The 'pinkamagandang bahay sa balat ng lupa' is also very green & very Pinoy

MANILA, Philippines - The winning designs for green Filipino homes were recently put on exhibit at the University Theater in UP Diliman, where design professionals and enthusiasts viewed the model home concepts depicting native values and environmental awareness.

The Pinakamagandang Bahay sa Balat ng Lupa is a design challenge for Filipino architects to build a truly Filipino, truly green house, which was opened to professionals as well as architecture students.

For starters, only the University of the Philippines would have the wit and irreverent sense of humor to name a design competition referencing a popular ‘70s film starring the country’s first ever Ms. Universe, plus the sheer audacity to actually declare the winning entry “Ang Pinakamagandang Bahay sa Balat ng Lupa” — literally translated as The Most Beautiful House on the Face of the Earth.     

Winning this competition means filling a tall order. The joint endeavor of the UP College of Architecture and Lafarge Cement Services (Philippines) Inc., aims to redefine the concept of a “beautiful house,” setting environmental sustainability as a criterion, together with the essential principles of aesthetics, functionality and structural soundness. The cost of the house should be within the range of P750,000, the maximum affordable economic housing loan of Pag-Ibig, and serve the needs of a family of five.

Now, we all know and subscribe to the old adage “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so how does one go about creating the most beautiful house when the very concept of beauty is subjective? 

The key is to let the homeowner inject his own idea of beauty, while reconciling the architect’s vision with the limitations set by the competition — a move that Buensalido+Architects, led by principal architect Jason Buensalido, and his team composed of Emereauldine Eliseo, Ernesto Camillo Medrano III, Raymond John Balmes, Marie Veronique Boncan, Nathan Fabe, Bayani dela Pasion, and Ysrael Guy, built upon and executed, landing them the top prize.        

 “At first I found it difficult to create something that was ‘beautiful’ to me and to whoever would be buying or living in our designed house,” Jason says. “But once I realized that each person’s idea of beauty is different from each other and is, in fact, subjective, it naturally led to the solution of allowing the user to have a free hand in integrating his idea of beauty in the house’s final design.”

One of the house’s most unique features is its customizability. Wrapped with a detached “secondary skin,” the owner gets the freedom to personalize the house according to his preferences using a variety of affordable materials such as green wall (creeper plants on wire mesh), bamboo slats and expanded metal mesh.

 Of course, the prize-winning design did not materialize straightaway. “After each member gave his or her creative input, we began to create the physical scale model. We had to experiment with different materials to see which ones would work, and research about alternative construction methodologies and sustainable technologies,” Jason says, explaining the creative process behind the design.

 The team of talented architects spent a significant amount of time planning, understanding who exactly they were designing for, and figuring out the important issues that needed to be addressed, which they identified as practicality, affordability, sustainability, flexibility, and aesthetics. “The main drive behind the concept is every Juan who no longer strives for a better life because of the harsh societal disparity in our country. I wanted to prove that everyone could have a beautiful and contemporary home, not just those who are well-to-do.”

Aside from the physical structure of the place, love, relationships, and a sense of family all play into the mix to make one’s residence an amazing place to live in, and Buensalido+Architects’ design emphasizes this participatory nature of Filipinos. “Contrary to Westerners, we always want to be part of a group. Our traditional bahay kubo and Ifugao houses are composed of one flexible room where all activities are done, and where families constantly interact. Our design also focuses on strengthening family bonding through the creation of multiple opportunities for family interaction,” Jason enthuses.

Their design obviously sets the mark for sustainability and aesthetics in Philippine architecture — and it was this out-of-the-box concept that got this group the honor of being the designers of the most beautiful house on the face of the earth. “We all expect a house to have a pitched roof, a room to be rectangular, and so on,” Jason muses. “But I believe in an attitude of continual creation and experimenting on new avenues so that I can always bring something new to the table.”

He sums it all up with his own definition of “home”: “It’s not all about aesthetics. A home should be a space of retreat that shelters you from the harshness of the outside world. It is a place where pretensions and masks are absent.”