The architecture of the Philippines reflects the country’s complex

cultural identity. First colonized by Spain, then Japan and finally

America, Filipinos joke that they spent 400 years in a convent, five in a
prison camp, and 45 in Hollywood. This complexity finds its creative
expression in the work of these six post-war architects, whose vision
simultaneously captured the country’s history while looking towards
the region’s future.

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Manila street scene | © Pixabay

Leandro Locsin
Leandro Locsin (1928-1994) was in some ways a quintessential Renaissance
man. A brilliant architect, interior designer, artist, and classically trained
pianist, Locsin was also a keen art collector, amassing a sizable collection of
fine Chinese art and ceramics during his lifetime. It is for his buildings,
however, that he is remembered. From airport terminals to memorial chapels,
arts centers to stock exchange structures, Locsin left his mark on the urban
landscape of the Philippines.

Locsin was determined to reconfigure western architectural mores for a

Filipino audience. His most substantial contribution to Filipino architecture is
the Cultural Center of the Philippines, a collection of five buildings that
demonstrate the architect’s drive to find a vernacular form of modernist
architecture. The National Theatre building within the complex is a good
example of Locsin’s trademark style. Known as “floating volume,” it consists of
a two-floor-high block of travertine marble cantilevered 12 feet into the air. The
theatre harks back to traditional Filipino dwelling huts, but on a monumentally
modern scale.

Despite the wide range of buildings Locsin created, all of them have one thing
in common: concrete. His ability to make this most monolithic of materials
appear weightless, and to elegantly combine Western brutalism with
vernacular elements, led Locsin’s peers to dub him the “poet of space.”
 UPLB Public Library, designed by Leandro Locsin | © Julia Sumangil/Flickr

Ildefonso P Santos
The father of Philippine landscape architecture, Ildefonso Paez Santos, or IP
Santos as he was known, created some of the best-loved urban spaces in the
Philippines. Landscape architecture, which deals with parks, plazas, and
green spaces, was a little-considered element of urban planning in the first
half of the 20th century. However, Santos changed that, carrying out
pioneering work that, after four decades in the profession, led him to become
National Artist for Architecture in 2006.

One of his earliest successful projects was the Makati Commercial Center, an
outdoor shopping mall in which the shop fronts and walkways were
interspersed with garden trails, fountains, and public artworks. This led him to
be commissioned to revitalize Manila’s Paco Park, the work for which he is
perhaps best remembered. A former Spanish cemetery and Japanese
ammunitions store, the park was transformed into a national park in 1966.
Between 1967-1969 Santos revived the park’s grounds and incorporated the
original park structures, including memorial sites and fortification walls, into a
space for urban recreation.

View from the pathway at Paco Park | © Wikimedia Commons

Pablo Antonio
One of the first exponents of modernist architecture in the Philippines, Pablo
Antonio (1901-1975) is revered as a pioneer and the foremost architect of his
time. This success was perhaps unexpected for a boy who was orphaned at
12 and who dropped out of his first architecture program. It was during his
studies at the University of London that Antonio began to shine, completing a
five-year program in only three years. He went on to revolutionize popular
architecture in the Philippines, eschewing the fashionable neo-classical style
for his own version of art deco. Antonio was acutely aware of the demands
made on architecture by the unforgiving Philippine climate. Buildings such as
the Galaxy Theatre, the Far Eastern University, and the Manila Polo Club
display practical innovations such as natural ventilation systems and
sunscreens, all of which are rendered in Antonio’s signature style: clean lines,
strong shapes, and simplicity. As Antonio’s son Pablo Jr explains, “for our
father, every line must have a meaning, a purpose. For him, function comes
first before elegance and form.”

Far Eastern University by Pablo S. Antonio Sr. | © Wikicommons

Juan Nakpil
The son of veterans of the Philippine Revolution, Juan Nakpil (1899–1986)
was committed to the belief that architecture built in the Philippines should
reflect its culture and people. In his early career, Nakpil spent time studying in
the United States and France, absorbing the lessons of international
architecture. When he returned to Manila in the mid-1920s, Nakpil applied his
new-found knowledge to Filipino structures. He worked on the restoration of
the home of national hero Jose Rizal and, like Locsin, took inspiration from
traditional stilt houses, remaking them in cantilevered concrete on a mammoth
scale. His own holiday home was designed along these lines, combining
traditional nipa roofing (made out of natural materials) with a poured concrete
base. Nakpil worked on dozens of buildings across the nation, from the
Manila Jockey Club and the Quiapo Church, to the Mabini Shrine and
government departments. Despite his determination to make buildings
specifically for Filipino citizens, some of his designs were considered too
radical by the public. Nakpil’s stainless steel pylon, superimposed over a
granite obelisk memorialising Jose Rizal was unpopular and was soon
removed. But Nakpil’s failures were few, and he remained one of the
Philippines’ most popular and revered architects until his death. He was
named a National Artist for Architecture in 1973.

Quiapo Church, Manila | © shankar s./Flickr

Francisco Mañosa
Francisco ‘Bobby’ Mañosa has been challenging architectural convention in
his native country for five decades. He displayed an artistic temperament from
an early age and remained a keen painter throughout his life. Along with his
three brothers, Mañosa eventually chose to pursue architecture, and before
long became the “outspoken champion of indigenous architecture,” thus
popularizing the idea of Philippine architecture for Filipinos.
Mañosa’s distinctive style, known as Contemporary Tropical Filipino
Architecture, is a heady mixture of seemingly incongruous elements. Coconut
lumber, rattan, shell, thatch, and even indigenous textiles are juxtaposed with
hypermodern materials: metal, glass, concrete. The Coconut Palace at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines complex typifies Manosa’s style. Its coconut
gourd roof, coconut shell chandelier, and pineapple fiber bedcovers are
infused with technological innovation for the modern era. In 2009 Mañosa was
designated a National Artist in Architecture.

Carlos A. Santos-Viola
An urbane young man who enjoyed lawn tennis and playing the saxophone,
Carlos Santos-Viola was also a gifted architect. He was a devout Catholic
throughout his life, and many of his best known designs were executed for
the Iglesia Ni Cristo, a Filipino religious group. Santos-Viola created churches
for the group all over the archipelago, designed in a style quite distinct from
that of his contemporaries. Instead of the monumentalism of Leandro Locsin
or the art deco simplicity of Pablo Antonio, Santos-Viola chose to incorporate
Gothic and Baroque elements into his modern churches.

The Central Temple he built for the Iglesia Ni Cristo shows these revivalist
flourishes working in harmony with Santos-Viola’s passion for geometric
shapes and, perhaps more than anything else, functionality. The desire for
functionality informed almost all of Santos-Viola’s work, and he was fond of
asserting that “the structure must not only look good but must also be made
well.”