talent is obviously there otherwise why would our creative designers be in such demand overseas?

The designs for our airports should be visionary. They should project the best of Filipino art and architecture, interiors and landscape, evoking our cultural specificity and exuding our warmth and welcoming nature. Visitors, local and foreign, should be able to recall the initial experience of arrival and end their stay with delight. First impressions do last and last impressions will ensure tourist come back for more.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.