In 2006, the total cost of being unprepared for yearly storms amounted to P19.989 billion — 2.38 million families were affected, 891 people went missing, and 1,158 died.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council believes that 2006 will go down in history as the year when it wasn’t enough to simply brave the storms. In that year’s storms, people were displaced and found shelter in classrooms. But the problem was these classrooms did not hold out for long. And now, two years later, one worldwide competition is on the lookout for a classroom that can face even the worst of storms.
In 2007, My Shelter Foundation teamed up with a number of equally committed partners to bring about the Millennium School Design Competition. Accredited by the United Architects of the Philippines, this worldwide competition urged architects from all over the world to build a classroom-school environment that can face the worst of natural disasters, not just in this country, but in other developing countries as well. About a hundred architects inquired, over 30 registered, and finally 20 submitted a school design.
Headed by My Shelter Foundation executive director Illac Diaz, the Millennium School Design Competition is part of My Shelter Foundation’s “Be Better Build Better” program. The competition is not just looking for a durable design, but one that’s environment-friendly as well. And for this, the foundation has partnered up with the Philippine Green Building Council, National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), Private Sector Disaster Management Network, the Department of Education, and Red Eye to come up with a competition that will spur this much-needed school-classroom development among most parts of the country. The competition is also sponsored by DHL, ABS-CBN Sagip Kapamilya, ABS-CBN Bayan, Holcim, Petron, Rotary Shares and Manila Jaycees.
The winning entry will serve as the design to be followed for the reconstruction of the Nato Elementary School in Sagnay, Camarines Sur, which was heavily devastated in 2006 when typhoon “Milenyo” hit the region. The winning design will also be adopted by the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School Program.
The Millennium School Design Competition of 2007 gathered a jury panel composed of architects from overseas and various institutions in the country. The judges included architects Rui Leao of Macau and Rita Soh of Singapore, architects Yolanda Reyes of the Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA), Amado De Jesus of UAP, and Nathaniel Mendoza of Dep-Ed along with Director Ronal Flores of NDCC, director Emmanuel Cuntapay of DPWH and executive director Raul Manikan of ABS-CBN.
The design entries were a lot, but the ones that caught the judges’ eyes were Philippine entries by architects Bronne Dytoc, Nicolo Precioso Del Castillo and John Patrick Buensalido. There were also US entries from architects Joe Villanti and Suzette Stoler. The judges also couldn’t help admiring the entries of architects Eleena Jamil of Malaysia and Fuyuku Makino of Japan.
Declared grand winner was Eleena Jamil who received a cool $10,000 cash prize. Bronne Dytoc took second place with a $5,000 cash prize while Nicolo Precioso Del Castillo bagged the third place with a cash prize of $3,000 . John Patrick Buensalido, Joe Villanti, Suzette Stoler and Fuyuku Makino were awarded honorable mention and given $2,000 each.
Jamil’s entry was inspired by our resilient bamboo. In this winning design, the bamboo was used as a prominent feature of the school and all its classrooms. Jamil believes this material is very cost-friendly and readily available, especially throughout Southeast Asia. The bamboo is also known to be wind-resistant, able to withstand nature’s fury.
The construction of Jamil’s Millennium School is about to begin. Soon, the town of Nato, Sagnay will have a school and a shelter that will hold out even in the worst of times.
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For more information, visit millennium-school.org.
E-mail the author: ravin.facts@yahoo.com.