CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – A state-of-the-art school building made of bamboo and built to withstand powerful cyclones won first prize in the recently concluded Millennium Design School competition.
The international contest was launched by the Philippine government, the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) and My Shelter Foundation in a bid “to find solutions to the problems of school buildings in the developing world, and in particular those that are constantly faced by natural disasters like typhoons, flashfloods and earthquakes.”
“It aims to solicit the best architecture-for humanity designs from all over the world,” said Illac Diaz, executive of My Shelter Foundation.
The winning designs and entries submitted by architects from all over the world were presented and shown to students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in a forum here.
Diaz, a former student of the MIT, said the designs will be put on exhibit and presented to President Arroyo on May 23. The names of the winners will be announced in a formal ceremony.
The bamboo school building, supported by pillars of steel and reinforced concrete, was designed by a Malaysian architect and can withstand gusting winds of over 150 miles per hour or winds that can uproot trees, houses and destroy school buildings.
The judges unanimously chose the bamboo design because it can bend and flex in strong winds and will rarely break. It has a tensile strength superior to mild steel and is an indigenous material that grows in the Philippines.
The local government of Camarines Sur will soon build the first prototype of the bamboo school building in Barangay Nato, Sagnay.
The Millennium Design School competition is also an initiative of the Private Sector Disaster Management Network, National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), the Department of Education and Department of Public Works and Highways.
The Millennium Design School competition is part of the Be Better, Build Better campaign, a program that aims to come up with innovations to make Philippine school buildings safe, conducive to learning and to devise technological solutions to improve the quality and standards of how these structures are built.
The government will build a prototype of the bamboo school building in typhoon-affected areas and will eventually serve as a model for other Asian regions that are battered by typhoons.
Diaz said they focused on the sustainability of schools because it is one of the most vulnerable to disasters. Aside from using them as structures for learning, they are also used for evacuation centers, he added.
“When they are damaged they are rehabilitated only to be damaged again, and to break the vicious cycle of destruction-death-rehabilitation-destruction, the competition was launched.” Diaz said.
The Philippines is frequently battered by tropical cyclones (typhoons), earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. Based on the yearend report of the Office of Civil Defense, from January 2004 to June 2005, there was an average of 4,500 deaths, 650 missing persons and P15 billion in direct damages equivalent to 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP.
The Philippines is battered by 16 typhoons annually and at least five of them are destructive.
Diaz said that with stable typhoon-resistant schools, the government could save on post-aid funds usually poured into communities after a severe calamity.
“A large part of the funds is spent on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of buildings damaged during the onslaught of typhoons. Millions of pesos are spent on these. What if we can build more disaster-resistant schools to minimize the spending on post-aid and allot this to other needs of the education department. If we think ahead of disaster, the amount of personal damage could be reduced,” he said.
The competition, Illac said, served as a venue to present the challenges.
“The key of the competition is to stimulate innovation, serve as a means of exchange and ensure the widest dissemination of new technologies in the area of learning-conducive, sustainable, disaster resilient and cost-effective school building design. By creating a forum where design, technology, education and disaster management converge, the quality of education can be improved through a best practices manual that could be used worldwide. The competition will also yield the most appropriate green technologies with minimal negative effects on the environment,” Diaz said.
He said now is the time to do something to improve the sustainability of school buildings in the Philippines.
“If First World is trying to deal with carbon emission, we are trying to design our own blueprint in these climate hotspots,” Diaz said.
Manila-Tondo Foreshore International Architectural Competition
The inspiration for the Millennium Design School competition came from a contest in 1976 called the Manila-Tondo Foreshore International Architectural Competition that called for architects to address the needs of mushrooming squatters in the 1970s. The competition coincided with the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements held in Vancouver, Canada also in 1976.
The conference led to the establishment of UN Habitat, dedicated to human settlement development, envisioned to create a paradigm shift towards recognizing that upgrading the standards of living of those below the subsistence level in Manila is a better solution than just physically removing slum areas.
“Several architects answered the global call at that time. We thought why not launch another one today, hence the Millennium Design School competition. It all began from that literature,” Diaz said.
With the help of his former classmate at Ateneo, Dr. Tony Gonzales, they enlisted some important people and organizations to get things rolling.
“We put in the director of the National Disaster Coordinator Council (NDCC), the head of the Meralco foundation, ABS-CBN and gave grants. We also flew to Camarines Sur where I knew Gov. Lray Villafuerte,” Diaz said.
They learned that school buildings, particularly in disaster-prone areas, could not withstand 150 mile per hour winds.
A lot of architects from different parts of the world answered the challenge.
But Diaz said this is just the first step. When asked if the school building would also address the problem of flooding, he said it was just specific to the aspect of cyclone or strong winds since the area where the bamboo school building will be built is in the mountain area of Camarines Sur.
But he said the competition is a good start.
“There are many challenges but we should unite against a common problem, and work for a common solution and get the best standards in the world. Everything is possible. For the longest time, charity was always geared to donating money but one of the greatest donations is the donation of ideas,” Diaz said.
Diaz is one of the Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum of 2008. In 2007, he was awarded National Winner of the DHL Young Entrepreneurs for Sustainability and in 2006, he was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World by JCI International and was chosen as one of the People of the Year of People Magazine.
My Shelter is a non-stock non-profit organization that aims to create a system of sustainability and replicability through its capability-building and employment generating projects. Among its projects are the 25 Earthen Schools in Surigao, Coral Walls development and the innovative peanut shellers for peanut farmers and processors.