“In Sweden, we tend to take everything for granted”
by Sara Yllner
“By studying a context in a country quite different to my own I gained a deeper understanding about what parts in the planning process are vital for a community to be successful and sustainable in the long run.”
This semester I finished my ninth semester as an architecture student at Lund University in Sweden. The reason I chose this course set in the Philippines was that I wanted to go somewhere completely different from Sweden and learn to look at architecture from a different point of view. I really didn’t know what to expect even though I’ve had the opportunity to travel quite a lot to India, China, and Syria but I never really understood the whole context and how one, as an architect, could contribute to change certain situations.
In Sweden, we tend to take everything for granted. There’s clean water, a sewage system, electricity, internet, television, and libraries. Everybody goes to school, and almost everyone has a roof over their head. It is easy to forget that all these things are not a given for everybody, or rather the majority of the worlds’ population. When I talked to people in the Philippines they couldn’t believe that a country could only have 9 million inhabitants, which is more like the population for a mid-size city in Asia. I, on the other hand, had a hard time grasping how a city with 16 million people was organized and how much the regions could differ.
TAO-Pilipinas organized our trip in Manila together with Lund University and our teachers Johnny and Rachelle Åstrand. During the four intense weeks we had study visits to informal settlements, high end gated communities and everything in between. We also got to meet people with all kinds of different occupations involved in the planning and housing sector in the city, such as the mayor of Quezon City, architects, planners, and many more. We also got the opportunity to interview people from all levels of society which was really interesting and educational.
We met so many lovely people during the trip to the Philippines. One of them is Faith Varona, an architect at TAO-Pilipinas and a key person during our stay in Manila. Faith and Beryl Baybay, Faith’s colleague, took really good care of us, looked after us during our stay, and answered all our questions about everything. They were truly a priceless support in making sense of how everything worked, both with the planning, housing, and society but also the more practical things like what to do when riding a jeepney (not so easy to figure out the first time you take one). Overall, I found the Filipinos so nice, helpful, and happy. Everybody always had a smile on their face (coming from a cold country that is quite unusual for me).
Even though we had such a tight schedule we also had some time during the weekends to travel around and see other parts of the country. Of course we went to the beach but we also visited Banaue which is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. The rice terraces are absolutely breathtaking.
Back in Sweden we continued working on the sites that we chose in Manila. To include the considerations of a different climate, material costs, social structures, community, and security is a totally different way of designing from what I’ve done before. In my project I focused on trying to create as good an outdoor and indoor climate as possible by keeping existing trees and creating as much shadow as possible whilst at the same time maximizing the possibility for ventilation through the buildings. Another important aspect was to make sure that the community worked together and that the inhabitants interacted with their community in different ways, both to maintain the buildings and enhance the security in the neighborhood.
By studying a context in a country quite different to my own I gained a deeper understanding about what parts in the planning process are vital for a community to be successful and sustainable in the long run. Of course the situation is different in every country and city but the most important thing is the participation of the people that you build for no matter where you are in the world.
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About the Author
Sara Yllner is a 4th year student in architecture in Lund University in Sweden. She went to the Philippines to study the urban context in Manila together with her class as a part of a course in spring semester 2009. She loves to travel and has had the opportunity to travel around a lot with school to see and learn how people live in different parts of the world.
Reflections | rp | 25 February 2010 |
