MODERNISM AND

CONTEMPORARY
ARCHITECTURE HOA
1946 POST WAR - reconstruction of buildings

neo-classical buildings during the american colonial era was rebuilt

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION - new doctrine proclaimed by the third generation

Filipino architects:

Cesar Concio, Sr.

Angel Nakpil

Alfredo Luz

Otilio Arellano

Felipe Mendoza

Gabriel Formoso

Carlos Arguelles

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

simplifies geometry where in accordance with the demands of honesty in

materials, structure and forms; valuing simplicity over complexity

utilization of reinforced concrete, steel, and glass

represented progress and a decolonizing procedure

ESSENTIAL FEATURE: cubic forms, geometric shapes, cartesian grids, and

absence of applied decorations

STAPLE ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS, 1950s-60s

brise soleil/sunbreaker

glass walls

pierced screen

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 1

thin concrete shells

Architects were sent to America to study and formulate the master plan for Quezon
City (the former capital), 1947

Juan Arellano

Cesar Concio, Sr. (architect of the University of the Philippines)

imitated Niemeyer's St. Francis Church and made Church of the Risen Lord
at Diliman

Manuel Mañosa

Juan Nakpil

Architect Oscar Niemeyer was an inspiration

Tropical latin architecture became the paradigm

Master plan for Quezon City was submitted by Juan Arellano (commission chair),
1949

urban framework

government center (constitution hill)

Washington scheme-Brazilia inspired

1956, the master plan was revealed to the public

1958, construction began

was discontinued due to lack of budget

buildings that were built in the site years later:

Batasang Pambansa

GSIS Building, Aroceros was completed, 1957

part of the 1st batch of the new government buildings programmed for
the new republic

demonstrated the shift from classical to modern

Veteran's Memorial Building

People's Homesite and Housing Corporation

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 2

Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Quezon Memorial Monument

centerpiece of the master plan si

66-meter high

3 pylons topped with female winged figures that represents Luzon,

Visayas, and Mindanao

Ruperto Gaite

Rizal Provincial Capitol

one of the important post-war capital edifices that defiated from Baux-
Arts formalism

Quezon City Assembly Hall

illusion of weightlessness

Juan Nakpil

SSS Building

low poduim

60 meter slab tower cladded with curtain wall

SPACE AGE AESTHETICS

VISUAL LANGUAGE

Long and lean horizontal lines

soaring upright structures

parabolic arches

sharply contracting angles

all alluding to space exploration

architects manipulated material and advanced engineering techniques

allowed buildings to take on new shapes and complex forms

UP Chapel

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 3

Church of the Risen Lord

Union Church

Architect: Jose Zaragosa

anahaw-like cantilevered folded plate roof

Church of St. Andrew's

Architect: Leandro Locsin

biomorphic billowing roof

Artemio ReyeS's residence

Architect: De Guzman

saucer-shaped

Residence of Ignacio Arroyo

Architects: Mañosa brothers

THIN CONCRETE SHELL EXPLORATION, 1955

Church of the Holy Sacrfice

Architect: Leandro Locsin

entire building was molded using only plywood forms

concrete shell sitting on 4in thick ring beam supported by 32 reinforced

columns

flying saucer

Philippine Atomic Research Center

Architect: Cresenciano De Castro

arch-shaped nuclear laboratory building

egg-shaped reactor building

Araneta Coliseum

world's largest domed colosseum until 1963

reinforced concrete cylinder with an aluminum dome

FOLDED PLATE

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 4

a roof structure, whose strength and stiffness was derived from pleated or folded
geometry.

a special class of shell structure formed by joining flat thin slabs along their
edges to create a 3-dimenesional structure

UP International Center

Architect: Victor Tiotuyco

large span folded plate resting on four radiating beams rising at an acute
angle

became the signature element in Juan Nakpil's works

Rufino Building

Commercial Bank & Trust Building

SSS Building

Rizal Theatre

slightly convex facade with 14 pillasters tapering donwards and

cantilevered canopy

CRYSTALLINE SURFACES

National Press Club

Architect: Angel Nakpil

a cylindrical glass tower became the focus

Bauhaus volumetric manipulation

MODERN PLACES OF WORSHIP

Cathedral of the Holy Child (Aglipayan church)

suspended block with sloping trapezoidal walls

Iglesia ni Cristo

mid-20th century interpretations of Gothic Architecture

template was crafted by Carlos Santos Viola, 1950s

BRISE-SOLEIL, SUN BAFFLES, AND PIERCED SCREENS

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 5

devices applied externally to tropicalize and tame the climate insensitive
designs of the international style.

Engineering and Architecture building, UST

Architect: Julio Victor Rocha

initiated the successful use of the brise-soleil

World Health Organization building

Architect: Alfredo Luz

Ermita Center

Architect: Alfredo Luz

Insular Life building

Architect: Cesar Concio

Philam Life Building

Architect: Carlos Arguelles

Meralco Building

Architect: Jose Zaragosa

PIERCED SCREEN

extensively adopted in Manila in the 1960s

diffuser of light and a decorative layer

perforated concrete or ceramic concrete block with various ornamental

punctures

US Embassy Buidling

one of the most noteworthy applications of pierced screen in Manila

Department of Agriculture building

carabao head motif pierced screen

OIL CRISIS, 1973

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 6

Architects realize the failure of modern buildings in the tropical climate (high
energy consumption)

gave rise to the modernist strand: TROPICAL REGIONALISM

TROPICAL REGIONALISM

advocates energy efficient buildings through designs that were both

responsive to local climate and culture

San Miguel Corporation Headquarters Complex

Architects: Mañosa brothers

Landscape Architect: IP Santos

Development Academy of the Philippines

Architect: Felipe Mendoza

Benguet Corporation Building

Architect: Leandro Locsin

GSIS Building

Architect: Jorge Ramos

1950s, building height was limited to 30 meters

AMENDMENT OF MANILA, ORDINANCE NUMBER 4131 - building height
restrictions was abolished

Picache Building

Architect: Angel Nakpil

considered to be the first skyscraper of the Philippines

12-storeys

Insular Life Building

first office building to surpass the old height restrictions in Makati CBD

Ramon Magsaysay Center

Architect: Alfredo Luz

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 7

EXPOSED AGGREGATE FINISH

first introduced by Architect Cresenciano de Castro

eliminated the need to paint the exteriors

a brutalist tendency

Asian Development Bank building

Cultural Center of the Philippines

Central Bank of the Philippines

SUBDIVISION DEVELOPMENT

planned satellite communities patterned after the American suburbia

People's homesite and Housing Corporation (now National Housing

Authority)

Philam Life Homes

one of the best planned subdivision at the time

modular system with 24 schemes for a bungalow derived by the

design of Architect Arguelles

Ayala and Ortigas

upscale subdivision

houses were designed by architects picked by owners

sprawling California bungalow with a lanai and a two-car garage - the 1950s
symbol of domestic effluence

Multi-story departments - modern housing

Monterey Apartments

Carmen Apartments

NEO-VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE, 1960s

local architectural and cultural heritage as a source of design inspiration

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 8

Maranao and southern Philippine motifs

Sulu Hotel

Architecs: Mañosa brothers

Max's Restaurant

Architect: Francisco Fajardo

Holiday Hills Golf Club House

Architect: Felipe Mendoza

PHILIPPINE PAVILIONS

Philippine International Fair, 1953

building motifs for the projection of national image

pavilions

Brussel's Universal Exposition, 1958

bahay kubo inspired pavilion with a high pitched roof made with
transparent plastic

Seattle World Exposition, 1962

cuboidal pavilion with exotic ornaments by Luis Araneta

less literal interpretation

New York World's Fair, 1964

Architect Otilio Arellano demonstrated the interaction of native design

and space age aesthetics

roof assumed the form of a wide-brimmed salakot resembling a

levitating spacecraft

World Exposition in Osaka, Japan, 1970

Architect: Leandro Locsin

pavilion with an exaggeratedly protruding form interpreted as a bird in

flight

ISANG BANSA, ISANG DIWA

architectural agenda of the Marcos regime placed under Imelda Marcos

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 9

singular national architectural style (indigenous architectural icon as design
trajectory)

Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex

Architect: Leandro Locsin

abstract cubist with the essential characteristics of the bahay kubo

reinterpreted by means of crisp, modernist masses

CCP main theatre

Folk Arts theatre

Philippine International Convention

Philippine Center for International Trade and Exhibitions

National Arts Center

Architect: Leandro Locsin

building dominated by the huge truncated pyramidal tiled roof

supported at four corners by eight triangular buttresses

became the theme for other state buildings

Batasang Pambansa

Baguio Convention Center

Mass housing program

vernacular paradigm to develop prototype houses

1981

Geronimo Manahan with Ministry of

prototype of the passive cooled urban house

FRANCISCO MAÑOSA

Coconut palace

hexagonal plans

roof in the form of salakot

advocates climate responsive vernacular architecture

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 10

Ateneo Professional Schools

Pearl Farm Resort

Mary Immaculate Parish Church

Aquino Center

Bamboo Mansion

his own home

POST MODERNISM

1980s

architects got bored with modernism architecture because of its lack of

ornamentation

ornament in buildings

eclectic design from classical revivalism to visionary deconstructivism

heavily influence by classical architecture

juxtaposed symbolic elements

Tower on the podium

tripartite division of columnar architecture

adopted in commercial buildings

reinvented the cityscape with a potential illusion with escapist fantasy

environment of micro cities

Eastwood

BGC

Rockwell

Megamall

Greenbelt

new urbanism

exclusive gated neighborhoods

neo-victorian to mediterranean style suited for tropical climate

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 11

MODERNISM AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HOA 12