Philippines, and Architecture, into the 21st Century context (PART 2)

Histarc 4 (last lecture na medyo mas maiksi ) for 1st Term S.Y. 2016-17

Ar. Ronald John B. Dalmacio, uap M_Arch-HDProfessor

Winand Klassen’s idea about Classicism, Modernism, and Deconstructivism (well ata)

Why does man feel isolated and alternated from his fellowmen, from his world and perhaps from God?

Why does he find life meaningless, and consequently feels the urge to search for meaning?

If the search for meaning is a modern phenomenon; how did people of past generations find meaning in their lives?

If Vitruvius did not speak about meaning in architecture, was it because it was not a problem for him and his generation?

The reason may be, that his world and the world of Western Antiquity was a God-centered world.

Much of the architecture consisted of temples and sacred places built in honor of their God.

If we exclude the Greek temple from ancient Greek architecture, little would remain to be contemplated.

It is perhaps no coincidence that one of the great surviving examples of ancient Roman architecture, which contains a vast interior space, is the Pantheon, and it was dedicated, as the name implies, to all Gods.

Up to the Gothic era, the Divine was the primary socio-cultural force.

As it influenced architectural design it also wanted to be expressed, and a cultural force or value being expressed by architectural form, is called its content or meaning.

In the Renaissance a shift from the God-centered universe to a man-centred world occurred.

From now on man wanted to be expressed through architecture, or man wanted to express himself.

The figure of man became inscribed in square and circles, even in floor plans of churches.

Man took center-stage, but this was not yet a godless world.

God had to give up only some part of his presence.

Man discovered that his non-material aspirations were not only and primarily of a religious kind, as they had been in the Middle Ages.

There was a new world of science and art to be discovered, all open to the human mind.

These higher sensibilities, as Sullivan would say, had to be expressed through architecture; that was its meaning.

Man’s involvement in the arts – poetry, music, the theatre, painting, and sculpture – and in science as it was applied in gradually led man away from his involvement with God.

The divine was no longer greatly needed.

Man had asked God for many things which science and technology now could provide

And then there was a freshly acquired confidence in his own reasoning power.

Man considered himself powerful and self-sufficient.

God finally was declared dead, and the Uebermensch appeared.

For a while man relished his newly acquired power and freedom.

• First, he did not notice that by abandoning God, he had lost something.

After all, what he could observe around himself was progress , and it looked like progress for the better.

NSFAD ‘95

The Unity of Spatial Concepts in Philippine Architecture and Other Arts– Prof. Felipe de Leon, Jr.

Points from the essay

POINT 1. “Sabi ko nga kasi napakahirap pagalawin ang architecture because ito ang pinaka communal; social in the sense that you involve a lot of people.”

Like I told you before it’s difficult to move architecture because this is the most communal; social in the sense that you involve a lot of people.

“Actually, we can be very flexible about Philippine architecture if we base our designs on concepts of space found in Philippine culture as a whole.”

Points from the essay

POINT 2. Every culture is a unity. I have not seen a culture which is not a unity. Which means, there is a core concept/s that permeate a culture.

Because there is a core idea in the culture, what ever comes out in painting, would also come out of architecture, and would come out of culinary arts.

However, different might appear but does not explicitly expose the sameness of these ideas.There are different forms. So the thing to do is not to be distracted by mere form, but look at the concepts underlying the form.

The assumption is that culture is one, but there are many aspects.

POINT 3. The concept of “kapwa”.

Points from the essay

“ang kapwa ay sarili natin”

The neighbor is ourselves.

- Dr. Virgilio Enriquez, the foremost

“all people are connected because your connected by one will”

POINT 4. “Utang na loob”.

Contractual ObligationSocial contract

Points from the essay

Western interpretation

We don’t need social contact in the Western sense because we’re not

individualist, we are groupists.

Ang utang na loob is based on the idea of a common kalooban. Shared inner being. Ibig sabihin noon may utang na loob ako sa inyo

maski wala pa kayong ginagawa sa akin.

“Another concept of being”

Capitalism

POINT 5 (last point, kasi ang dami!). The Filipino, because of our sensitivity, and connectedness to people, paligoy-ligoy yan.

But actually this one of the most human characteristics of the Filipino.

Points from the essay

Prof. de Leon summarizes his speech with the following;

• We are very very strong in interpersonal skills, social forms that connect people, creative interaction… improvisation, extemporaneous creativity.

• We are really freedom fighters,• We have a very good capacity for simultaneously, we

are highly integrative.• We are highly expressive, we are very rhythmic, we are

very flexible, we have a very deep faith in God. • We are a highly devotional people and that is why we

are the most spiritual.

Hindi ninyo puwedeing i-repress ang Pilipino. That is why we were the first

country to liberate itself from the colonizers.

Before you leave Histarc 4, these are my suggestions on what you can do to assimilate what you learn to your future arcdes;

• Conceptual

• Phenomenology

Conceptual

Phenomenology

Conceptual

Phenomenology

At the end of the day, you my dear students, will also be history, and

the only thing remains is architecture.

Congratulations for passing Histarc 4.