Aaron's Tidbit » architecture

Candaba Wetlands Center Design Competition Video Conclusion

aaron — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:21:24 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff_IbkUhPRo

Check out this amazing video showing the events of the Candaba Wetland Center Design Competition! Thanks to Troy from UP Physics and Grace of ASAPHIL-UP for making the video!

The Candaba Wetlands Center Design Competition is a contest for architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering students to develop a privately owned property within the Candaba Wetlands in Pampanga into a learning and communication tool for the conservation and protection of wetlands in the Philippines -- all housed in a Wetlands Center.

The top 3 winners were From PLM, UP, and UST.

1st Place went to Don Isaac Ramos, Jayson Ramirez, Rafael Antonio Alzona of the University of Santo Tomas, 2nd Place went to Suzette Corpuz of the University of the Philippines, and 3rd Place went to Jon Martin Abelardo Fernando, Lorenzo Arvelyn, Aclan Crisanto, Nacino Ula Pearl Guevarra of Pamantasan Lungsod ng Maynila. Congratulations!

The new Villa Jacinta – almost complete!

aaron — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:03:56 +0000

I have been working on my family’s ancestral house for about 6 months now and last April we went to visit San Jacinto, Masbate. The annual town fiesta is held on May so we had relatives come home from the States.

Villa Jacinta is a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom ancestral house. On the first floor is great room which leads to a lanai and garden, beside the great room is a dining room facing the creek, connected to the dining room is a waiting area and a bathroom for dining guests, connected to that is the kitchen pantry then the main kitchen. The stairway to the second floor is located between the great room and the dining room. The stairway is not really spiral but is shaped like a block letter-C, and it leads to the living room at the second floor. The living room at the second floor is connected to balconies facing the garden at rear (same garden accessed on the first floor through the lanai). The living room also has a dining area aside from regular entertainment areas. It is connected to the bedrooms by a private hallway. There are three bedrooms, the first and second of which are adjoining rooms that share a bathroom. The master bedroom and bathroom are located at the rear of the house facing the garden and creek.

Here are some pictures of the house in construction, this is how it looked November of last year:

Villa Jacinta San Jacinto Masbate

This is How it looked January 2010:

Villa Jacinta San Jacinto Masbate

Then, this is how it looked in February:

Villa Jacinta San Jacinto Masbate

This is how it looked last April:

Villa Jacinta San Jacinto Masbate

And that’s it! I haven’t been back since I left last May, and I’ll be back June Hopefully the house will be done before the scheduled housewarming October, which is incidentally the commencement of the project (would be the 12th month). So I guess the project at less than 12 month, being my first architectural project and all the way in the province with a budget of PHP3.5M (We are at 3 million now) and development cost of PHP17,000 per square meter is a big achievement! *clap* *clap* for me!

Ciao!

UST Buildings to be declared National Treasures

aaron — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:05:39 +0000

UST Buildings declared National Treasure

According to a Manila Bulletin article, 4 buildings in UST will be declared National Treasures (about time, look at what happened to Rizal Capitol – destroyed)!

The full article here:

The University of Santo Tomas (UST), which will celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2011, will etch another milestone in its history with the formal declaration of the UST Main Building, the Central Seminary, the Arch of the Centuries and the University’s Open Spaces as National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum, Monday, Jan. 25.

Associate Professor Giovanna V. Fontanilla, director of the UST Public Affairs Office, says the declaration ceremonies will be held at the UST Main Building Lobby, 3 p.m., and will be attended by high-ranking school officials led by Fr. Rolando dela Rosa O.P., the university rector.

Fontanilla said the declaration ceremonies will be held following the unveiling of “The Foundation of the University of Santo Tomas by Archbishop Benavidez” oil canvas painting dated 1911 and restored through the UST Museum’s Heritage Conservation Fund.

Section 3 of the Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act states that a “Natural Cultural Treasure is a unique object found locally, possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value which is significant and important to this country and nation.”

The recognition marks the first ever inclusion of an educational institution among the ranks of National Cultural Treasures, with the majority of structures being churches and the rest being terrestrial landmarks, intangible cultural property and movable objects.”

Fontanila said the declaration, considered a milestone for UST, is the culmination of efforts which began in 2004. She added that this coincides with the various activities for UST’s Quadricentennial celebration next year.

I think that’s great. The Philippines (Philippine Islands then) already had a university, Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario in 1611, received university charter in 1645, when the USA (1776) wasn’t even around yet, or Singapore (1965) or the oldest university in Singapore the National University of Singapore (1905) or Indonesia (1945) or Malaysia (1963). According to Wikipedia, UST is also the only Pontifical University in Asia, and has the oldest extant university charter in the Philippines and in Asia.

I think the National Historical Institute should double-time their tagging and documentation of national architectural heritage, and start declaring more historically important buildings national treasures.

Another Architectural Heritage Gone

aaron — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:34:53 +0000

Rizal Provincial Capitol Building

Can you imagine the surprised look on my face when I was walking past the Rizal Provincial Capitol Compound and see that nothing was there, and I could see through the complex and now see all the trees throughout that piece of land?

I said to myself, there has got to be something wrong with this, it looks so empty like something was there. Too bad my phone’s camera is all but dead and I can’t give you a look of how the compound looks now. Suffice it to say they have demolished another of our country’s few and dwindling architectural heritage.

Soon our country will have a lost and soul-less architectural landscape – nothing to remind us of the past and nothing to enrich our cultural heritage.

Check this link out and make your own conclusions…