You know, I would have taken up Architecture as a course if it only took me four years to finish it, instead of five. Right now, I'm just content looking at structures, pinpointing some mistakes here and there, and silently criticizing the owners and the architects who have brought these mistakes to life.
Filipinos can be a very curious lot. For instance, we are still looking for our Filipino roots but, in terms of our architectural preferences, we are steadfastly clinging onto our colonial heritage. This behavior manifests itself strongly in how we, the middle class, design our homes.
For instance, Filipino architects love concrete It is the most loved construction material ever: a versatile, strong material which is also known for its remarkable durability.
But concrete is also very expensive (and its production isn't exactly eco-friendly since it adds a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere). Delivering it to construction sites takes a lot of money and the time necessary to allow it to set costs money too.
Nevertheless, we Filipinos love concrete, such that we have eschewed the more traditional, cheaper, and indigenous construction materials used by our forefathers in favor of cement floors and walls and metal roofs (To digress, My Shelter Foundation, a non-profit organization, has pioneered the use of alternative construction materials in several rural projects. Their design solutions have ranged from using ceramics to earth in building structures that are not only budget-friendly but also disaster-resistant).
I am thus reminded of a certain experiment by Gawad Kalinga in Sitio Target. Apart from the sociological issues that clobbered the entire enterprise, the issue about the Aetas' GK houses also points to the misguided notions that our Filipino architects seem to share. Instead of celebrating our roots by constructing domiciles made from native materials, our architects advise us to use more popular materials - materials they are most comfortable working with - in building our homes. There are also architects who pander to their clients' colonial mindsets by suggesting ways to make houses look more "Westernized" and "global".
Speaking then of "westernizing" one's own home, we Filipinos are also very good at assimilating design concepts that are totally out of sync with our climate. One good example are the many houses in my neighborhood which feature "gliding" or sliding glass windows. In a tropical country, these windows should be considered banned since they do not maximize air ventilation with regard to window size (a crucial factor in cooling homes). In contrast, the more conventional jalousie window allows air flow roughly across the entire surface of the window frame. Compared to that, gliding windows only allow air flow through just one half of the window frame area.
Finally, most of us are hopelessly infatuated with how an American suburbian home looks like. Sometimes, I do get irked whenever I see nothing but sprawling lawns and paved concrete in a lot. These kinds of lots are unnatural to look at and one could easily assume that the owner wants to feel like he's living somewhere else far from the Philippines.
I am the enemy of the manicured lawn and it is all for a good reason. First, I consider it a total waste of soil if one only plants grass in a lot instead of more substantial vegetation such as colorful plants, shrubs, or trees (which fare better in shielding your house from excessive solar radiation as compared to any variety of grass, excluding bamboo).
I am also the enemy of the pavement since it is a waste of valuable land. It is definitely a better idea to grow some plants on a piece of yard than to cover it all with hot concrete, incapable of absorbing water.
Filipinos can be a very curious lot. For instance, we are still looking for our Filipino roots but, in terms of our architectural preferences, we are steadfastly clinging onto our colonial heritage. This behavior manifests itself strongly in how we, the middle class, design our homes.
For instance, Filipino architects love concrete It is the most loved construction material ever: a versatile, strong material which is also known for its remarkable durability.
But concrete is also very expensive (and its production isn't exactly eco-friendly since it adds a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere). Delivering it to construction sites takes a lot of money and the time necessary to allow it to set costs money too.
Nevertheless, we Filipinos love concrete, such that we have eschewed the more traditional, cheaper, and indigenous construction materials used by our forefathers in favor of cement floors and walls and metal roofs (To digress, My Shelter Foundation, a non-profit organization, has pioneered the use of alternative construction materials in several rural projects. Their design solutions have ranged from using ceramics to earth in building structures that are not only budget-friendly but also disaster-resistant).
I am thus reminded of a certain experiment by Gawad Kalinga in Sitio Target. Apart from the sociological issues that clobbered the entire enterprise, the issue about the Aetas' GK houses also points to the misguided notions that our Filipino architects seem to share. Instead of celebrating our roots by constructing domiciles made from native materials, our architects advise us to use more popular materials - materials they are most comfortable working with - in building our homes. There are also architects who pander to their clients' colonial mindsets by suggesting ways to make houses look more "Westernized" and "global".
Speaking then of "westernizing" one's own home, we Filipinos are also very good at assimilating design concepts that are totally out of sync with our climate. One good example are the many houses in my neighborhood which feature "gliding" or sliding glass windows. In a tropical country, these windows should be considered banned since they do not maximize air ventilation with regard to window size (a crucial factor in cooling homes). In contrast, the more conventional jalousie window allows air flow roughly across the entire surface of the window frame. Compared to that, gliding windows only allow air flow through just one half of the window frame area.
Finally, most of us are hopelessly infatuated with how an American suburbian home looks like. Sometimes, I do get irked whenever I see nothing but sprawling lawns and paved concrete in a lot. These kinds of lots are unnatural to look at and one could easily assume that the owner wants to feel like he's living somewhere else far from the Philippines.
I am the enemy of the manicured lawn and it is all for a good reason. First, I consider it a total waste of soil if one only plants grass in a lot instead of more substantial vegetation such as colorful plants, shrubs, or trees (which fare better in shielding your house from excessive solar radiation as compared to any variety of grass, excluding bamboo).
I am also the enemy of the pavement since it is a waste of valuable land. It is definitely a better idea to grow some plants on a piece of yard than to cover it all with hot concrete, incapable of absorbing water.
So there you go. I think that's it for now. I bet I can find more architectural disasters in the future but I'll save them for tomorrow's blog posts. As a final word, all I can say is the majority of us make poor home designers and, sad to say, most of us don't even know that. As long as trends in construction and architecture continue to blind our judgments, I think it is best if we do a bit more research on the proper way of designing our homes.
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