Celebrating the Filipino spirit

MANILA, Philippines - It’s only right that a festival of Philippine art, music and fashion be held in a setting that’s designed to be truly Filipino not in a tradi-tional sense, but in a way that speaks of the ingenuity of Filipino architects and designers who look towards both the past and the future.

If you look close enough, you’ll notice that Greenbelt 5’s façade is more than cladding-deep. “Even if it’s a modern building, there are touches of Filipino in the design, like Manobo weave on the façade,” says Marivic Añonuevo, SVP and Ayala Malls Group head. “Even the dividers between the stores have an ikat weave pattern inspired by our indigenous tribe.”

“It’s not in-your-face Filipino,” says Ayala Land president Tony Aquino, “but rather, it has very subtle touches.”

With conceptual design by Callison and Andy Locsin for the interiors, Greenbelt 5 bears the stamp of the future. 

And where else but in Greenbelt 5 to hold Bravo Filipino? The festival, which highlighted the Filipino’s innate ability to create and embrace art and music of world-class caliber, was sponsored by the Ayala Group of Companies and spearheaded by the Filipinas Heritage Library and Ayala Malls. It was conceived primarily to promote Filipino creativity and ingenuity, and to formally launch Greenbelt 5 as the home of top-notch Filipino fashion designers in 2008. For this it won the ICSC Asia-Pacific Gold Award for Marketing in Community Relations. The following year, in 2009, it won the ICSC Global Maxi Silver Award for Marketing Excellence. 

The brainchild of Ayala chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Bravo Filipino was a fusion of classic works, and contemporary and modern pieces in Philippine art, music, and fashion with seasoned artists and talented newcomers. 

With such support from one of the biggest corporations in the Philippines, Filipino culture and the arts have truly found a home in the Ayala Malls.