Living Architecture at the Ayala Museum

-
What in the world is living architecture?!? 

These were the questions in my mind as I first entered the exhibition curated by Pieter van der Ree.

Apparently, my impression was wrong. This exhibit was all about how architecture relate with the natural, the social, and the cultural landscape of a country; how a country gains an international brand or identity based on the skyline and the spaces it offers to its residents and its tourists; how people adapt and incorporate nature into these spaces.

Interesting, I thought, because I just came back from Denmark where UNLEASH facilitators at Brenderup Folk High School walked us through one of their sustainable housing projects. This was architectural design at its rawest (amateur) form. In contrast, the designs that were featured in Living Architecture were all made by world-renowned architects... but they have similar objectives.

Many of the architectural works featured in the exhibit shows how modern architectural philosophies are trying to take over what has been manufactured by older philosophies. For instance, music halls are no longer just buildings with beautiful acoustics. The Harbin and the Sydney Opera Houses feature stunning architectural details both inside and outside. Churches incorporate wood and stone into the design and let natural light shine in. View decks exchange rooftops for open spaces so that they can better blend into the stunning surroundings.

To me, the featured architects are trying to find artistic expression and to break away from the cookie cutter style of designing buildings. Are they following the grand masters (albeit unknown to me) who have left us the classics, both in European and in Asian traditions? I'm not sure. Only time will tell. 

But one thing's for sure: their creations are stunning and interesting to see. And I've only seen many of them in photos. I think I've only seen the Sydney Opera House and the Singapore Super Trees in person.


Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more