Slum encounter
A Filipino-British post-graduate student gets inspired by the urban poor in Pasay
by Renee Corteling
“I had no expectations of what my experience would be exploring human settlements, but the whole encounter gave me great inspiration to widen my experience…”
In a way, my meeting with TAO-Pilipinas was serendipity. I am currently a post graduate architecture student in Portsmouth University in the United Kingdom. My particular area of interest is the philosophical analysis of architecture. But I am greatly aware that I need a more hands onexperience with building construction for the community. The Philippines for me seemed a good place to start. I had decided that for my final dissertation I would travel to Manila and explore the unknown world of the slum lands. I am very aware of the mass poverty and poor housing in the world through journals, lectures and media but this was an opportunity for me to gain a deeper understanding and more personal interaction with the communities I could possibly design for. Being in the Philippines to visit these communities to gain primary research for my dissertation was going to be a life changing experience.
Now it may have been my naivete, but I did think that I could simply walk into these communities and observe from the sidelines, covertly researching without being a bother to anyone. Luckily reality met me in the form of University of the Philippines professor Romeo Santos, who suggested that I get in contact with TAO-Pilipinas. He talked to me of a workshop that a group of students from Taiwan University had participated in. Unfortunately I missed the initial field trip, but he told me TAO-Pilipinas would be a good first port of call and I found myself in contact with the head of research, architect Faith Varona.
Some might wonder why gender should be a concern for development workers at all. Is it not secondary to the provision of basic human necessities like food and shelter? The answer I would give is that the two things are inseparable. Secure provision of these goods for everyone also means ensuring equal access to them. Gender often stands in the way of this. Gender relations dictate who gets to make important decisions, who gets to work and with what, who gets to be in charge of family property, and the list goes on. In a developing country context, equalizing gender relations can be a question of securing everyone’s equal right to good health, to property, to earn an income to sustain oneself and one’s family, and so on. Gender equality is a development goal in itself, as the UN Millennium Development Goals also reflect.
The exhibit showcased samples of alternative building materials such as compressed earth blocks, interlocking compressed earth blocks, concrete interlocking blocks, micro concrete roof tiles, and wood wool cement bonded board. Samples of interlocking compressed earth blocks were provided by the Julio and Florentina Ledesma Foundation Inc. (JFLFI) while samples of micro concrete roof tiles were provided by the Foundation for the Development of the Urban Poor (FDUP). Students from UP College of Architecture as well as from other universities such as FEU viewed the exhibit. Partner networks such as COPE also dropped by to see the exhibit.
The product presentation was held on the 3rd day of the exhibit with Arch. Cesar Aris from the Foundation for the Development of the Urban Poor (FDUP) as one of the invited speakers. He made a presentation about micro concrete roof (MCR) tiles and compressed earth blocks (CEBs). Information about concrete interlocking blocks (CIBs) and interlocking compressed earth blocks (iCEBs) were presented by Arch. Ger Samson and Arch. Faith Varona respectively. The SABMAT Research was also presented to the students and people’s organizations who attended the product presentation.