The Real Challenge for Filipino Architects
I heartily agree with this blog writer's reaction to Paolo Alcazaren's column (see previous post):
"...I think the Filipino architect is invisible because they are worrying about the wrong problems. They look at the building boom and their own lack of commissions for the "buildings, malls, resorts and housing." They look at the money trail and worry that the big names from the western world (brands, really) have eaten their share -and this, they claim is the reason why they cannot build imaginative, inspiring Filipino architecture. Alcazaren presses their case (despite his pontifications) and unabashedly says that the Filipino architect can become visible -can be relevant -if only they get a fair cut of the big projects coming down the pike.
I contend that they are irrelevant because the problem they are bewailing is selfish and irrelevant to the current issues challenging our megacity. They worry that upper and middle class housing has become commoditized when the big problem staring Metro Manila in the face is a housing shortfall of 1M units. They worry about the big private projects when the issue at hand is the lack of civic life and civic sense in our urban life. They worry about their names on condominiums and subdivisions when we are challenged by unlivable streets and the lack of public spaces.
I do not hold it against architects to seek profit, they are running businesses not charities. But I do expect them, as individuals trained to understand the built environment, to speak out and help find solutions to the urgent issues that confront their countrymen who must live in that built environment. I hold it against them for looking at the "buildings, malls, resorts" and overlooking the dense squatter colonies and the inhospitable roads that are the fabric of our megacity..."
Read more at A Hundred Years Hence
posted by Pon @ 12:33 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Then again, we need to give credit to a new generation of Filipino Architects who are trying to make a difference in the global issues of homelessness. One of these young architects who have this advocacy in their list is Architect Lira Luis. Just look at her project of a sustainable portable housing that won awards and recognition---unfortunately this recognition is given by the USA while the Philippines has failed to support the work of these young architects trying to make a difference:
FROM Architectural Record Magazine:
http://archrecord.construction.com/archrecord2/work/0502/pod.asp
The Philippines’s growing shipping industry attracts thousands of rural Filipinos and foreign nationals to the nation’s port cities. While waiting for jobs aboard cargo ships, these so-called seafarers often find themselves homeless. Filipino-born Luis learned of their plight in mid-2003 and was soon commissioned by the Pier One Seaman’s Dorm, a seafarer organization, to design low-cost, easily transportable housing for this transient population.
Luis is currently finishing work on a prototype of the project. Measuring roughly 90 square feet, the “pod” contains a bed, shelves, and a closet. Made of lightweight composite plastic, fabric, and perforated metal, one person can assemble the pod without requiring special tools or fasteners. “It’s like a Lego set that you assemble, a kit of parts,” Luis explains. “There’s no need for screws, because the parts snap into grooves.” For easy storage and transportation, the pod folds into a case the size of a large art portfolio.
Luis’s original thought was that seafarers could rent the pods like hotel rooms, and assemble them inside abandoned buildings or parking garages. The Seaman’s Dorm was unable to generate enough funding for the project, though, so Luis is now seeking other investors. She is also hoping to partner with an organization willing to produce the pods and donate them to people displaced by the tsunami.
By James Murdock
the reaction to the article seems valid, however, one should take note that architecture and the built environment encompasses a larger scope than what can be controlled by the architect himself. by nature architecture involves economics and politics.
it is not as simple as it sounds. my point is that slums improvement and housing need for the general masses can be done if it is effected with the aid of the national or local government. political bickerings should be ended, and they should get their acts together for a better civic society and environment.
architecture is a vehicle for societal improvement, and must work with other mechanisms such as the government in realizing its goals. it cannot operate alone and independent of external factors.
another factor has been the consumerist attitude among those in power who have the resources in effecting the architecture of the filipino architect. branding plays such a big role in modern times.
the problem should be looked upon not only at the level of the professionals involved (herein, the architects) but rather holistically by all agents involved in the built environment (local government, private companies) and the society in general. only with a unified vision and commitment to realize such ideals can we truly break out from the mess and rebuild the glory the philippines (and its architects) once had.
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