HOA 314 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 4 Module 3

I. Module 3 Title : American Colonial Period and Post War Period

Course Title : History of Architecture 4: Philippine Architecture
Course Number : HOA 314
Course Description : Reflections on Architecture in the Philippines: their changes and
challenges in contemporary life and ideology of conserving its
architectural legacies
Total Learning Time :2 units = Lecture – 2 hours per week (2 hours/week)
Pre-requisite : History of Architecture 3
II. Overview : This module covers American Colonial Architecture in the Philippines
from 1900s down to Post-war (WWII) period
III. Learning Outcomes:
After completing this module, the students should be able to:
1. Gain insights in the evolution of Philippine architecture; the local
culture and traditions, and
2. Understand the Filipino culture, behavior and traditions, and its effects
on architectural space and design.

IV. Indicative Contents: Topics

A. Introduction
B. Colonial Sanitation
C. The Masterplan
D. Architectural Styles
1. Mission Revival
2. Neo-classicism
3. Art Deco
4. Neo-Renaissance
5. Neo-Gothic
6. Victorian
7. Italianate
E. Gabaldon
F. Filipino Architects
G. Whole New City and WWII
H. Post-Independence and Postmodern Architecture in the Philippines

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V. Discussions1:

With Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American war a new era dawned. A new architecture
emerged shaped by American Imperial ambition and the logic of manifest destiny. After pacifying
the Filipino rebellion, the American occupation forces turned to rebuild the Philippines. The
Americans sought to reshape the Manila's urban environment after an imperial image of a well
ordered healthy and beautiful tropical city.
To do this, the military government under General Arthur McArthur placed all public
works concerns under the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The corps also undertook
the improvements of the port of Manila. Soon after, the commission created the Bureau of
Engineering and Construction of Public Works and the Bureau of Architecture and
Construction of Public Buildings to oversee the production of colonial infrastructures. Through
these agencies the American regime deployed its resources to build public architecture. It was
also within the institutional framework of the BPW that the Filipino pioneer architects would
receive their architectural tutelage.

1
Discussions for this module were primarily taken from Arkitekturang Filipino 4: Imperial Imaginings: American
Architecture in the new Tropical Colonyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LneCpKs_WvA&t=25s

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B. Colonial Sanitation
The early years of American
occupation was beleaguered by a
succession of epidemic diseases and
ordinances were issued to regulate and
modify vernacular dwellings. This
brought many technological changes to
Filipino domestic space in the name of
colonial sanitation.
The resulting hybrid house was
called “chalet.” This house was a single-
story structure with a front porch
constructed of either entirely of wood or a
combination of ferroconcrete and wood.
To stop the unsanitary practice of
bathing and washing in the esteros, the
community established a new type
communal architecture that combine the
functions of toilet, bath and laundry
supplied continuously with clean water.
The Americans introduced in 1908
the neighborhood concept known us
“sanitary barrios” which permitted nipa
houses to be built on highly regulated
blocks of subdivided lots.

C. The Master Plan

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One of the priorities of the colonial

administrators was development of the master plan
for Manila and Hill Station in Baguio. Their aim
was to install a sense of cosmopolitan arrangement
to Manila’s chaotic patch work of communities and
created an upland hill resort in Baguio. Daniel H.
Burnham, a prominent American architect was
appointed for the job. Burnham’s corpus of work
earned him a reputation as the Father of the City
Beautiful Movement. Carefully designed vistas, Grand Civic
Center, Axial and Radial Boulevards, Classicist formality, and
green open spaces and parkways are hallmarks of the City
Beautiful. The master plans aimed to reconfigure Manila and
Baguio as a testimony to American Imperial presence and
technological modernity.
For the implementation of his urban directives, Burnham
endorsed William Parsons. As consulting architect, Parsons was responsible for the design of all
the public buildings and parks for the entire colony.

D. Architectural Styles
1. Mission Revival
Meanwhile, Insular Architect Edgar K. Bourne, chief of the Bureau of Architecture,
designed set piece architecture that mimic the Spanish colonial buildings – the Spanish mission
revival. The Government laboratory, the municipal building of Manila, the insular Ice
Plant and Cold Storage, Government printing office, and Customs House exhibited the
pension of pseudo-Spanish imagery.

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2. Neo-classicism

Guided by the master plan, neoclassical monumental forms slowly rose in the landscape
working to enhance the imperial image, colonial commerce and native discipline. Neoclassical
Capitol Buildings, the embodiment of the American Republican Ideals rose in every provincial
urban center. And it was through this style that the processes of democratic apprenticeship were
made more tangible in modern reinforced concrete buildings sponsored by the colonial state. The

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Normal School, the Philippine General Hospital, the Manila Hotel, and the Provincial Capitol
Buildings of Albay, Pampangga, Ilo-ilo, Capiz, and Laguna were samples of his works that
embody this aesthetic gesture.

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For capitol and municipal complexes, Parsons accorded this structure with the logical and
convenient scheme placing them in the park-like setting in a position of dignity and repose.
Parsons’ neoclassic designs for the capitols became the archetype for all succeeding capitols
built before and after the war. His contribution to local architecture was the improvement of
the quality of construction materials and technique. After designing the insane hospital in San
Lazaro, the first reinforced concrete structure of the government, he promoted the use of ferro
concrete as the standard construction material for all government architecture.

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3. Art-Deco

By the late 1920’s and 1930’s the dominance of neoclassicism was challenged by the
second generation of Filipino architect who returned from their overseas studies and European
trips. The leading protagonists were Andres Luna de San Pedro, Fernando Ocampo, Pablo
Antonio, and Juan F. Nakpil. They introduced innovative ideas and noble ways of utilizing
non-classical ornaments which stir Philippine architecture to a new direction - the Art Deco.

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The Buildings of the Art Deco, were given to profuse abstraction and stylization, rich
ornamentation, colorist effects, dramatic massing in simplified geometric forms, as well as exotic
imagery derived from non-western sources. The later manifestation of Art Deco, the Streamlined
Deco, evoke the imagery of machine and mass production. Art deco’s exuberant exoticism and
ornamentation were deployed in the façades of the El Pope building, Bautista Nakpil Pylon,
Metropolitan theatre, Santos House, and Mapua House.

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While the strip classicism of Bulacan Capitol, Cebu Capitol, and the Sariaya Municipal
Building, demonstrated the transition from classical to Art Deco of government edifices.

The steppe or zigzag silhouette of Art Deco was best captured by the Insular Life
building, Bauan Municipal Building, and the pylons of the Quezon bridge.

The streamline and maritime imagery admirably applied to Rizal Memorial Stadium,
Haialai Building, Marsman Building, Lopez house, and the Far-Eastern University Main
Building. The craze of art-deco coincided with the establishment of movie-going as a national
past time. Art-deco provided a fascinating escape which common Filipinos found in the common
architecture of cinema palaces for a mere price of a ticket. Fantasy architecture prevailed.

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4. Neo-Renaissance 5. Neo-Gothic

6. Victorian 7. Italianate

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Apart from receiving technical training from the offices of BPW, deserving Filipinos who
aspired to be architects were given scholarship by the government under the Pensionados System.
Upon graduation from an American community, Carlos A Barretto, Antonio Toledo, Tomas
Mapua, and Juan Arellano, were absorbed in the colonial bureaucracy as high profile civil
servants. This batch of architects together with Maestro de Obras: Arcadio Arellano, and Tomas
Arguelles earned a place in the annals of Philippines Architecture – as the first generation
architects. Some of them ventured in other styles, such as Art Nouveau, Neocastellan, and the
variety of historical Revivalism.

E. Gabaldon

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F. Filipino Architects

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G. Whole New City and WWII

In 1934, the United States Congress mandated the establishment of Philippine
Independence within twelve years. As a first-step the commonwealth of the Philippines was
established in 1935 as transition government with Manuel L. Quezon sworn in as first president.
With the rapid population growth of Manila, Quezon contemplated a whole new city, built from
raw land to absorb the expected urban
sprawl. But the Pacific War would
frustrate Quezon’s urban vision.
With clouds of war at the horizon,
General McArthur declared Manila an
open city on December 1941, to spare
the city from damage from the
advancing Japanese Imperial Army.
The outbreak of World War II and the
subsequent Japanese occupation of
the Philippines brought widespread
poverty, suffering and death. The
political and economic instability spurred by the occupation, proved to be detrimental to
architectural production would happen during a three-year regime was a takeover of private and
public buildings by the Japanese Imperial Army for military and political purposes. In February
1945, the Americans set to reclaim Manila.

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The last days of war witnessed

the wholesale destruction of
Manila’s built heritage and the
irreplaceable treasures of
colonial architecture.
As Filipinos moved on
post war reconstruction, they
were gripped by nostalgia for the
nation, a sense of mourning for the things lost during the war. Rising from the ashes, it was time
to build a new nation.

H. Post-Independence and Postmodern Architecture in the Philippines

At the end of Pacific war, Manila made in ruin. Yet, war-torn Manila rose again. Out of
the ashes, Filipinos moved on to rebuild their lives and found in modernism the foundation in
which to erect a new nation.
On July 1946, the Philippines Islands became the independent republic of the Philippines.
The US war damage rehabilitation fund was also instrumental in resurrecting Manila’s prewar
neoclassical splendor. The Manila City Hall, Post-office building, Agriculture and Finance
buildings, Legislative Building, and a group of buildings in the University of the Philippines in
Manila were rebuilt approximating their original plans.

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The construction boom followed suit. The architects joined the reconstruction euphoria.
Postwar austerity meant straightforward and no-nonsense architectural forms which modernism
readily supplied. Form follows function, was the new doctrine proclaimed by the third-
generation Filipino architects namely: Cesar Concio, Angel Nakpil, Alfredo Luz, Otillo Arellano,
Felipe Mendoza, Gabriel Formoso, and Carlos Argueles.

Modern architectures simplified geometries were accordance to the demands of honesty

expressed in materials, structure and form, maneuvered and restraint rather than indulgence,
valuing simplicity over complexity.
Mid-century modern aesthetics was also influenced by new materials and scientific
events particularly space exploration which fueled much faith in technology and the future. This
so-called space age of the 1950’s had since been translated into a visual language of long lean
horizontal lines. Suggesting airplane wails, soaring upright structures and parabolic arches that
direct the eye to the sky and sharply contrasted angles that express speed. Elevations and
building materials including reinforced concrete, plastic and steel, made it possible for architects
to manipulate materials to the point where buildings became sculptures.

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Advanced engineering
techniques allowed
new shapes and
structural
configurations to be
performed in thin
concrete shells,
concrete folding plates
in space-framed
structures. Soft
modernism as the
name implied
experimented with the sculptural potential of concretes plasticity to come up with soft and
organic forms with the use of thin shell technology.
Folded plate on the one hand was a roof structure whose strength and stiffness was
derived from pleated or folded junk tree. It was of a special class of shell structure formed by
joining flat thin slabs along the ridges so as to create a 3-dimensional structure. The Brise-soleil,
sun-baffles, and pierced screens, were simple devises applied externally to tropicalize and
modulate the climate insensitive designs for the international style.

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An improvement on the Brise-soleil, and pierced-screen was extensively adapted in

Manila during the 1960’s. The pierced-screen function mainly as the diffuser of light and doubled
as decoratively for the exterior. It is fabricated from perforated concrete or ceramic box, pre-
cast concrete, or aluminum bars with various ornamental punctures.
After the oil crisis of 1973, architects began to realize the failures of modern buildings in
the tropical climate. As such, Filipino architects were compelled to backtrack and re-evaluate
vernacular building traditions as sources of energy efficient design which in effect gave rise to
modernist strand known as tropical regionalism.
With the amendment of Manila ordinance no. 4131 in the 1950’s
a high rise fever swept and redefined Manila skyline. Angel Nakpil’s
Pecache building considered as the first skyscraper in the Philippines
reached 12 stories high. The Insular Life building was the first office
building to surpass the old thirty-meter height restriction assuring the
vertical trend in Makati. To address the widespread homelessness, the
people’s homesite and housing corporation now known as the National
Housing Authority, new suburban communities were developed in
Quezon City project sites. These projects offered various types of low-
cost concrete bungalow units. The bungalow thus become the
convenient post-war housing.

For middle income households, the residential units in fill in life homes were designed on
modular plan existent by Carlos Argueles. In upscale subdivisions established by Ayalas and
Ortigas families, homes were designed not by company architect but by an architect
commissioned by a home owner such allowed a great variety of domestic architecture in which
the side of the cart board was an index of status.
Tall and multi-story departments played a new role in providing Filipinos with modern
housing. Monterey apartments and Carmen apartments epitomized the modernist high-rise
apartments of the period.
By the middle of the 1960’s young architects and designers began to reappraise the
country’s rich architectural and cultural heritage as a source of design inspiration. Local

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architects adapted Maranao and Southern Philippine motifs exploiting Vinta colors and roof’s
silhouettes resonating ambiguous Malayan figuration.
The dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970’s hailed the promise of national
rebirth and resurrection of old Filipino traditions. The cultural and architectural agenda of the
regime was placed under the auspices of First Lady Emilda Marcos who dubbed herself as the
patroness of the arts and tended the culture of Renaissance sought in Asia.

The colossal projects of the Marcoses, cultural

buildings, finance complexes, medical centers, bliss
hotels, convention centers, sports complexes,
airports, official residences, and a Filipino theme park,
projected an image of progressive and modern nation
state.
The essential characteristics of Bahay Kubo, are reinterpreted by means of crisp
modernist vocabulary in the cantilever projections in Leandro Locsin’s buildings at the cultural
center at the Philippines complex. The CCP main theater, folk arts theater, Philippine
International Convention Center, and Philippine Center for International trade and exhibitions
demonstrated Locsin’s application of abstract cubist principles to distill the essential floating
qualities of the Bahay Kubo into structural
edifices.
A more profound allusion to the Bahay
Kubo and the departure from the modernist
box, is Locsin’s design for the National Arts
Center. The pyramidal superstructure evokes
the rooflines of Austronesian stilt dwellings.
Such imagery was later rehashed by the state
buildings like the Batasang Pambansa and
Baguio Convention Center.

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Taking the same romantic nationalist strategy Francisco Manosa used an imitative and
straightforward approach for his Tahanang Filipino, or Coconut Palace. Through this watershed
building, Manosa began to align more firmly his practice towards the advocacy of climate
responsive vernacular architecture. A body of work which made him the fraternal figure of
Filipino neo-vernacular movement.

Modernism in the Philippines began to lose its popular appeal by the 1980’s as many
came to realize that the austere modernist boxes were boring and lack character.

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Post-modern architecture altered the landscape with buildings proclaiming the

resurgence of ornament as an antidote for modernism’s renunciation of history and tradition.
The minimalist dogma of modernism “less is more” was supplanted by a counter doctrine “less
is a bore.” Post-modernism adapted a populist aesthetic language heavily influenced by classical
architecture. Visually, post-modernism is exemplified by garish application of color, return to
ornament and traditional designed element. An eclectic mix and match of every conceivable
detail for a flashy effect. The post-modern skyscrapers allude to the timelessness of the classical
column. As a way to break its vertical monotony, the tall structure is divided into vertical
segments: podium, shaft, and crown. Typologically this formula called “Tower on the Podium”
is predominantly adapted for commercial and corporate towers because of their mix-used
potential.

The theme park techniques of image making suitably termed as disunification results in a
place of manufactured and controlled imagination. Post-modernism reinvents the city-scape
with a potential illusion and perpetuate escapist fantasy environments as the masterplan
microcities like Eastwood City, Fort Bonifacio Global City, and Rockwell Center. The retail
environment of megamall and greenbelt and gated communities which are all detached and
protected by the harsh realities of third world urbanity. As the process of globalization engulfs
the local architecture of practice, one fears that the period of post-modern architecture might
become the period of post-Filipino architecture. But perhaps in all optimism as in the past the
Filipino will prevail.

END.

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