SINCE 2008, the World Architecture Festival has inspired and recognized architects and interior design professionals through workshops, conferences, exhibitions, and awards held over three days. One of its programs include recognizing architecture projects from around the world.

In 2017, four projects by Philippine architectural groups — The Chapel of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica by WTA Architecture and Design Studio; The New Supreme Court design concept by Jorge Yulo Architects & Associates; One Ayala by Visionary Architecture; and Project Streetlight Tagpuro by Eriksson Furunes, Leandro V. Locsin Partners (LVLP), and Jago Boase — made the shortlisted out of 400 entries from 68 countries at the festival which was held at the Arena Berlin in Germany on Nov. 15-17, 2017.

The four short-listed projects were subsequently honored as the first batch of Grohe Zeitgeist Design Awardees during an exhibit launch at the Promo Garden of Central Square Mall, BGC in Dec. 18. The Grohe Zeitgeist Design Award is envisioned to give recognition to “Philippine architecture that brings glory to the country” according to a press release.

DESIGNS OF THE TIMES
The German term zeitgeist means “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time,” according to the Oxford Dictionary online.

Grohe, single-brand manufacturer and supplier of sanitary fittings and a founding partner of the World Architecture Festival, spearheaded the Grohe Zeitgeist Design Awards as its way recognizing exceptional works by Filipino architects and designers and their efforts to share it to the international community.

“We coined the term ‘zeitgeist design’ because design is more than just aesthetics. It is a quality feature that stands for the perfect synthesis of form and function as we aim to create design permanence wherein the products would look good as it is now in 10 years,” said Nikki Sevilla, LIXIL Water Technology Asia brand manager, of the award.

A MORE RESILIENT STUDY CENTER
One of the recipients of the Grohe Zeitgeist Design Awards, Project Streetlight Tagpuro, emerged as the winner in two categories: the Civic and Community — Completed Buildings and Small Project of the Year. BusinessWorld spoke to architect Sudar Khadka of LVLP on the sidelines of the exhibit launch about the team’s project, the construction process, and his take on the “spirit of the time” of architecture.

He said that it all started eight years ago when the firm was invited by Streetlight, an NGO providing health and educational support for children of informal settlers, to build a study center in Brgy. Tagpuro in Tacloban. However, the study center was destroyed along with much of the city when Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Typhoon Yolanda) hit in November 2013.

In an effort create a more resilient facility, Mr. Khadka’s team and architect Alexander Eriksson Furunes collaborated in rebuilding the study center. “Alex is also an architect who is based in Norway and he came to the Philippines. He is involved with the NGO Streetlight because its founder (Erlend Johannesen) is also Norwegian and they knew each other. They did the project (study center) before Yolanda. After Yolanda hit, the project was destroyed so they rebuilt a new facility. [And] we volunteered our services as local architects,” Mr. Khadka told BusinessWorld.

“We used the existing alignment of the trees as a primary circulation access and divided the side between public and private zones. The private zone consists of an orphanage, playground, and study center. The public [zone] consists of a sports ground, an office, and a vocational training center,” Mr. Khadka said of the design and construction during his presentation at the exhibit launch.

Members of Streetlight were involved in the process of building the new facility. Mr. Khadka told BusinessWorld that the biggest challenge of the project was the language barrier between the architects from Manila and the community in Tacloban. Since it was difficult to explain architecture concepts to the locals, Mr. Khadka’s team came up with basic language about building blocks and frames to help bridge the language barrier.

When asked about his idea of the “spirit of the time,” Mr. Khadka replied, “[I think] it’s about trying to rethink and understand what architecture is or what it could be — how it can serve society… [I think] the essential role of an architect is to help people understand what architecture is and how people give meaning to space.”

After three years of designing and construction, the study center was completed in 2016 and is currently operational. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR