Finding Sustainable Development in the Philippine Architectural Industry

As I recall, I first encountered the word “sustainable development” when I was in 2nd year in Arki. I think it was related to a design contest which had environmentalism as its theme. I can’t remember exactly whether “sustainability” was its main theme, or that it was mentioned in a book I was reading in connection with the contest. In the years after that, the term keeps on being reiterated by professors and classmates alike, in their lectures, in their required readings, in their plates, and in their thesis.

So what exactly is sustainable development? Exact definition in available literature differ, but to put it in simple terms, sustainable development means the “ability to meet the needs of today’s generation without sacrificing the next generations’ ability to meet theirs.” Originating in the late 1970’s, this concept came out of the realization that we, as caretakers of the earth, should not stop at satisfying our development needs, but should also exert effort to preserve the environment, since this is also where the succeeding generations would also get their resources for their own needs.

Most often used as a policy principle in planning, sustainable development has seen its application in almost all aspects of society, from high-impact projects like transportation infrastructure and forest management, to low-impact projects like the construction of simple houses or development of recyclable paper. Its application is also not limited to capital or physical projects like those mentioned above, but also to non-capital projects like people capability and institutional improvement programs, since development can also be non-physical.

Architecture, because of the cumulative magnitude of its practice and their potential huge impacts to the environment, is one of the industries which is trying hard to apply principles of sustainable development. This can be evidenced by some architects designing buildings with less energy consumption, or specifying materials that have lesser impacts to the environment.

Here in the Philippines, is sustainable development actually being practiced? Given that I first became aware of the term from my college and that it is a topic often being expounded by the professors from the college, I would expect that the answer would be “yes”. An observation of the conditions shows the contrary, however. Take, for example, the following scenarios.

In professional practice, typical architectural offices cut down on their operational costs by offering low salaries to their staff. Career development for the staff is also rarely being programmed in most offices, as many employees get stuck in their same position for many years. In this case, arki firms satisfy their present needs of reducing costs and increasing profits, but compromises the needs of the succeeding generations for income stability and professional growth. No wonder then that more and more arki graduates are applying in call centers, since it shows more sustainable career development rather than the arki profession.

In the academe, most of the professors are also professional practitioners since the arki schools do not offer them lucrative income to make them full-time faculty. And since professional practice is indeed more lucrative, naturally, they would spend more time in their projects, and more often than not, at the expense of preparing lesson plans and checking plates. In this case, the schools satisfy their needs for someone to handle the classes and the professors satisfy their need for a more stable source of income, but in the end, this compromises the need of the future generations for quality education.

Since professors require quality presentations from their students, students go out of their way to make their submissions really topnotch. More often than not, they go too far away to the point that their submissions are an overkill, as in the case of many thesis presentations. Some even use extensively non-environmentally friendly materials like styrofoam and plastics. At the end of the semester, the arki lobby is littered with models, boards and tracing papers that have little recyclable value, except maybe as alternative landfill materials for the new arki building complex. In this case, the professors and the students satisfy their present need of “quality” output, but compromising the quality of the environment.

And we even haven't talked about the design itself of our buildings and plans...

Given these practices, can we truly say that there is sustainable development in the local architectural practice? It seems not. It’s more like “sustainable development” is just being used as a nice tagline to our designs and presentations, so we could sound more “scholarly” or “well-updated”.

As I am re-introduced to the term in my post-graduate courses, and am being exposed to actual successful sustainable development practices, I find it disconcerting that the arki industry is NOT practicing what it is preaching. It would do well to the local architecture industry to look at successful examples of sustainable development elsewhere, and understand the key ingredients for their successful implementation, and then see how these can be applied in architecture. They should not stop at merely reading articles about it.

Leaders of the local architecture industry should take the initiative in the promotion of sustainable development. They could also attend. They could also seek expert advice from various agencies on how to apply sustainable development concepts, specifically for the arki industry. Afterwhich, they can publish these findings so that the practitioners are aware of them. They could also coordinate with legislators on how to enact policies which would promote sustainable development practices.

The academe can also contribute in the promotion by first and foremost, inputting the topic all throughout their curriculum, and not just in a single course in a particular semester. By continuously incorporating the concept into the various subjects (such as design, construction, and building materials) at various year levels, the students would then be more ingrained with the concept. Additionally, they could also encourage research onto the topic.

On the pragmatic side, they could enforce policies regarding the quality of the outputs, like for example encouraging the use of recycled boards for mini-plates or banning altogether the use of styrofoam for any submission. More importantly, to avoid a case of the blind leading the blind, the schools should also enrich themselves with the topic through additional reading, research and attendance in symposia. As architectural practitioners, we could also do our share of promoting sustainable development by educating our clients about it.

Given the status of the industry and the environment right now, it’s about time that we actually get down to brass tracks and really understand what sustainable development is all about, and aggressively lobby for its application in the industry. Although at first, there will be that period of sacrifice and adjustment, but in the end, we will all benefit from it. Otherwise, if we just let things stand as they are, we face the risk of an arki industry that will gradually die in the next few decades.