Pinoy Architecture at the Grassroots

Despite the lack of space and limited budget, Pinoys are still able to build nice and cozy houses with fascinating interior designs. The first thing I take note when visiting homes is the spiritual ambiance, and then the ingenuity of the house design. Not just the design per se but the mood the design puts on you. It's easy to come up with good house designs. But I like watching how limited conditions were remedied with ingenuity and artistry, resulting in a nice and practical architecture. To me that's Philippine Architecture.

Photo above by Dianne Cabahug, Bantayan Island, Cebu, on Unsplash.

I also like seeing grand and posh edifices which people have come to know as Philippine Architecture. Master pieces of the renowned Pinoy masters. But what I like better is how Pinoys solve habitat problems, and habitat is not just house design but life that happens inside, and revolves around, the place of habitat. Things like family, religion, tradition, customs, spirit and character, relations, intimacy, neighborhood camaraderie (or kapitbahay culture) and the like, aside from the usual challenges in design like space, circulation, movement, and of course, the ubiquitous budget challenges. All that is Pinoy architectural ingenuity.

Like the extended family. A lot of people insinuate the impropriety of extended families, how one property should be habited by one family only, and that being the practice in the US, Pinoy families should follow suit. But like it or not, Pinoy family is often extended. That's how the typical family here is, at least at the grassroots. The wealthy minority can afford the 1:1 ratio, but that's not the "typical" Pinoy family. Being wealthy is not typical here. Grassroots is the typical.

But I do understand 1:1 advocates, those that espouse one house to one family. They'd rather preserve houses in their original look than have them extending yearly to give way to an expanding family. But Pinoy architectural ingenuity is exactly that attitude of inclusiveness, expressing itself in an inherent architectural character of ingenious and exhaustive space utility with extreme budget stretches. That's very Pinoy.

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Kapitbahay Culture

The kapitbahay culture is something other countries, especially the developed ones, cannot replicate, even in their Filipino communities. The culture is almost exclusive to the Philippines, finding something similar to it in other Asian countries. In few developing countries like the Philippines can this culture thrive because we have a lot of free time--we are genuinely freedom loving people. Free time with loved ones is so important to us which few companies here appreciate. And true Pinoy architectural ingenuity should always have the kapitbahay culture, or neighborhood camaraderie.

I love seeing this Pinoy culture blending with Pinoy life in Pinoy neighborhoods and homes, sometimes even given leeway in raw, innate, and unsophisticated architectural designs. Have you seen how houses are interconnected by alleys and narrow passages (iskinita) or secret rooms? Or family or clan houses clustered in compounds? I've seen how houses are so closely built together that residents on the second floor cross over to the other houses by merely stepping out of their windows, walking on a roof and then into their neighbor's window. It seems crude and ridiculous, but if given enough study, philosophy, and art--or sophistication, in other words--it can turn out a good, even modern 21st century, architectural design uniquely Pinoy.

It's like football, or baseball, or soccer. They seem classy sports to play because of their sophistication, with uniforms, gears, rules and teams. But you strip them of their complexities and you'd find them no different from our native piko or shato or patintero. If we just love our Pinoy-ness more and give our native games more study, philosophy, organization and art (give it uniforms, rules, playing field, showbiz backing, and commercial sponsors), they'd easily rank with internationally acclaimed sports like basketball. The same is true with Pinoy architectural ingenuity--and Filipino martial arts.

Some people say our crude construction methods are only good for squatter colonies. They say we should learn how to build properly. By how to build properly, they mean doing what they see westerns are doing. Well, that's western, and they have indeed brought western architecture to the Philippines. But that will never amount to a Pinoy architecture. Because Pinoy architecture will always be defined by what the greater masses of Pinoys are building in their country. Just like how new Filipino words are added to the language. When a word is used widely by the masses, it is added in our dictionary.

I hope, one day, somebody would come up with the idea of giving more study, philosophy, and art to authentic Pinoy architectural ingenuity, which is grassroots and with a kapitbahay culture.

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