All Sports Education | Healthcare Hospitality Civic | Culture Office | Commercial | Retail Residential Exhibition | Research Transport | Infrastructure Esperanza Tower_Exterior - Perspective 2.jpg Esperanza Tower_Interior - Bedroom.png Esperanza Tower_Interior - Gym.png Esperanza Tower_Interior - Living Area 2.png Esperanza Tower_Interior - Living Area.png Esperanza Tower_Interior - Lobby 1.png Esperanza Tower_Interior - Lounge.png Esperanza Tower Project Information Status Construction Location Cebu City, Philippines Area 44,000 sqm Description Ripples are series of tessellating waves on the surface of water caused by the slight breeze. This phenomenon is commonly associated with finding calmness despite unruly movement and achieving sanctuary. It is contrasted by the crest, which is the highest point a wave reaches before crashing that results in a soft, white wash of foam made of fine bubbles that balances the dynamic movement of water. The site of the project is at the corner of Salinas Street and La Guardia Street in barangay Lahug. It sits among low-rise commercial buildings and residential subdivisions. The site’s advantage lies in its proximity to the Cebu I.T. Park and Cebu Business Park. The area is popular among the local youth for its many commercial establishments. The project is on a 988 sqm lot wherein a 9,375 square meter boutique hotel will rise. With 17 storeys, 2 basements, 126 rooms, 2 Grand Ballrooms and a public plaza that continues the commercial strip existing on the site. The main lobby, café, and bar lounge emulates the ripple effect of waves through the use of undulating curves on feature walls and non-rectilinear furniture. White Calacatta marble flooring is used to create the illusion of waves moving through its grains and to give the effect of understated luxury. Different shades of teal and cobalt peak through within the area to break the bright neutrality of the space. Throughout the design of the different amenities, the ripple concept is applied through the different layers and levels of straight lines that give the illusion of depth and vastness. Paired with wood elements, the spaces become a quaint settings that exude warmth, rigidity, and stability to the otherwise, light and free-flowing space. The bedroom and studio units present a simulation of ripples where the spaces seamlessly leads to another. Elements of the crest are being reflected through the light-colored walls, plush furniture and curved edges of wall and built-in counters. The use of neutral colors blend with the warm wood elements and cerulean accents, creating an inviting environment of privacy and relaxation. 2020 High Gardens Hiribaco Resort Grand Titanic Upper West Parc 4PH Housing Project Silhouette Chateau Lorraine Cruz Residence Balintawak Cloverleaf Legazpi Park Terraces Morong Farmhouse Twelve Luxury Flats Cloud Citadel Balay Doppio Pawikan House Imperial Era Mansions Zoey Courtyard Residences Yap Residence Park Royal Ongpin Angeles Urban Hub Highlands Condo Residences Enclaves Residence Yung Green Harbor C3 Residence Corner House One Six Wilson Gardens Riverpark Manila Chan Residence The Empyrean Brick House Golden Bay Extension Casa Sol Bataan Terminal and Convention Center Omni Gardens Bacoor Bay Pockets of Nature 15 Dancalan Residence Roxas Condominium Bougainvilla Residence The Urban Block The Crossing Supima Sports and Supima Residences Garden City Artisan Tower Hongji Gardens Tropical Loggia Chinatown Oasis Cloudscape Tagaytay Chi Residences Vivace Parkways Baigad Bantayan Villas Balay Luce Jinxi Seaview City Cambridge Residences Ikebana House

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Office DOWNLOAD PDF Residential & Mixed Use Sports Master Planning Office Transport & Infrastructure Houses Commercial Institutional & Religion Retail Hospitality Education & Healthcare Competition & Research Interiors The Gallery at Valero One Location: Makati City, Metro Manila Plot Area: 1,954.70 SQM Storeys: 27 Year: Floor Area: Status: 2017 20,948.78 SQM Concept Description The main purpose of an office environment is to support the main functions of a company at minimum cost and maximum productivity. The concept for the Valero One office building intends to divide the building into sections to suit various types of operations, grouping companies with similar functions. A central commercial area will thus provide the building’s tenants convenience for all their basic needs. Part of its overall development goals and strategies, the city of Makati aspires to be a paragon of development not only in terms of sustainability, vibrancy, and inclusiveness but also an inspiring urban environment filled with iconic spaces and structures that is well integrated into the fabric of the city, while preserving and celebrating the distinct characteristics and cultures it embody, and shall remain a multidimensional and cosmopolitan city. This 27-storey building will be the new face in and of Valero Street, Makati City. Surrounded by high-rise buildings with maximized footprints, open ground level experience in the area is deemed as a luxury. With the advantage of being able to connect to the adjacent 7-storey existing structure, provides a more extensive canvas, thus allows the building to expand both vertically and horizontally. This then provides ample area to replicate the exchange that happens in the ground level, enhanced by additional vantage points, views, and elevation. Valero One’s Sky Park, together with multiple balconies and decks as additional hubs created by extrusions and stacking of different volumes, becomes a celebration of human encounters and movement with nature and outdoor at its core. Generating an organic exchange between the city and its people, Valero one is a place where people would want to work, meet and stay

Institutional & Religion DOWNLOAD PDF Residential & Mixed Use Sports Master Planning Office Transport & Infrastructure Houses Commercial Institutional & Religion Retail Hospitality Education & Healthcare Competition & Research Interiors Sulong Manila Location: Manila City, Metro Manila Plot Area: 85,000 sqm Storeys: Year: Floor Area: Status: 2019 Concept

Commercial DOWNLOAD PDF Residential & Mixed Use Sports Master Planning Office Transport & Infrastructure Houses Commercial Institutional & Religion Retail Hospitality Education & Healthcare Competition & Research Interiors One Mall Naic Location: Naic, Cavite Plot Area: Storeys: 4 Year: Floor Area: Status: 2016 14,828 SQM Concept Description The form of the mall is a result from the adaptation to the irregular shape of the site. With the frontage of the mall, they are strategically oriented in a way to create an unobstructed view from the accessing roads to where the users can entirely see the ingress, creating a smooth transition of pedestrians or users upon accessing the mall. Providing an internal road for the site will help create a connection from the two ingress/egress and easy accessibility for the car.

Hospitality Commercial Residential scene 18.jpg scene 2_1.jpg scene 1.jpg Screenshot 2024-06-26 110403.png Malinao Siargao Resort Project Information Status Design Location Surigao Del Norte, Philippines Area 6,500 sqm Description The Malinao Siargao Resort is an 80-room hotel development situated in the wetlands of Siargao Island, also known as the "surfing capital" of the Philippines. The project is composed of 4 building groups: the reception at the entrance, the clubhouse, the 3-storey accommodation building, and private villas clustered at the rear. The brief was to design a landmark hotel scheme which aims to provide high-end hospitality service witin a tropical beach environment. The design aims to establish a harmonious relationship to its context and its surrounding while creating a private, calm, and relaxing atmosphere. 2019 Balangay El Nido Resort Ondus Boracay Hotel Urban Argo Hotel Boracay Carmen Hotel The Oriental Legazpi Banaue Hotel Palo Hotel The Oriental Leyte Hotel South Drive Lanson Place Hotel CFI Co-Tel by Swiss - Belhotel East Sands Resort Seascape Hotel Chancellor Hotel Pico Sands Hotel Esperanza Tower Grand Galleon Hotel Arbor Hotel

All Sports Education | Healthcare Hospitality Civic | Culture Office | Commercial | Retail Residential Exhibition | Research Transport | Infrastructure PROJ-2016-416-Varna4.jpg PROJ-2016-416-Varna6.jpg Varna Library_Exterior - Terraces.png PROJ-2016-416-Varna5.jpg PROJ-2016-416-Varna2.jpg PROJ-2016-416-Varna1.jpg PROJ-2016-416-Varna11.jpg Varna Library Project Information Status Design Location Varna, Bulgaria Area 20,000 sqm Description Every book is a journey, each tells a story. The quest for knowledge always flows through no matter what time or age. We believe that libraries must evolve and continue to have a distinct role in the sharing of knowledge through the stories that this sharing entails. Experiences and stories will always remain precious and provide the web that connects society. These stories form the Varna Library. It disseminates and generates experiences and stories in addition to preserving and sheltering ideas. It’s a series of variated experiences that brings people together, not just with knowledge and learning but also into the act of sharing these learnings. This community of spaces form interrelated civic areas creating an assembly of the richness and breadth of Varna’s history and culture. It’s a concentration of public activity acting as a new type of urban knot that ties together the energy of active pursuits with the quiet contemplation of reading in a narrative that the people of Varna and its visitors will share and relate to. 2015 Guggenheim Helsinki Chinese Embassy Cultural Section Philippine International Exhibition Center Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Library DSWD Elderly and Child Care Facility Merit Field Stupa Bataan Provincial Capital Masterplan New Taipei City Museum of Art Supreme Court Museo Pambata Reading Corners Catbalogan City Hall Trece Martires City Hall Balanga City Hall Church of the Multitude Tagaytay City Hall Manila City Hall Saint Scholastica Chapel Highlands Chapel Sulong Manila Taichung Cultural Center

< Back WTA and the paradigm shift on the practice of social architecture By: Patricia Antoinette Ko Date: IN the past century, principal architects like Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies were articulate in the language and practice of social architecture. Be it through innovating with healthier and more affordable housing, writing books like Toward a New Architecture, or organizing model exhibitions like the Weissenhofsiedlung, generous and empathetic design was once a top priority in architecture for the masses. 2 August 2022 Unfortunately, this fluency petered out by the end of the 20th century. A great deal of aspirations was since then neglected and dismissed — what was once admirable became hubristic and eventually, naive. The narrative of social responsibility in architecture was marginalized and propelled out of the norm. Coupled with the advent of the pandemic outbreak, we begin to see the current built environment as one crowded with a suffocating state of affliction. Luckily, we are easily consoled by the thought of individuals and firms working to create architecture that prioritizes human dignity — spaces that put the human experience first by supporting the community while strengthening social responsibility. Our social compass points to one architectural firm, WTA Architecture and Design Studios, whose practices and projects champion and speak the long-lost language of social architecture. Social architecture is a human-centric approach toward the built environment — a practice for the people, by the people. The current built environment's trajectory postpones this principle, often lacking an authentic connection to nature and our communities. The modern definition of good design has shifted from considerate to utilitarian — an apathetic transition to host more investments and densify cities. But the keenness to densify without considering the long-term quality of life only presents a new set of problems. WTA challenges this current norm by taking an engaging and inclusive approach that relearns and reteaches what social architecture can mean for future cities. By investing instead on purposeful design, they reexamine the idea of "social" and put into perspective two often unassociated, but deeply kindred philosophies: architecture and change. WTA's renewed commitment for a socially responsible architecture is reminiscent of early ideals, and it convenes one simple wake-up call: design like you give a damn. What they embraced was a campaign to develop architecture-based solutions that foster social interaction — places where programmed space and accountability intermingle. From emergency quarantine facilities to mobile public library systems, they prove that contemporary social architecture is achievable and crucial in increasing the vitality of life and life-support systems. But the modern decline in social fluency nowadays is not because most people don't share WTA's sentiments about architecture; in fact, most might be inclined to admit that architecture does play a huge role in social responsibility. It is simply because the process of how architecture is created, and even finished, is often rendered invisible. The thought of architecture is usually linked to a mere profession. But don't most professions come with obligations to serve others? If both iconic and non-iconic architecture are, by definition, "social" purely because of profession, then what is so social about social architecture? With the built environment so imbued inside the wider web of society, its social purpose is often left to the imagination. In a moment of irony, realities that are ever-present to the human eye like architecture, are so "normal" that they become invisible. Something we pass by again and again, but don't bother giving a passing thought to. WTA deconstructs this habit and takes apart the idea of architecture being "normal." Not by scrapping its current state completely, but by reconstructing it in a new way that is less oppressive and more equitable. Lamentably, architectural practice doesn't have the right vocabulary to articulate the merit of social change when it cannot easily be quantified with measurements or value. If architects could quantify the impact of their designs, perhaps the discipline's social facet would be much more powerful. Ultimately, most social projects are left to thrive in their own ingenuity. But just because "social" isn't recurrently associated with architecture, doesn't mean its collective function isn't needed. Social architecture is here to drive big change, one project at a time. WTA's commitment to a social architecture is best understood as a resolve to start up old conversations and begin new ones. By bringing forth the spirit of creative activism amid a dynamically changing landscape, architecture can, in fact, make a difference. WTA breaks down selectively exclusive barriers and brings accessible, meaningful institutions to the people. In turn, architecture is able to recreate networks and function at a more human scale. While we are still left wondering to what extent a design's quality can make a difference, one thing is for certain: there is no need for a shortage of designs that can leverage small ways to bring about big social change. Read the full article here. Previous Next Previous Next

Houses DOWNLOAD PDF Residential & Mixed Use Sports Master Planning Office Transport & Infrastructure Houses Commercial Institutional & Religion Retail & Interiors Hospitality Education & Healthcare Competition & Research Interiors 15 Dancalan Residence Location: Quezon City, Metro Manila Plot Area: 547.34 SQM Storeys: 3 Year: Floor Area: Status: 2023 673.16 SQM Under Construction Bold lines, striking angles, and a vision of the future—this is where architecture becomes art.

Houses DOWNLOAD PDF Residential & Mixed Use Sports Master Planning Office Transport & Infrastructure Houses Commercial Institutional & Religion Retail & Interiors Hospitality Education & Healthcare Competition & Research Interiors Chan Residence Location: Caliraya, Laguna Plot Area: Storeys: 2 Year: Floor Area: Status: 2021 1,912 SQM Under Construction An open rest house that embraces nature and the site’s contours while still incorporating privacy when needed. The design aims to provide security and privacy as well as a shade from the strong tropical sun by incorporating vertical operable shutters throughout the home. The façade of the house was designed with operable shutters that creates a well-illuminated entrance and hallway to the bedrooms when open as well as creating a more playful façade when closed. The rear side of the house was designed to maximize the beautiful view of the place. It follows the slope of the site and integrates a tiered garden, which emphasizes the original site contours. Operable shutters were also incorporated in order to provide sufficient shade and privacy when needed. Taking inspiration from the observed natural environment of Caliraya and its playful terrains along with natural creeks that sprawl within its vast lands, the intention was to create a space that blends and harmonizes with its setting, creating a place of belonging with ones surroundings. Similarly, the interiors of the house revolve around mimicking its observed natural environment. Taking inspiration for this, forms are deconstructed and polished for application in the human scale. Natural elements like wood and water add warmth and life while terraneous cleft limestone accents bring the outdoors and earth elements in. The interior dons natural wood as its primary finish to contrast the hard finishes within the house and cool climate of Caliraya. Practicality without sacrificing style is interpreted through straightforward silhouettes, strategic accent placements and organic textures.