The Root, the Heart, and the Mind

              A quick survey of our daily broadsheets gives you a cross-section of our Real Estate industry. From the Mediterranean villas, Swiss chalets and Neo-Victorian manors to the sleek modernist condominiums, this shows a very wide selection of styles catering to our various tastes and sensibilities. But what is it behind all of these? What is the driving force for the development of such a broad range of tastes all catering for the Filipino?

 

            The answer is anchored really on what the Filipino considers his or her underlying values. What is the Filipino all about? Dr. Tomas Andres discusses these in his book “Understanding Filipino Values,” which surprisingly has a lot of implications and applications on the direction of our prevailing local architecture. (Particularly in the housing sector)  

 

            Basically, the Pinoy is made of three main things:

-          The Root;

-          The Heart;

-          and The Mind.

 

The Filipino’s Root is the Asian within us, the Malay, Indian, Arab and Chinese influences which have given us our shrewd, pragmatic and conservative nature and the hardy and fiery emotions, all of which are anchored on strong family and tribal values.

 

Architecturally, these manifest themselves as the Bahay Kubo, the fiery colors of Maranao tribal houses, the steep, tiled dragon roofs of Chinese ancestral homes, and other varied vernacular forms. These, despite their humble nature, are actually very well-adapted to our environment, our indigenous materials and our primordial core and behavior as Asians.

 

The Filipino’s Heart is the European within us, the Spanish-Christian and Greco-Roman influences have introduced us to western culture and taste, teaching us our love for the good and refined things in life, which we have learned through the grandeur, splendor and “dating/porma” of Europe, these have brought us our definition of beauty, our fixation for the jaw-dropping, mestiza and our stately “don” demeanor which sometimes borders on the imperious.

 

Architecturally, these manifest themselves as the grand mansions, the majestic cathedrals, and the beautiful to the not-so-tastefully designed full and mid-sized Mediterranean villas which have dotted almost all villages and subdivisions not just within Metro Manila and its suburbs but in the provinces as well. These, by all accounts are already imported forms, which have been tweaked and adapted to local materials and conditions. Of course, many will argue that our old Spanish buildings were actually adaptations of Mexican-Spanish types, but that goes without saying, these are still innately European, and have contributed greatly to our Architectural tastes as a people.

 

            The Filipino’s Mind is the American within us, the straight-shooting, educated, twang-tinged, English-speaking, ambitious, democracy and freedom-loving side of our psyche are all products of our American-influenced educational and democratic systems. It’s not a mystery why almost everyone would go through hell or high water just to get a green card to the ‘tate… almost all Pinoys want to live the American Dream. Proof of this is Jollibee, a Filipino company, which has made its fortune by selling an American product, the hamburger, to an otherwise rice-fed nation, by tuning it to our taste, but adapting the sharp American marketing and management savvy.  

 

Which brings us to the manifestations of this dream, our vision of peaceful/serene suburbia with the Salt-box house with dormers and the wrap-around porch, complete with the white picket fence, the Labrador retriever, the lawn, and the all-terrain, gas-guzzling SUV parked in the garage; or the hip and happening, “Sex and the City meets Friends”- downtown lifestyle, with the 3-storey walk-up flat, the skyline, the city views, the park, the tree-lined sidewalks, the bars and nightlife… all the hallmarks of a cosmopolitan, city lifestyle. 

 

            And all of that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. As you can see, we are an overwhelming mix of the east and the west. I remember during the turn of this millennium, the American and Western press all talked about the wave of globalization that will sweep the world. Apparently they did not hear about the news… that they were the ones who started it way before all the talk of globalization. In fact, we as a country, as a people were one of the first beneficiaries or victims (depending on how you see it). The only difference is that, during the 1500s, trade, information and culture all moved at the speed of a galleon, while nowadays, all of these move at the blink of an eye. But as Newton said it so well, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; the push of colonizers during their periods of active expansion is now met by the equal and opposite reaction of the former colonies… in the form of growing immigration, outsourcing and off-shore production.  

 

            We really can’t blame ourselves much for what has happened in the past, geographically, our country/collection of islands sits at the cross-roads of the east and west. That’s also a key reason why we never seem to have a very strong sense of identity, particularly in the field of architecture.

 

            So, What is Filipino Architecture? Is it the Bahay-kubo? The Bahay-na-bato? The Adapted Mediterranean Villa? The Concrete Salt-box? Or The Modernist Floating Mass? I leave it up to the experts to debate and discuss. But all I know for sure is that we as a society are evolving and mutating towards our own Identity and like a fresh-graduate, just starting to strike out on his own, our designers and architects will have to make sense of all of these influences and be able to meld and harness them into a strong cohesive whole. Truly, it is this raucous mix that makes us Filipino… all of the above… not this or that… but this and that… and that… and that… oh… and that too.