In fact, they were not – and still not yet – licensed architects. They were students from 11 schools, which fielded three entries each for the contest, and the committee awarded its winners last year.
Students from the University of Sto. Tomas, which has a strong tradition in fine arts and architecture, won the top prize, with Pamantasang Lungsod ng Maynila winning second, and the University of the Philippines winning third.
UST holds a contest every year for graduating students as part of the curriculum and every student is required to submit an entry in the first-round, university-wide competition. For Jason Buensalido and Karen Cheung, who graduated last March, it’s an honor to design the place that has come to symbolize the entire archipelago in its 34 years of existence. And indeed, it’s about time Nayong Pilipino got a new lease on life, having lost some of its glitter through the years.
Jason and Karen based their design on the original site of Nayon in Pasay City, which is around 46 hectares and located near NAIA’s Terminal 2. But since the airport will eventually expand and eat up space, it was decided sometime after the contest that Nayong Pilipino should relocate now. The new site is in Pasay City, along the Diosdado Macapagal Highway, on a 15-hectare property.
"It’s a smaller place," admits Jason, "but the advantage of that is it’s more walkable now." The park will be the size of Rockwell Center, which is 15.5 hectares. As we would have said in high school, the size is ideal for WITPWHH (walking in the park while holding hands – or maybe that was Luneta?) among Filipinos who absolutely hate taking long walks under the sun.
The pair’s masterplan and concepts are the basis the professional architects will be working on. So what was about their design that caught the eye of the judges? "I think it’s the interactive features of the park," says Jason. "When we went to Nayong Pilipino, one of the things we noticed was that the general experience of the place was a passive one. You just look and take pictures, you don’t do anything. The generation today, compared with before, is a little more hyped up, they have to be doing something. Di na uso yung just walking and looking around."
Karen adds, "Our masterplan retains the cultural essence of the park but perhaps with a little more things going on, like the Realto area of Enchanted Kingdom. Like there’s furniture making in the Vigan area, food and souvenir booths at each place. You’ll have something to do at every stop."
The fact that these kids (Jason is 22 and Karen, 21) know what they enjoy doing and seeing in theme parks abroad helped a lot. He likes Six Flags Magic Mountain in California; she likes a theme park in China that features miniature houses. So when it was time to design Nayon, they didn’t have to go so far back in their memories to remember what those field trips to Nayon were like and what worked and what didn’t.
Their design combines features of a cultural showpiece and a kid-oriented park. It’s not stodgy and not just for tourists who might want to see what the Philippines is all about. It has several rides (a moving bahay kubo, anyone?) and educational components.
"That’s actually one of the purposes of the whole plan – to reintroduce Filipino culture to the Filipinos themselves, especially to the youth nowadays who are indifferent to our culture," says Jason.
The park is divided into six areas: The Orientation region, the Cultural region, the Activity Center, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
One of the best features of the new Nayong Pilipino is the mobile bahay kubo, which takes park goers to the different areas. While on it, you’re going to be oriented on what you can expect from the park and a brief background of the Philippines.
"The inspiration for the bahay kubo on wheels is bayanhihan, where people used to help each other transfer their houses by carrying them on their shoulders. Here, the bahay kubo is moving on tracks," he says.
There’s also a cable car ride to view the miniature map of the Philippines from the top. A House of Costumes lets park goers pick out costumes to wear around the park – a native hat or robes to wear over their clothes – "so they don’t have to hire mascots because the visitors themselves will make the park festive."
Carosas will be displayed in the museum and they can also be used in the Cultural Plaza where replicas of different statues from all around the Philippines, like the MacArthur statue in Leyte, will be displayed.
Jason says the center of the park is the Activity Plaza. Here they can hold shows, sinakulos and Filipino games.
Okay, given all these features, do these young architects think people will be making full use of them?
"Oh, yes," says Karen and relates that when she and Jason visited the old Nayong Pilipino before they started on their design, they noticed that young children were playing around the Chocolate Hills area instead of just looking.
Aside from the places found in the old park, they added two new ones to the list: Palawan with its Underground River and Boracay. That’s not to say that they’re going to be shipping loads and loads of Boracay sand like a certain presidential, uhm, girlfriend.
"We’ll have an Underground Aquarium integrated into the Boracay area," says Jason. "We’re trying to replicate the tourist places the government is promoting to give visitors a feel of what the place is going to be like."
This means that every area will have its own showcase of native foods and souvenirs.
It’s an ambitious project all right, but do we have the budget to do all this? Jason says the original budget for the new Nayong Pilipino was pegged at P450 million and besides there are some things they could recycle from the old park. But since the site has shrunk to a third of the original site, the budget would also be less and they will have to reevaluate some of the features. That, it would seem, is their first taste of the real world of architecture: Compromise.
"I’d like to say that we have faith in Atty. Planas," says Jason. "Usually after getting the plans, people who hold competitions forget the designers. She, however, makes it a point to involve both of us at every meeting."
Things are moving slowly, but they are moving. The pair hopes that pretty soon the construction will actually start.
Jason and Karen will take the board after gaining two years of experience in the field (a board requirement). He wants to be an urban planner because he likes "the idea of architects influencing or starting a new way of life for people. If doctors can heal or change a person’s lifestyle, architects can do that on a big scale as well. Look at Rockwell Center, ang laki ng nabago in terms of convenience and traffic, at least for its residents. Everything is walkable in five minutes, whether you want to worship, play sports, shop or study. If I were to design Metro Manila, there would be a lot of sustainable communities, many Rockwells where people don’t have to travel far to get to work."
Karen wants to concentrate on residential design "because that’s where it all starts. If you feel good at home, you’ll feel good at work."
Though they have been influenced by modernist architects, Karen and Jason agree that architecture can have both a sense of nationality and a global perspective.
Jason says, "I’m proud to be a Filipino and whenever I design something, I inject principles of Filipino architecture and interpret it in a modern way."
Just like in the cultural park waiting to be rediscovered by a whole new generation of Filipinos.