an architecture photo tilt
Guys, you might be interested in sending your now and then photo of buildings/places or anything that is rightly architecture to wikepidia pictures that still been locked in your cabinet unfamously unframed. This might be your chance to stardom on photography.
"The Filipinas Heritage Library, in partnership with Fundaciòn Santiago and
Filipino Heritage Festival Inc., launches a nationwide photo competition and
exhibit that will showcase Philippine architecture of the past and today.
This competition-exhibit pays tribute to Filipino ingenuity, giving us a
unique glimpse of how far we have come, and to where the future will lead
us. Be part of this significant undertaking and contribute to our growing
collection of visual history."
For more information this
link provides everything.
Banaue: The Hanging Mountain Town (part 01)
After more than 10 hrs ride I finally reached Banaue, Ifugao on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. I arrived in the place very excited to comment on the the town architecture and was plan and put everything I see in writing and post it here. Lies in the northern most part of the province of Ifugao, Banaue reminds me of the sub sub urban highlands you see before you reached Baguio City proper. From the top, settlements in Poblacion are nestled along in letter "J" or “U” shape. The town proper has narrow sloppy streets usually 5-6 meters wide without sidewalk. Residential houses, inns and souvenir shops and commercial centers nestle in the town proper. The municipal building is located in a top most portion of the mountain a less than a kilometer away from the busy commercial center of Poblacion.
In the town proper, the Ifugao is already utilizing modern way of building construction. Most of the buildings use reinforced concrete posts and slab with unplastered concrete hollow blocks walls. And speaking of walls, due to low temperature in the region, Ifugao modern structures utilized galvanized iron corrugated sheets for their sidings to warm interiors.
Edifices usually built in more than one floor high stand proud by a mountain cliff on concrete or wooden stilts as if they are hanging in the clouds especially when rendered with morning mist. Buildings roofs are made galvanized iron corrugated roofing usually painted with red oxide primer. But many buildings now preferred roof concrete slab to maximize land use.
By putting balconies as part of their house space you will know how the local are very much proud and appreciative in the beauty of their surrounding.
relearning FORT SANTIAGO
To travel to a certain place became a habit to me and my girlfriend Nang every time we see on weekend. Perhaps, we got tired of malling Henry Sy’s commercial spaces and our eyes desire for new scenery. Our typical field trip itinerary usually include (1) walking a mile or two in a historical or just a cool place (this is our own version of working out when it's too difficult to wake up on early morning to jog in Baywalk or UP) and (2) looking for a food house that offers exotic, delicious and affordable meals.
Not minding the afternoon heat wave, we sailed to Fort Santiago (Fuerza de Santiago) last Sunday. No we were not went there riding a galleon ship but by PUJ “PIER” jeep we found in Avenida. I think Paolo Bediones show influenced my girlfriend to text me to visit the place and without thinking I said yes to her.
If I not mistaken I last descended on the old fortress located at the tip of the walled city of Intramuros when I was still in high school. Fort Santiago is a must visit place because its historical, therefore it’s educational.
Upon arrival and after paying P40.00 entrance fee (yes, you get a ticket and a free brochure of the place), I noticed and felt, looking at the Plaza Moriones that FS did not change so much. Same old, same old. Maybe because it's a historical place and it's necessary to preserve things as it is. But I felt something was lacking in the place and as I write this I still couldn’t figure it out. Maybe preservation of FS is not enough.
I did not feel it then but the gate of the citadel was an amazing and a wow site. It bears the wooden curved image of St. James and with a three pinnacle over the gate it made the place more sacred as if you are entering the ruins of a Roman Basilica. I thought then that the body of water before the Fort Santiago gate was a tributary of Pasig River but it’s actually a moat. Providing a moat on the entrance of your lot is an architectural feature alive during medieval period in Europe like in castles. Moat is the first line of defense against outside onslaught. If that body of water is a moat the bridge over it perhaps was a drawbridge? Hmmm.
In my first visit there, I remember going down to dungeon above Casa de Castellano where the residence of the Fort Commander once stand. Now for some reason, the gate to the dungeon has been padlocked. Maybe the management is keeping a Hungarian Horntail inside?
I found Rizal Shrine an interesting place to visit. It houses the Dr. Jose Rizal century old attire, medical tools and other Rizal memorabilia that you'd find amaze to have a look at. Another appealing in the place was our national hero’s famous quotes translated in many languages known to Rizal engraved on metal sheets erected like columns.
There is this solace chamber in the Shrine also called "pook ng pagninilay" that will give you a peek from afar of a sitting life size statue of Rizal perhaps on a contemplating mood on what’s to write next. From a distant you feel our hero is really alive and I gave me a creepy feeling that he looks at you and trying to convey a message. Boo!!!!
The two story building we called Rizal Shrine “stands on the site of a brick barrack where Rizal was imprisoned” before he was shot in Bagumbayan in 1896.
With the presence of guardia civil bronze sculpted statues scattered in the Falsabraga de Media Naranja made the view of Pasig River meeting Manila Bay a breathtaking site. You can close your eyes and imagine the galleon ships once docked on this fort and the festivity of 16th to 20th international trading.
I learned a lot from this trip. Sometimes learning goes beyond reading book. A walk “through the walls” is an effective tool to gain knowledge of our past.
prelude + purpose
Here I go again creating another blog which would require a lot of my time and money to maintain. Of course, maintaining this would mean writing a lot of good stuffs, responding to readers comments so passerbye bloggers would appreciate and would find the contents of my spot useful.
But what makes this blog different to my other previous blogs is that this would mainly focus more on architecture. Yes, this blog would be about anything with regards to the art, my discipline, architecture. I spent 5 years in college learning about architecture and the government have given a license to practice the craft so I think that it also gives me a certification to write, give comments and suggest on the state of Philippine architecture or to simply describe a building or a site architecturally.
This spot would delve on topics like today’s building design, life and works of Filipino contemporary architects here and abroad, conservation, urban planning and multitude of topics about the art written in a very simple language, not so technical literature so non architects would undrestand the message crystal clear. I may not be as good and critical writer like Villalon or Mata or the ones you find in the pages of glossy design magazine but this is a start perhaps a small contribution to Philippine design literature.
As an architect and a lover of many arts, something in me empowered me to engage on these talks as if this task is a destiny to fulfill. In the back of my mind someone my soul perhaps is saying that I should commence writing about this architecture and yes the beauty of it.
So here it goes! Lets the show begins. Let's emancipate the form!
