Fresh design talent for export

A new breed of Philippine designers in the construction industry is winning projects abroad.

Filipino talent in design and craftsmanship has long been recognized as one of the country’s top exports. The big news is that it has now broken out of the orbit of handicrafts, Christmas décor and furniture into the higher-value fields of architecture, interior and landscape design.

With projects in Hongkong and Thailand credited to its name, architectural firm Recio+Casas is now preparing to bid for more projects in China and around the region. Aurelio+ACL Asia headed by Efren Aurelio is part of a network of landscape architects with projects in the capitals of Southeast Asia. Only 36, interior designer and architect Isabel Berenguer-Asuncion has bagged contracts for an 18-unit residential cluster in Shanghai and residential projects in Hongkong, Kuala Lumpur and Pang Yu, China. She was about to work on seven model units for a real estate development in Guangdong when SARS hit the city and she put the project on hold.

Eli Pinto, former executive director of the Center of International Trade, Exposition and Mission (citem), observes that Filipinos are acknowledged among the best designers in Asia. As citem head and chief promoter of Philippine design talents in world markets for 11 years, she discloses that the capacity of locals to innovate and interpret trends is unmatched in this part of the globe. In fact, a number of architects and interior designers have had their works featured in international design annuals alongside those of the world’s top names.

Carmelo Casas, senior partner of Recio+Casas, one of the country’s top architectural firms, relates that particularly in the late 80s and 90s when Hongkong was at the height of its construction boom, architectural firms in the Colony considered it prestigious to have a Filipino designer in the team. Filipino talent was so highly-valued in the industry that an architectural degree from the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) carried as much weight as an MBA from a US ivy league university. Inevitably, most Filipino architects practicing in Hongkong then–including Casas and Berenguer-Asuncion–were graduates of UST.

Largely responsible for putting the name of the Philippines on the architectural and interior design maps of the world, UST architects in Hongkong first made their way to the capital in the early seventies. Much of the migration was jump-started by Filipino-Chinese Joseph Sy who got his training at the Manila campus. On the strength of his exemplary performance, he helped fill vacancies in the industry by inviting former schoolmates to try out for jobs. Among those were Jose Pedro Recio, Casas’ partner, who in turn enticed Casas to Hongkong. As was the case with Recio and Casas, recruits pulled in newer waves of recruits from among school colleagues, with each wave building on the achievements of the earlier batches.

For the young architects, the exposure offered by Hongkong during the building boom was rich and mind-expanding. Recruited to the capital in the late eighties, Berenguer-Asuncion couldn’t have chosen a better training arena for architecture and interior design. "Hongkong had it all–quantity, quality and diversity in projects," she comments.

Her jobs, many of which were as a design associate of Recio+Casas then based in Hongkong, included regional offices, banks, clubs, restaurants, single-detached homes as well as condominium projects. It also included a resort in Thailand patronized by European royalty and the interiors of the public areas of the seat of the Thai stock exchange. In addition, each job had to be executed as quickly and efficiently as possible in tune with the frenetic pace of activity in the capital. It was the best way to learn much in as short a time as possible.

For Asuncion, the bonus of working in the melting pot of Hongkong was the sense of individuality of her clients. "They knew the kind of look they wanted and could express it freely because their businesses were thriving. Even corporations did not go for a ‘look du jour.’ They were definite about their tastes," she recalls. Her clients’ sense of uniqueness drove her to find a fresh look for each project. It helped that being a duty-free port, Hongkong had the widest variety of building materials available for her experimentation.

Nevertheless, the impending turnover of Hongkong to China in 1997 served as a dark cloud on the horizon for Filipino designers in the construction industry and many others as well. The uncertainty of living under a new dispensation made them turn their sights back to Manila. In the mid-90s, the attractions of Manila were all the more highlighted by the heightened economic activity of the Philippines and the upswing of the construction cycle. Quite a number of Filipinos who rode on the building boom of Hongkong and in other parts of the world headed home. These included Casas and Recio, Berenguer-Asuncion and Efren Aurelio. Others from the US followed as well.

They have not left since. In fact, they seem to have collectively injected a fresh spirit to the local industry with the global business practices and international exposure they picked up abroad. Shoulder to shoulder with foreign designers who are expected to win the biggest projects in Manila, Recio+Casas has bagged a few trophy contracts themselves: among residential condominiums, the Pacific Plaza Towers in Fort Bonifacio; among office projects, the LKG Tower on Ayala Avenue; among resort projects, The Manor at Camp John Hay in Baguio. The same holds true for Berenguer-Asuncion who regularly competes against regional designers to win the interior design contracts of multinational corporations such as Pacific Century Cyberworks, Maersk Filipinas and Ambergris Solutions.

International exposure, according to Pinto, has definitely given this new breed of Philippine designers an edge. They bring to the local industry a fresh perspective, new ideas and trends. By the mere fact that they continue to market themselves regionally, they cannot afford to be complacent and must continually update themselves.

Aurelio, for instance, travels to Hongkong periodically to absorb new ways of doing things. He has introduced the idea of using lighting to enhance the ambience of a particular landscape–a concept that finds full expression in his work at the newly renovated Greenbelt Park, Brentville International, as well as residential projects in Hongkong.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems to have caught on to the talents of Philippine designers in the construction industry. A large regional landscape office has set up shop here, as have other architectural firms that also operate in the region. In these offices, local designers do backroom work for their counterparts in Britain, Singapore and Hongkong. Berenguer-Asuncion’s firm, for instance, is doing the documentation drawings for a 35-hectare zoo as well as an aquarium park complex in Abu Dhabi.

Aurelio is candid about the fact that Philippine-based design firms like his charge less than their competitors from the US and Singapore. And why not? Their overhead costs, after all, are lower since they operate from a country where cost of living is not skyhigh. In today’s globalizing economy, such advantages are paramount and sought by capital which always desires the best value for its money. The process is very much helped by the fact that Filipino architecture, interior design and landscape architecture graduates are plentiful and that they are not averse to seeking their fortunes in other global capitals.

For Aurelio, a network of contacts in Hongkong continue to tip him off on upcoming jobs. In Asuncion’s case, the Abu Dhabi jobs came by way of a friend in London in the construction industry.

The added edge of the Filipino designer appears to be his ability to mix Eastern sensibilities with Western practicality, a winning combination in today’s diverse markets. In contrast to their counterparts of other Asian nationalities, Filipino designers are well-known for being creative. Just as Filipinos are known to be natural musicians, they are also innate designers. "We truly offer international design flare at reasonable rates," says Aurelio.

Bolstered by confidence gained abroad, a number have their sights set on China these days, one the largest markets yet to be fully explored. "China never fails to surprise me with the kinds of projects it has to offer," says Aurelio. One housing development he worked on, for instance, was a complex of 12 towers, each one 30 stories high. The high-end project offered full amenities and for Aurelio, the chance to express his creativity with materials he wouldn’t normally work with in the Philippines.

Certainly, the Filipino designer has carved a place in the region’s capitals, and it is, without doubt, a distinctive and beautiful one.