by Johanna Strauß

“We visited lots of different dwelling areas, from slum areas to resettlement areas as well as middle-income areas”

We are students from Lund University who took part in a design project called “Architecture in Extreme Enviroments.” Our studies were structured in three parts: a pre-study in Sweden, a field study for four weeks in the Philippines, and a design period back home in Sweden for another three months.

In the pre-study period, teachers provided us basic knowledge about the people, tradition, architecture, politics, and trends of the country. During the field studies in the Philippines locals provided further information and reflections in lectures which were very inspiring. We had the chance to interview local people from the government, organizations, and inhabitants of different areas. We were able to understand the Filipino way of life and the requirements related to architecture. At the same time we visited lots of different dwelling areas, from slum areas to resettlement areas as well as middle-income areas and high-income “resorts.”

For my design project, I was inspired by the micro-climate in informal settlements. Walking through these areas, I often felt better climated because of the small and narrow pathways as well as lots of shading devices even if it was just hanging clothes.
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by Lisa Sykes

“We knew that visiting the settlement was not common and so we felt extremely privileged to be allowed into the area to see exactly how the people were living.”

Opportunities to travel to the Philippines and work alongside TAO-Pilipinas to design urban shelter for middle income people in Metro Manila don’t come around often so I was extremely excited when I got the opportunity to go to Manila on a study visit connected to my architecture degree project at Lund University in Sweden.

I was part of a study group of 16 pupils, half from Sweden and half from other countries in Europe and Latin America. The first phase of the project was a four-week introduction period in Sweden before traveling to Manila in February 2009, where we met with TAO-Pilipinas for the first time. Immediately a good connection was made between the students of Lund and the staff of TAO and we began a four-week intensive program of site visits, housing visits, and interviews with local people.

The assigned task was to design housing for middle income families on the North Triangle Site in Quezon City, next to the Trinoma Mall between EDSA, North Avenue, and Quezon Avenue, which proved to be no easy feat. As one of the requirements, I was instructed to conduct a site analysis of this area, which proved to be fascinating given that the site is currently an informal settlement for 25,000 people. We knew that visiting the settlement was not common and so we felt extremely privileged to be allowed into the area to see exactly how the people were living.

For me, this was the most remarkable time spent in Manila, as it was the most dissimilar situation I experienced compared to life in Sweden or the UK. I experienced a warm and friendly environment in the midst of urban poverty, an environment that is rarely felt in even the wealthiest areas of the western world. It was important to meet these people, to ask them questions, to see their daily life, and build a relationship that would last through the design phase of our university projects. By meeting the current settlers first hand, we were able to think very sensitively about our proposals, about what they would want, about how they could use the site and the buildings, and ultimately, about how we could improve their lives under strict parameters such as apartment size, project cost, and so on. I learned that people with a limited income tended to be much more creative and resourceful than most others and so I wanted to allow this creativity to flow through my project work.
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In March 2009, 16 Swedish and exchange students from the Housing Development and Management (HDM) Department of Lund University came to the Philippines to do fieldwork for their Urban Shelter Course “Architecture in Extreme Environments.” They were tasked to design housing and neighborhood plans for low to middle income areas in Metro Manila. The next succeeding posts are essays from four of the students about their experience in the Philippines.

“There are many things you can’t learn any other way than through experience”

by Åsa Johansson

When we first arrived in the Philippines I had no idea what to expect. We were there to study architecture, and to carry out a housing project. But I was not even completely clear on what project we were supposed to develop, I did not know what living conditions we were going to see, how people would be able to help us, or what stories we were going to hear. The only thing I knew for sure was that this trip was going to be something completely different from anything I had ever done.

“I learned to listen to and interpret people with completely different backgrounds from myself”

I was one of 16 Swedish students who went to Manila to study the development of the megacity as well as the housing and living conditions of its inhabitants. We were well prepared before arrival with weeks of lectures and exercises, but as the cliché tells us, there are many things you can’t learn any other way than through the experience. So when we arrived in Manila and got settled at the University Hotel in Quezon City the only thing to do was to keep our eyes open for whatever might happen.

I finally came to focus my project on the relationship between density and open space. In such a dense city as Manila, where the land values are so high that families of five or eight persons live on less than 20 square meters and every open space is a spot to occupy, I saw the need to gain open public spaces by building three-dimensionally. I have  learned that it is problematic to design public spaces in the Philippines. The hot climate makes shade necessary to make outdoor spaces comfortable, and illegal settlements and the fear for crime calls for security measures that often conflict with the idea of public areas. I might be naive, but this believed need for security everywhere was something that really struck me as sad. In my mind the variety of spaces open to everyone is what gives a city life, and generates social networks and democratic platforms. But I have come to understand that there are issues, and I no longer believe that it will help just to provide public spaces. What needs to be done is find new ways to design public spaces to make them work, and to start a process of reclaiming the spaces that may have been lost.
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