Getting to be a habitat

Design is like the unsung hero of a country," says Habitat president Christopher Paris Lacson. "The quality of a culture is reflected in its design, in its architecture. It’s not blatant; it’s just there. If you say Paris, what do you think about?"

"The Eiffel Tower," I say.

"If you think of New York?"

"The Empire State Building."

"Egypt?"

"The pyramids."

"If you think of the Philippines?"

Long silence.

"I rest my case," Lacson says.

That’s how we end our conversation. But it seems to be the whole point since the interview began: Designing for one’s country and people. Getting one’s cues from designs of the past – in his case, designs by his late father Alex Lacson who, for 27 years, ran the Habitat Lifestyle Center – and taking his own and other new designs into the future, products that will remain for years and generations to come.

Habitat recently unveiled its new collection in an exhibit called "The ‘IN’ Exhibit." The one-week exhibit, ongoing until tomorrow, October 20, introduces the new collections at special prices with discounts of as much as 30 to 40 percent.

The collections include lines from Habitat, some of them derived from past designs and given contemporary lines, some of them fresh from the imaginations of the design team headed by Christopher Lacson; from the new division called Atalyer – Christopher’s baby – which features "modern designs for the e-generation"; The Loft, a division that will soon have more accessories and produce modestly priced export items; and East Gallery, which houses the old-time favorites – designs that were produced under the helm of the elder Lacson.

Walking around the floor, you’ll get an idea of what Habitat is all about. First is that these furniture are made to last: "Heirloom-quality pieces" is how Lacson puts it. "We have clients that have had our furniture for 25 years. People say mahal naman, but if you think about it, you’ll be living with them for 20, 30 years. And they are the kind that you pass down to your children."

Second, the designs are very clever: not too trendy, not too conventional. One of the best lines is the Zoa Yang dining set, which combines geometric lines and inventive shapes. From afar, the solid-backed chairs almost look like chess pieces; the table is glass and metal; the buffet table looks like several pieces put together, almost like one of those whimsical architectural skirts that fashion designers like to put out on the catwalk but nobody ever really wears. Surprisingly, this set took its cue from a past design. His father had designed a sofa and an armchair, and with this exhibit Christopher and his team completed the line.

Third, the storeis about living at its most comfortable. The trend for large and high-ticket pieces is to maximize utility. Sofas are wide enough to double as daybeds (or guest beds in fact). Single chairs, like the ones from the Harrington line, are as wide as chairs-and- a-half.

And fourth, Habitat is all about innovation. Take the Harrington coffee table. It has a cabinet in it, which Christopher christened "centertainment" because it can hold a small TV set. Its bedroom set has a foot board with a cabinet that can hold a TV as well. While the Cartel chair, which belongs to the Atalyer division, has speakers in it.

"You don’t need an entertainment cabinet across the room," he says. "We’re trying to pare down the items in a room."

So, will these new inventions take off? "The whole point of this exhibit is to try new things," says Christopher.

The exhibit’s title, "The ‘IN’ Exhibit," is a play on the store’s slogan of making INported items. You’re IN if you buy INported, products made in and manufactured in the Philippines, and created for Filipinos.

This has always been a line that Habitat took: create beautiful things for one’s own market, eliminate the desire to buy imported because, hey, these things are as good as if not better than products made abroad. In an interview with Christopher’s father, Alex Lacson, in 1999, he said, "Filipinos are fond of saying export-quality. To me, it almost says that everything we do for and at home is of poor quality and it’s only when we export something that we put our best foot forward. That’s wrong. Aren’t we proud of our own things here? Of course we are. As a manufacturer, we say everything we do is domestic quality because that’s the best. We give our own people the best that we can produce. I feel very strongly about that."

Christopher Lacson, who stepped into his father’s shoes last year, feels the same way. "Filipinos seem to think that everything good is from everywhere else. We’re proud that our products are designed here, made here and sold here. You can’t get these anywhere else."

Lacson left the country in the early 1980s and stayed in the US for 19 years. Having studied architecture at the UST and UP, he studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, focusing on automotive design first and then product design.

In the US, he designed all sorts of things – from corporate identities to watches, from racing cars to custom decoratives for Neiman Marcus. One of the designs he is proudest of is a wheelchair designed for children with cerebral palsy or children who have lost some of their motor functions. It’s a "mobile stander – children don’t sit in it, they stand on it because weight-bearing promotes growth; that’s how kids grow – they run, they walk, it makes their bones grow. The wheelchair is designed so the child can stand on it and still maintain a semblance of their normal physical characteristics. If you start out as a kid in a wheelchair, you grow up sort of hunched because you’re not put in your normal posture."

He also taught at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco and headed the product design department. "Teaching is great, it’s fantastic when you’re excited about what you’re sharing and the light goes on in someone’s eyes."

So after 19 years of being away from home, Christopher has taken over the reigns of the store his father Alex and mother Carmen built, and looks forward to the challenges. "Stepping into my father’s shoes was tough because Habitat was something he had already established. He lived here. I lived in the US for 19 years straight and did not come back until a month before he passed away. He knew his market. He ran this place, it was his baby."

He admits to being "disappointed" by the state of the country when he came back. After all, he came back to a peso that had lost its value against the US dollar many times over in the past two decades. "I couldn’t imagine how people could let the country go like that. It was a real shock."

But he’s taking his work very seriously. After all, coming back home for him is both "a challenging and a fantastic gift."