Just Desserts: The Value of Chocolate by WTA Architecture and Design Studio

Hello, WTA Architecture and Design Studio! Félicitations as you’ve brought good news. Thanks to your team, this is the first time a Philippine practice is participating in France’s Festival des Architectures Vives (FAV), an event that transforms historic spaces into experimental architectural experiences. Can you introduce readers to what this festival is about and why it’s a significant platform for architects? What does this moment mean for Philippine architecture on the world stage?

WTA Architecture and Design: Our thanks, Kanto! The festival is held annually in Montpellier, France, and is now in its 19th year. It invites visitors to explore the city’s historic center, where installations are set up in public spaces. A loose comparison in Asia would be the graffiti walk in Penang, Malaysia, where a map guides you to the locations of the artworks, and you decide how to navigate.

The festival’s core idea is the juxtaposition of old and new: historic spaces, often not open to the public, filled with contemporary installations from global artists. Some pieces are visually appealing, while others prompt deeper, more critical reflections. Ultimately, the festival’s essence is to raise awareness of architecture in all its forms.

So, this year’s festival theme, La Gourmandise, explores indulgence, desire, and consumption. How did your team interpret this theme, and what led you to focus on chocolate as the medium for discussing shifting values, trade inequalities, and consumer responsibility?

We initially wanted to relate food and indulgence to a broader, familiar context, especially in the Philippines. What food item is considered a luxury? That led us from candy to chocolate. The brainstorming sessions also brought to mind Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the work of Bompus & Parr, British architects known for their approach to taste.

As we dug deeper into chocolate’s history, we found its complex relationship with people and the global demand for it. Yet many of the farmers who grow cocoa live in poverty, disconnected from the luxury end of the chocolate trade. Our concept evolved to address this imbalance, asking the consumer to reflect on how chocolate’s consumption links to sustainability and equitable trade.

For the full interview, see here.