HISTORY OF PHIL.

ARCHITECTURE
Milestones in Philippine Architecture
Before we begin to study the architecture of the Philippines, you must first understand the people and the culture from which
it arose, and also their historical background.

 The first inhabitants of the Philippine Islands arrived between 3000 and 2000 B.C. They were of Malay-Polynesian
descent called Austronesians.

 The people lived in groups of 30-100 families in societies known as barangay. Headed by Datu or Raha/Hari or Lakan

 They were mainly an agricultural and fishing people, others were nomadic. Trade with mainland Asia, especially
China, was established by these people

 In the 14th century, Islam was introduced in Sulu and the 15th C. in Mindanao

 In 1521, Magellan stumbled upon the islands in his attempt to circumnavigate the world. This was the introduction of
the Philippines to the western world. What followed was 300 years of rule by the Spanish and the acceptance of
Roman-Catholicism, which led to the building of many great Baroque churches.

 In 1898, sovereignty was given to the Philippines and rule by the United States began. The Philippines gained
independence in 1946.

Philippine Architecture: Pre-Spanish Era

Our ancestors were called Austronesians - meaning people of the southern Islands . They were the first seafarers in the world.
 Caves and rock shelters like the Tabon Cave in Palawan served as shelter for early Filipinos. Later on the invention of
various tools allowed for the fabrication of tent-like shelters and tree houses.
 Early pre-Hispanic house were characterized by rectangular structures elevated on stilt foundations and covered by
voluminous thatched roofs ornamented with gable finials and its structure can be lifted as a whole and carried to a
new site.
Examples:
Ifugao House
Bahay Kubo Maranao’s torogan
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription
 In 1990, Antoon Postma, a Dutch expert in ancient Philippine scripts and Mangyan writing, and a long-time resident of
the Philippines, translated the document that came to be known as the Laguna Copperplate Inscription . It became
the beginning of Philippine History: Monday, April 21, 900 AD.
 The emergence of Islam in the 14th C. in Sulu and the 15th C. in Mindanao led to the building of Mosques, the masjid
and the Mnggar in Tausug and Yakan or ranggar in Maranao, Maranao
 Pagoda shaped mosques such as that in Taraka, Lanao del Sur show Javanese and Chinese influence.

Philippine Architecture: Spanish Colonial Era

 In 1544 the Franciscans built the first hospital in the Philippines, Hospital Real.
 The 1573 royal ordinances of King Philip II, known as Laws of the Indies was prescibed and stated that every town
was to have a gridiron design (cuadricula) with a central square (plaza)
 In 1583 Intramuros was destroyed by fire, requiring all new buildings to be costructed of stone and tile.
 Jesuit Antonio Sedeno introduced stone and masonry construction.
 Implementation of the hybrid type of construction called arquitectora meztisa:
 Wood on upper floor and stone on lower floor
 House posts or haligue supported the 2nd floor
 Stone floors at the ground floor acted as a solid curtain concealing the wooden framework within
 Wooden pegs and dovetail joints connected the wooden structural system together
 The Bahay na Bato, typically two stories with the ground level made of massive cut stones or brick walls and the
upper level built of hardwood, emerged from the 17th to the 19th centuries
 The last quarter of the 19th C. witnessed the rise of accesoria (apartment dwellings), single or two stories high and
having multiple units called viviendas.
 School buildings surfaced: the colegio or universidad (urban areas) and the escuel primaria (pueblos), a cluster of
multi-story buildings in rectangular configuration with acentral courtyard.
 The leading edge technology available at that time was employed to build ports, roads, bridges, lighthouses, railways,
and streetcar systems.
Philippine Architecture: American and Japanese Era
 In 1902, Americans introduced the use of the toilet via pail conservancy system or cubeta in Manila.
 In 1908 the concept of a well-planned neighborhood called Sanitary Barrio was introduced and led to tsalet, a
crossbreed of the tropical features of vernacular buildings with hygienic structural principles and modern materials.
 In 1912, the Bureau of Health endorsed several variations of tsalet
 American architects Edgar K. Bourne and William E. Parsons steered Philippine architecture to the proto-modernist
route. Their works were characterized by unembellished facades with large windows. Daniel H. Burnham, the father
of the City Beautiful movement, was commissioned to design master plans for Manila and Baguio. Burnham endorsed
the appointment of Beaux Arts-trained William Parsons as Consulting Architect (1905-1914) whose contribution
tolocal architecture includes;
 The Kahn system of concrete reinforcement and concrete hollow blocks.
 The use of termite-resistive Philippine hardwood.
 The concept of mass fabrication of standard building types
 In 1904 the construction of the Asylum for the insane in San Lazaro instigated the use of concrete as the standard
construction material for all government structures.
 Buildings that defined the pre-war skyline of Manila include the El Hogar Filipino Building. Hongkong Shanghai Bank
Building, Filipinas Insurance Company Building, French Renaissance Luneta Hotel and the Mariano Uy Chaco Building
 Birth of the “1st Generation” Filipino architects who were sponsored by colonial officials to study architecture and
Engineering in the US. Together with the maestros de obras like Arcadio Arellano and Tomas Arguelles, they
combined Beaux Arts elements - aesthetic proportions, optical corrections- with the influence of modernism and the
concepts of utility and honesty of architecture.
 The “2nd generation” architects, namely Andres de Luna de San Pedro, Fernando Ocampo, Pablo Antonio, and Juan
Nakpil, emerged in the late 1920’s & 30’s and introduced Art Deco characterized by exuberant exoticism and
ornamentation as evident in the facades of these buildings: Metropolitan Theater, ELPO Building, Mapua House and
Bautista-Nakpil Pylon.
Philippine Architecture: Post-World War II Era
 In 1946, the independent Philippines expressed its identity by implementing Modernism through the utilization of
reinforced concrete, steel and glass, the predominance of cubic forms, geometric shapes and Cartesian grids, and the
absense of applied decoration.
 In 1947 a corps of architects and engineers were tasked to study the modern US and Latin American capitals and
formulate a master plan for Manila
 Federico Ilustre, consulting architect from the 1950’s to 1970’s, worked on the building at the Elliptical Road in Q.C.
The centerpiece is the 65-meter high Art Deco Quezon Memorial Monument, composed of 3 pylons topped by
winged figures representing the 3 island groups.
 The 1950’s and 60’s staple architectural element were the brise-soleil, glass walls, pierced screens, and thin concrete
shells.
 The post-war doctrine was “form follows function” professed by the “3rd generation” architects, namely, Cesar
Concio, Angel Nakpil, Alfredo Luz, Otillo Arellano,Felipe Mendoza, Gabriel Formoso and Carlos Arguelles.
 The 1950’s also witnessed Space Age aesthetics and Soft modernism, which experimented with the sculptural
plasticity of poured concrete to come up with soft and sinuous organic forms with the use of thin shell technology.
Examples are:
 Space Age- Victor Tiotuycos’s UP International Center and Jose Zaragoza’s Union Church
 Soft Modernism: Church of the Holy Sacrifice, and Phil Atomic Research Center
 In the 1950’s the height of buildings was limited to 30 meters by law. With the amendment of Manila ordinance No.
4131, a high-rise fever redefined Manila’s skyline:
 Angel Nakpil’s 12-storey Picache Building, considered as the 1st skyscraper in the Phils.
 Cesar Concio’s Insular Life Building, the 1st office building to surpass the old 30-meter height restriction
Philippine Architecture: The New Millenium
 Exemplified by the garish application paste colors and the mixing and matching of ornaments and styles.
 Skyscrapers adopted the tripartite division of columnar architecture (Tower-on-the-Podium) the podium, the shaft,
and the crown.
 Rise of master-planned micro-cities like Bay City, Eastwood City, Fort Bonifacio Global City and Rockwell Center. Retail
environments SM Mall of Asia, Gateway Mall, Trinoma, and Greenbelt Mall: and gated communities of suburban
pretensions.
 Global architectural firms bestow “designer labels” to Mega-structures like
 Michael Graves’s - World Trade Exchange
 I.M. Pei’s – Essensa Towers
 Arquitectonica’s – Pacific Plaza Tower
 KPF Associates’ – LKG Tower
 SOM’s – RCBC Yuchengco Tower
  Architects were labelled as “late modernist” and later as “neo-modernist” and “super modernist”
 Inspiration were drawn from aircraft technology, robotics, and cyberspace as demonstrated by the One San Miguel
Building, and the PBCom Tower, and the GT International Tower.
 Materials such as reflective blue glass or aquamarine curtain walls, aluminum cladding, metallic sun-visors, and metal
mullions are mainstays of millennium skyscrapers.
 Presence of architectural deconstruction, which is characterized physically by controlled fragmentation, stimulating
predictability, assymetrical geometries, and orchestrated chaos like the works of Alexius Medalla, Eduardo Calma, and
Joey Yupangco
 Advances in CAD and CA manufacturing technologies
 Implementation of :green architecture” to reverse the negative impact of buildings on human health and on the
environment by enhancing efficiency and moderating the use of materials, energy and space.

Prehistory and Indigenous – Pre-Spanish Philippine Architecture

I. Introduction
Philippine architecture is very complex, since only few records have been saved, we are still not
sure of our own architecture. In our contemporary era, many buildings are of the Spaniards and above
inspiration. Multiple countries colonized us, as this affects our architecture. Let us lapse to the period
before the Spanish came. What are the edifices seeable? Unlike other countries with records, we may have
a bad time discovering.
Nipa huts will surely come to our mind, also the banaue rice terraces, what else?
Filipino Architecture is not indigenous. It is an admixture of the Muslim, Malayan, chinese and
Spanish influences. the indigenous tribes of the Philippines which were quite a diverse group and of
nomadic nature had little art of building to speak of. Their architectural art was revealed in their houses of
nipa, cogon and bamboo. Although these simple buildings were not as enduring as the colossal pyramids of
Egypt nor as magnificent as the grand temple of Greece, yet they were suitable to the tropical conditions of
the islands.
II. Climate
The climate in the Philippines is a tropical monsoon climate. The annual lowland temperature is
80 degrees F (27 degrees C). It is marked by wet and dry seasons.
a. Monsoons
 Northeast – Amihan
 Southeast – Habagat
III. Geography
 An archipelago of 7000+ islands with more than half of the land mountainous and hilly.
 Land area: 299,681 square kilometers.\
 Coastline: 17,500 kilometers.
 Location: 4 degrees from the equator.
 Known as “Pearl of the Orient Seas”
IV. Geology
a. Domestic Structures – characterized by lightness and airiness
b. Materials used in the Filipino house are found near the site. Depending on the ecology of the area, the
materials may differ around the Philippines. About 44% covered with forest
The major Indigenous building materials used in pre-Spanish architecture are still abundant: bamboo (kawayan),
rattan (yantok), various native woods, native palms like palma brava (anahaw), and nipa palms, cane, and cogon.(a
long grass for thatching)
Stone and clay are sometimes used as well as bricks, limestone, marble, adobe, granite, coral stone, asbestos, lime, gravel,
sand
Many kinds of trees used for building construction
c. Wood variety: 3,800 species
d. Narra, Ipil, molave, yacal, guijo, apitong, tanguile, red and white lauan, almon, palosapis, Benguet pine,
tindalo, kamagong, among others.
e. Minerals - Gold, silver, iron, tin, nickel, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, chromite, aluminum, platinum,
uranium

V. Religious
Worship includes the veneration of spirit: Anitos and Mangales, good and bad, respectively.
 Bathala- creator of Heaven, Earth and men (Kabunyan for the Ifugaos and Laon or Alba for the people in
Visayas)
 Animism
 Good spirits: Anitos; bad spirits: Mangales
  Sacrificing (took place in own home)
Post-Spanish Era
 93% Christian (mostly Catholicism)
 Influx of Spanish missionaries.
 Churches
In 1380, the "Propagation of Islam" began in the Sulu Islands and Mindanao, where Islam remains
the major religion. The Muslim influence had spread as far north as Luzon when Ferdinand Magellan arrived
in 1521 to claim the archipelago for Spain.
These religions affected the architecture of the Filipinos, with superstitious beliefs, people will do
their best to protect their family. Moreover, their construction consists of religious procedure: Site
Selection, Time for building a house, rituals before construction, etc.
Site Selection procedure
 An egg is buried for 3 days,. On the fourth day it is unearthed, if the egg shakes, the
construction is postponed.
 Coconut is buried and left overnight, if it shakes during observation, it means there are evil
spirits.
 Many More
Rituals before starting Construction
 Bukidnons – site shall not have particular trees. Babaylan / healer/pries or a bukidnon may
perform the initial step of selecting site.
 Manobos – In selecting the site of a house, certain omens, dreams and oracles are considered.
 Tausug – House site must be as strong as the strength of the human body. Only in specific
months of the tausug calendar mast a house to be built.
 Yakan – When diiging for the post holes are done, they observes if there are white ants or
worm, if white ants – lucky, worms – corpse
 Batrangueflos – rituals are practiced
 Ilokanos – the father, at the fading daylight, prays in the site.
 Hiligaynoms – Consults an almanac which contains dates, months, lunar cycles, high and low
tides and other events
VI. Socio-Cultural/ Historical
Earliest settlers lived in the Tabon Cave, wherein it is a very large cave capable of sheltering a lot of family.
Early inhabitants are believed to have reached the area over land bridges connecting the islands to Malaysia
and China.
Before the coming of the Spaniards, the primitive non-Christian Filipinos lived in small communities called
barangay ruled by a datu. They were ruled by local laws. the oldest source of law, it was believed, was the
goddess "Lubluban". The laws were announced by village informer who went around the village at night to
make announcements. The laws carried many subjects such as marriage, inheritance, loans, contracts, and
descents. The Code of Kalantiaw and the Code of Maragtas were the oldest laws. They believed in auguries
and superstitions.
Social Classes
a. Nobles – Maharlikas
b. Freemen – Timawas
c. Slaves - Alipin
VII. Other Planning Details
Villages established their house near bodies of water or slashed and burned agriculture.
1. The diet of early Filipinos are foods from the sea, animals like chicken, pig, carabaos are
for ritual or events.
2. Fishing implements provided more yield than those used for hunting
3. Water are means of good travel
4. Bodies of water were the major source for bathing, washing and drinking
Plans
5. Plans were either square, rectangular or octagonal, most are elevated. Avoiding floods
and heat from ground.
6. Roofs are hipped, gabled or pyramidal in form with wooden or bamboo framing
7. Stairs may be a single log.
8. Toilets are separate structures build some few meters away from the house
VIII. Buildings/ structures/dwellings
Tabon Cave
Rice Terraces
Ethnic House/dwellings
 Cave – Tabon Cave in Palawan,
  Lean-To
1. Wind-shield or one-sided lean-to with or without flooring
2. Single-pitched roof supported by tree trunks
 Tree House
1. Bamboo and rattan are most commonly used. To withstand strong wind and storm, the
whole house is anchored to nearby trees by means of rattan
b. Bahay Kubo, Nipa Hut, Nipa House
The structure was usually four-walled with tukod windows which had swinging shades, which could be
propped open during the day.
 There was usually one simple multi-use space on the interior. This open interior again provided
ventilation, but also gave the simple dwelling a spacious feel. This space could be used for
cooking, eating, and sleeping.
 Sometimes the cooking was done over an open fire built on the heap of earth in one corner or
partitioned off in a space in front of the ladder.
 Sometimes, there was an open front porch, pantaw or batalan, where jars of water would be
kept to wash dishes. This gallery also served as an anteroom or lounging area. The structure
could easily be added to, should the need arise.
• Steeply sloping pitch protects it from the wind and rain in typhoon season and also provided wide overhang eaves to
shade from the hot sun.
• Elevated 3 to 4 meters off the ground, supported by 4 or more wood or bamboo posts.
• Space underneath the house, called the silong, can also serve as a workspace, a storage space, granary, pen for
livestock and also aids in air circulation beneath the house. In addition, the raised structure sits out of the floods, and
also keeps small rodents and other creatures from entering the main structure.
• A ladder, hagdan, is used to enter the main structure. It could be drawn up at night or when the owners went out.

1. Location: Low lands all over the Philippines

2. Parts: Plan
 Bulwagan: area for guest, receiving area
 Silid: private room, bedroom, room used for sleeping
 Paglulutuan or gilir: kitchen area
 Dapogan – table on top of the river stone (kalan)
 Bangahan – bangguera/banggerahan place for drying pots
 Batalan – unroofed area where water jars are kept.
 Silong: space found underneath the house used as storage space.
 Floor: Bamboo
Structural Elements:
 Four main posts are erected (main support)
 Walls: made of nipa leaves or flattened bamboo
 2 floor beams: The Yawi patukuran
Protective Elements:
 Cover w/ steep gabled roof.
Circulatory Elements:
 Bamboo ladder, resting on wooden threshold is provide for the entry to the house from the
ground.
Materials:
 Kawayang tinik – cut only from Dec 16-Jan 6, to eliminate all insects soak in river or lake or bury
in sand for six months before using.
 Nipa – the best ones come from Paombong, Bulacan. Other roofing materials: cogon, rice
stalks, sugarcane leaves, split bamboo, anahaw
 Walls: sawali, split bamboo, coconut leaves, abaca leaves, anahaw.
 Rattan for lashing.
Upland and lowland houses
 Houses in the Cordillera tend to be enclosed at times with solid planks of wood and have fewer
or no windows because of the chilly air.
 Lowland structures tend to have a more open, airy interior.
Upland Ethnic Houses of the Cordilleras
Location: Mountains of the Cordilleras
Ifugao House (Baleh or Faleh)
 Single room house w/ an area of 4.oo x 6.oo m
 For cooking ang sleeping
 Floor: 1.5 – 2m above ground made of wooden planks.
  Decorative elements: Carabao Skulls, pig jaws indicate status
ambubulan figure as protection from evil spirits.
 Structural Elements:
 House posts made from trunks of the amuguawan tree buried into a hole dug about half a
meter into the ground.
 Floor girders carved w/ mortises on both ends to fit into the pointed upper end of the posts act
as the tenons support 3 solid floor joists upon which the wood flooring attached by means of
wooden pegs.
 Doors and windows in the cabin allow light and air inside.

Isneg House or Binuron

Binuron, the Isneg house is built slightly off the ground and is also a one-room dwelliing like the fale
but has more light and is bigger.

Bontoc House
The Bontoc house sits on the ground, has a hip-thatched roof and a second floor granary within the
house. The rice granary (right) is a common sight in the Cordilleras.
Carabao horns and pig skulls and jaws are signs indicating the owner’s wealth.
 Kankanay House
 Kalinga House or Binayon
Houses in the South:
The Badjao House
Location: Coastal Water of Tawi Tawi
Plan:
 House built above shallow water using stilts
 Main room: Combination of sleeping area and sala
 Accessible to each other by means of bamboo planks
 Boathouse
 Duenging
 Decorative elements:
Mirror – indication of the # of children the family has, moreover, used for driving away bad spirit
Okir – dominates the sides
The Torogan or Maranaw House
 The ancestral home of the Maranao sultan or datu has a soaring, salakot-shaped roof,
ornate beams and massive posts, all proclaiming exalted status.
 Power posts – the massive posts made from tree trunks portend power. The round stones
on which they rest are believed to protect the house from earthquakes.
 Panolong – the panolong flaring out from the beams is the most arresting feature of the
torogan. Its okir carving usually features the naga or serpent as well as floral and star-and-
bud motifs.
THE SPANISH COLONIAL :ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 1565-1898
Beginnings of settlements
 1565 – settlement of the Spanish in Cebu
 1571 – settlement in Manila, taking over the remains of Rajah Soliman’s fort
 The settlement followed the prescriptions issued by King Philip II in 1573
 Manila became the capital of the Spanish colony and the model for town development
 It also became the center for political, religious and economic power.

City planning
 Principal plaza
 Secondary plazas
 Gridiron pattern
 Cathedral, government buildings, houses of ranking persons
 Initially built w wood and bamboo
 Common cause of destruction: fire
 Volcanic turf quarries were discovered in San Pedro, Makati in the 1580s
Populating and planning the towns
 Reducciones - system of gathering newly Christianized tribes into compact settlements, arranged on a grid pattern,
around a church
 Ordenanzas of 1573 or “Prescriptions for the Foundation of Hispanic Colonial Towns” by Philip II
 A set of 28 ordinances containing practical directions on establishing settlements in the colonies
Plaza Mayor – was the town center
 Church
 Casa Real
 Schools
 Tribunal
 Houses of prominent individuals
The Church Building
 Location: center of the town, choice part of the plaza, acted as refuge during emergencies or calamities
 Convento and bell tower
 Plan: rectangular or cruciform
 Walls: high, thick, supported by buttresses
 Windows: small
 Bell towers: watchtowers
Materials
 Adobe (volcanic tuff)
 Stone
 Coral stone
 Brick
 Combination stone and brick
 Mortar: lime, crushed coral, crushed shells, molasses, sugar cane juice, goat’s blood, carabao milk, egg shells and egg
white
Basic Form
 Plain rear and side walls
 Ornaments are found on the facade:
Columns, cornices, niches, blind arches, blind balustrades, low relief carvings
 Classic traditions for ornaments:
Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Baroque, Rococo, Moorish
Classification based on materials
 De ligero – light construction, tabla (wood), cana y nipa (bamboo and thatch)
 De harigue – with collonade of tree trunks
 De carizo – stone
 De sillar – cut stone
 De mamposteria – rubble
 De cota – old stones from previous construction
 De ladrillo – brick
 De tabigue – rubble, brick or stone
Parts of a colonial church
 Coro – choir area, near the entrance or altar
 Verjas – grills
 Facistol – choir lectern
 Sillerias – choir stalls
 Bautisterio – baptistry
 Naveto – nave
 Comulgatorio – communion rail
 Santuario – sanctuary or altar area
 Altar mayor w retablo
 Sacristy
 Aparadores
Baroque Churches of the Philippines. These four churches were the first built by the Spanish in the late 16th century.
Their architectural style is unique for its reinterpretation of European Baroque by Chinese and Philippine artisans.
 San Agustin Church Manila
 La Asuncion de la Nuestra Senora, Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur
 St. Augustine Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte
 Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Church, Miag-ao, Ilioilo

The Bahay na Bato

Parts of the Bahay na Bato: characteristics
Wall partitions wood with calado above
Ceilings canvas, sawali or tin
Ground floor charcoal, sand or gravel floored over with mortared stone or brick
 Roof hipped at a high angle
with wide overhangs
had vents all around
nipa, tile and galvanized iron
with gutters all around
Windows tall and wide (1m x 5m)
jalousies or capiz shells
had ventanillas w blank boards as cover
Floors wooden on the second floor
slats on the kitchen or dining rooms
Galeria, corredor or galeria volada
Azotea tiled terrace for work and relaxation
where the water from the rains was kept.

GROUND FLOOR
 ZAGUAN -
 CUADRA
 BODEGA
 ENTRESUELO
 ALJIBE
SECOND FLOOR
 CAIDA
 SALA
 COMEDOR
 COCINNA
 DISPENSA
 COMUN / LATRINA
 CUARTO
 AZOTEA