Narratives in concrete

MANILA, Philippines - A good building holds more than just things; it’s a cradle to a lifesong — one that fills guests the minute they enter and tags along with them when they leave. If every building in this city told a story, the otherwise mechanical experience of walking in and out of offices for meetings or client calls could end up being emotive, or less meaningless, at the very least. The young group of architects I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with may be described as ambitious, even idealistic, for trying to achieve something like this. But would we really rather work in a lifeless, life-size Jenga tower that tells no tale?

Stephanie Sy, principal designer at utwentysix Architecture Studio shares that narratives are extremely important to them when they design. “Always start with a story,” she says. This story is usually inspired by the client. Now, ‘client’ is such an anti-climactic word. Seeing it in an article about telling stories through design and architecture can be a quite a buzz kill. But this is the challenge for anyone who lives to create in this day and age — we hire them because they have the means to articulate through design what we cannot.

When the group — Stephanie Sy, Kim Jimenez and Deo Alam — submitted their entry for the AVID Caticlan Airport Design Competition, they described their rendition as a “modern architectural narrative” inspired by the legendary story of the Ten Datus, who are believed to be the fathers of pre-colonial Philippines. While having to research and weave a narrative may seem like an unnecessary impediment, the design trio feels it just as important as designing itself.

Take their firm’s name, for instance. The group could have picked any random ‘power’ word for a name, but they chose one that told their story both as friends and colleagues. Stephanie graduated from Tufts University in Medford, MA with a Bachelor’s Degree in both International Relations and Asian Studies, but she decided to switch careers and completed a Masters Course in Interior Design at Florence Design Academy in Florence, Italy. Kim is a graduate of Mapua Institute of Technology-Manila, Intramuros; Bachelor of Science in Architecture and is a licensed architect in the Philippines since 2004. He has worked as an architect for Lor Calma and Partners as well as for BBP Architects in Melbourne, Australia. Deo is a graduate of Manuel L. Quezon University and is a licensed architect in the Philippines. He was a project designer at Lor Calma and Partners where he worked on a range of projects which included the Philippine Pavillion at the 2008 Expo in Zaragoza, the Philippine Pavillion at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai and the Mind Museum at Taguig. The three met at Lor Calma and Partners, where they worked together on several projects and formed a friendship that was strengthened at U26 — the condo unit where they all used to hang out and now, the address of their burgeoning architecture studio.

Stephanie, Kim and Deo expressed high regard for Lor Calma’s extensive contributions of pioneer modernist architect, designer and sculptor, as well as for the works of Ed Calma, who is one of the most prolific modernists in the country. Being friends, the three have a lot of other things in common, like the shared desire to create something that will make them happy. Architecture, after all, is an art, and like many artists, Steph, Kim and Deo are keen on expressing as much of themselves as they can through their work. “You have to get clients to a certain comfort level. Most people are really used to the spa/hotel minimalist look. When we have other ideas, we don’t introduce them all at once. We feed the clients slowly and eventually the space evolves into something that makes everyone happy,” shares Kim. “Design is too important to us to compromise,” he adds.

Their collective respect for good design is also reflected in the way they respond to, as Deo puts it, “traditional thinking”. He explains, “Our designs can be quite complicated, which leads people to assume that construction is always going to be a problem. But how things will be built is an art in itself. We see the task of executing our designs as a challenge.”

Stephanie adds, “A traditional thinker would say: ‘How is that thing going to stand? It only has one leg!’ But for us, it’s important to not just stick to what we know. You have to push the boundaries of design and trust that there will always be a way. We may not have the technology, but you’d be surprised at what people can do here.”

In utwentysix’s latest project, post production office Post Manila, the group gets to flex their imagination. A creative space by nature, utwentysix, weaves a narrative about what a workplace ought to be like — well-planned and non-confining, stimulating yet not distracting, comfortable but professional, and fun. The design is characterized by clean yet playful lines, bursts of bold color, and a generous helping of living space. “Doing this space, we had to get familiar with the technical aspect of production to be able to give Post Manila what they need. They had a lot of requirements that were very new to us, but we were very much willing to take on the challenge. We learned a lot about their story as we designed their space,” Stephanie shares.

To borrow from Alain de Botton’s The Architecture of Happiness, “To design means to force ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes, and acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light or turning on a tap.” The bright-eyed but in no way novice architects and designers at utwentysix plan to take over the design world by re-telling everyday tales in fresh, modern ways. In the course of our chat, Stephanie described how they dressed an emergency lamp — a household eyesore — as a robot. The beauty about this is that we’ve all, at one point, imagined the proverbial emergency lamp as a robot. These guys are on the verge of taking the stories in our heads and bringing them to life.