Cool, Calma & collected

Their story begins thusly.

When the son was growing up, his friends would marvel at the house his family used to lived in. It’s unique, said those long-ago friends who lived in more conformist houses. It’s like a building. A museum, even.

“Everything in the house — from the lamps to the tables, from the décor to the house itself — was designed by my father,” the son shares. “I would go to my friends’ houses and they were all standard, off-the-shelf ones. So, I grew up in a kind of design environment.”

The son, in this case, is Ed Calma. The father is Lor Calma. And both are renowned architects.

You’ve joined us here in Lor’s house in Forbes Park. Look around: two white columns are poised skyward, glass panels reveal a universe of greens, stairs elegantly spiral, and Lor’s metal sculptures in red and yellow variants punctuate the space inside this cluster of boxes, which the elder architect calls home. Museum-like and magnificent.  

The calming architecture of cool: Architects Lor and Ed Calma mount their first show together at the LRI Art Pavilion, LRI Design Plaza. “Recent Works” opens tonight at 6:30 p.m.

Lor Calma, in his mid-eighties, is a titan in the twin worlds of architecture and sculpture, producing iconic works in both fields. He also carved a name for himself in industrial design with his modernist furniture, as well as jewelry design and interior design. Lor is synonymous with clean, well-defined lines, expansive glass and designs way ahead of his time. What Lor deemed modern as far back as the Sixties still looks curiously contemporary now.  

Ed Calma, in his forties, is a managing partner at Lor Calma & Partners. He is a graduate of Columbia University in New York, and took up extensive architecture and planning courses in one of the leading institutions of learning in Rome, Italy. He won a Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award in 2002. He and his team have won for the country two gold medals for the Philippine pavilions at the Aichi Expo 2005 in Japan and once again at the Expo Zaragoza 2008 in Spain.

Father and son are mounting a show, “Calma — Lor and Ed — Recent Works in Art & Architecture” which opens tonight, 6:30 p.m., at the LRI Art Pavilion, LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel Air II, Makati City. The show is on view until June 9.

This is the first time that the two Calmas will be featured in one exhibition; the focus is on pioneering works in architecture, sculpture, interior design, lighting design, jewelry, furniture, virtually the whole spectrum of design. “The exhibit will show sculptural concept models made in metal glass and plaster and analysis drawings showing how forms and spatial ideas are derived. The work shows how the design of every project evolves out from the play of material technology, functional program, and context on the site.”

Ed adds, “You would notice (in the exhibition) that in the Fifties up to the present na hindi nagbabago ’yung design. It’s always been innovative. We don’t follow styles or trends. We’ve always believed in modernism. The designs are timeless. They may come from different periods, but they are all contemporary”

Lor agrees. “The exhibition is a small cross-section of a retrospective. You can see how we started.”

As a working-student taking up architecture at the Mapua Institute of Technology in the early Fifties, in a world still reeling from a World War hangover, Lor remembers Mapua’s two-story wooden building located at that time in Doroteo Jose. He says, “Everything was dilapidated. No (architecture) magazines around. But ang professors namin, pensiyonado ng gobyerno — Harvard, MIT. Magagaling lahat. They were so serious in teaching us. Our exposure (to these professors) was like traveling abroad to get a higher education.”

Ed looks back upon those days as limited (in terms of technology and materials) but they were a springboard for creativity and resourcefulness. He explains, “They had to invent things (out of necessity), and they were more practical. Today, it’s all technology. Technology is influencing the form of the architecture. And you can mix in concrete, metal, glass and steel — it’s a hybrid now. You can cantilever anything. There is no difference as to where you get your idea, but the designs are more elaborate now because of technology.”

Did you know that when Ed wanted to take up architecture Lor initially wanted to dissuade him?   

“I told Ed, ‘Why architecture? Mabibilang mo lang sa daliri mo ’yung successful practitioners — Locsin, Formoso… Dito nagugutom maraming arkitekto. Ang bread-and-butter ko noon is interior and furniture design.”

Ed counters that when his father warmed up to the idea of the son being an architect, Lor shared his design philosophy: “Always control, control, control.”

“He leaves me alone, but he makes subtle suggestions,” Ed says with a smile. “He doesn’t really force it. Diskarte ko na.”

“Avoid too many details or elements,” quipped Lor. “Para kang nag-borloloy na damit. You have to know when to stop.”

“Don’t put too many ideas in one basket,” remembers Ed. “Have one or two ideas and just run away with it. When you’re young kasi you want to put all your ideas in one project. There should be one idea that is clear to whoever’s going to view it.”

The son describes the father’s houses in San Lorenzo and Forbes Park. The first is made up of layers of brick walls with window cuts. The second is a cluster of different spaces bridged together around a main house. “You see the clarity of the design.”

Ed’s own design for National Artist Arturo Luz is simple: a box with entry splits. “(In designing my house) in San Lorenzo, it’s also a box split into several slices like a piece of bread, and then moved (symmetrically).” It is called “The Slice House.” He adds, “It came from a form. And there’s a logic as to how it was made.”

The Agrarian Museum in Baler, Aurora, Quezon

And that is the essence of the Calma exhibit at LRI. 

The. Process. Of. How. A. Form. Is. Made.    

This is Lor and Ed Calma’s vision of designing spaces and what lies in between. Featured in the exhibition are designs for private residences such as “The Edge House” and the Hi Kian Yu and Cuaresma residences; buildings such as the Clipp Center, an office condominium located in Taguig, and The Rice Blade; museums such as the Agrarian Museum in Baler in Aurora, the UP Manila Museum, and The Mind Museum at Bonifacio Global City. Also featured is the design for the Serendra Bridge, a private bridge way for the residents of the Serendra complex that enables them to cross the 26th Street at The Fort.

“How Ed creates architectural designs is the same way that Lor creates his sculptures,” explains Sari Ortiga, a close friend of the Calmas. Ortiga co-owns The Crucible Gallery, which handles Lor’s monolithic sculptures exhibited in The Ayala Museum, SM Art Center and other major venues.

“You could call their work sculptural structures or structural sculptures.”

A red “Origami” sculpture by Lor Calma

Here — inside Lor’s house with those towering white columns, at the heart of the cluster of boxes where spaces can be reassigned — you just have to agree. 

The father and son story, in circular way, is a story of form.

* * *

“Calma — Lor and Ed — Recent Works in Art & Architecture” opens tonight, 6:30 p.m., at the LRI Art Pavilion, LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel Air II, Makati City. The show is on view until June 9.

This is in line with LRI Design Plaza’s eighth anniversary. For information, call 895-1772 or 895-5470.