lighthouses, waterways, piped water systems,
railways and street-car systems.
Pre-Hispanic Era
o Caves and rock shelters like the Tabon
Cave in Palawan served as shelters for the early
Filipinos. Later on the invention of various tools
allowed for the fabrication of tent-like shelters and
tree houses.
o Early pre-historic houses were characterized
by rectangular structures elevated on stilt foundations
and covered by voluminous thatched roofs
ornamented with gable-finials and its structure could
be lifted as a whole and carried to a new site.
Examples include the Ifugao House, bahay
kubo and the Maranaos torogan.
o Mosques, the masjid and the langgal in
Tausug andYakan or ranggar in Maranao, emerged
as Islam was established in Sulu (14th century) and in
Mindanao (15th century).
Spanish Colonial Era
o In 1564, the Franciscans built the First
Hospital in the Philippines, Hospital Real.
o The 1573 royal ordinance of King Philip II,
known as the Laws of the Indies, was prescribed and
stated that every town was to have a gridiron
design (cuadricula) with a central square (plaza).
o In 1583, Intramuros was destroyed by fire,
requiring new buildings to be constructed of stone and
tile.
o Jesuit Antonio Sedeno introduced stone and
masonry construction.
o Implementation of the hybrid type of
construction called arquitectura meztiza:
wood in the upper floor and stone in the lower floor;
house posts or haligues supported the second
floor;
stone floors at the ground floor acted as a solid
curtain concealing the wooden framework within, and;
wooden pegs and dovetailed joints connected the
wooden structural system together.
o The bahay na bato, typically two stories with
the ground level made of massive cut stone or brick
walls and the upper level built of hardwood, emerged
from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
o The last quarter of the 19th century
witnessed the rise of accessoria (apartment
dwellings), single or two-stories high and having
multiple units called viviendas.
o School buildings surfaced:
the colegio or universidad (urban areas) and
the escuela primaria (pueblos), a cluster of multi-
storey buildings in rectangular configuration with a
central courtyard.
o The leading-edge technology available at
that time was employed to build ports, roads, bridges,
American and Japanese Era
o In 1902, the Americans introduced the use of
the toilet via a pail conservancy system, or cubeta in
Manila.
o In 1908, the concept of a well-planned
neighborhood called Sanitario Barrio was introduced
and led to tsalet,crossbreed of the tropical features of
vernacular buildings with hygienic structural principles
and modern materials.
o In 1912, the Bureau of Health endorsed
several variations of tsalet.
o American architects Edgar K. Bourne and
William E. Parsons, steered Philippine architecture to
the proto-modernist route. Their works were
characterized by unembellished facades with large
windows.
o Daniel H. Burnham, the Father of the City
Beautiful Movement, was commissioned to design
masterplans for Manila and Baguio. Burnham
endorsed the appointment of Beaux Arts-trained
William Parsons as Consulting Architect (1905-1914)
whose contribution to local architecture include:
the Kahn system of concrete reinforcements and
hollow-blocks;
the use of termite-resistive Philippine hardwood,
and;
the concept for the mass fabrication of standard
building types.
o In 1906, the construction of the Asylum for
the Insane in San Lazaro instigated the use of
reinforced concrete as the standard construction
material for all government structures.
o Buildings that defined the pre-war skyline of
Manila include the El Hogar Filipino Building,
Hongkong Shanghai Bank Building, Pacific
Commercial Company Building, Filipinas Insurance
Company Building, China Banking Corporation,
French Renaissance Luneta Hotel, and the Mariano
Uy Chaco Building.
o Birth of first generation Filipino architects
who were sponsored by colonial officials to study
architecture and engineering in the United States.
Together with the maestros de obras Arcadio Arellano
and Tomas Arguelles, they combined Beaux Arts
elements aesthetic proportions, optical corrections
with the influences of modernism and the concepts of
utility and honesty of architecture.
o The second generation architects,
namely, Andres Luna de San Pedro, Fernando
Ocampo, Pablo Antonio and Juan F. Nakpil, emerged
in the late 1920s and 1930s and introduced the Art
Deco, characterized by exuberant exoticism and
ornamentation, as evident in the following facades of
buldings: ELPO Building, Bautista-Nakpil Pylon,
 Metropolitan Theater, Santos House, and the Mapua
House.
o The three-year Japanese occupation
grounded all architectural production to a standstill.
Post-World War II Era
o In 1946, the independent Philippines
expressed its identity by implementing modernism
through the utilization of reinforced concrete, steel
and glass, the pre-dominance of cubic forms,
geometric shapes and Cartesian grids, and the
absence of applied decoration.
o In 1947, a corps of architects and engineers
were tasked to study the modern US and Latin
American capitals and formulate the master plan for
Manila.
o Federico Ilustre, consulting architect from the
1950s to 1970s, worked on the buildings at the
Elliptical Road in Quezon City. The centerpiece is the
66-meter high Art Deco Quezon Memorial Monument,
composed of three pylons topped by winged figures
representing the three island groups.
o The 1950s and 1960s staple architectural
elements were the brise-soleil (sunbreaker), glass
walls, pierced screens and thin concrete shells.
o The post-war doctrine was Form follows
function, professed by the third
generation architects, namely, Cesar Concio, Angel
Nakpil, Alfredo Luz, Otillo Arellano, Felipe Mendoza,
Gabriel Formoso, and Carlos Arguelles.
o The 1950s also witnessed Space Age
aesthetics and Soft Modernism, which experimented
with the sculptural plasticity of poured concrete to
come up with soft and sinuous organic forms with the
use of thin-shell technology. Examples are:
Space Age: Victor Tiotuycos UP International
Center and Jose Zaragozas Union Church, and
Soft Modernism: Church of the Risen
Lord, Church of the Holy Sacrifice (UP Chapel) and
the Philippine Atomic Research Center.
o In the 1950s, the height of buildings was
limited by law to 30 meters. With the amendment of
Manila Ordinance No. 4131, a high-rise fever
redefined Manilas skyline:
Angel Nakpils 12-storey Picache Building,
considered as the first skyscraper in the Philippines.
Cesar Concios The Insular Life Building, the first
office building the old 30-meter height restriction.
Late Twentieth Century
o In the 1960s, Filipino architects incorporated
some modernist formal principles by employing local
materials and referencing vernacular traditions:
the Manosa Brothers Sulo Hotel and Esso Gas
Stations
Francisco Fajardos Maxs Restaurant
Felipe Mendozas Holiday Hills Golf Club House
Otillo Arellanos Philippine pavillion for the 1964
New York Worlds Fair
o In the 1970s, Former First Lady Imelda
Marcos pursued a singular national architectural
style to concretize the official maxim of Isang
Bansa, Isang Diwa (One Nation, One Soul).
o The oil crisis of 1973 to a movement for
energy-efficient designs called Tropical Regionalism:
The Manosa Brothers San Miguel Corporations
Headquarter Building
Felipe Mendozas Development Academy of the
Philippines
Locsins Benguet Corporation Building
Jorge Ramos GSIS Building
The New Millenium
o Exemplified by the garish applications of
pastel colors and the mixing and matching of
ornaments and styles.
o Skyscrapers adopted the tripartite division of
columnar architecture (Tower-on-the-Podium): the
podium, the shaft and the crown.
o Rise of master planned micro-cities like Bay
City, Eastwood City, Fort Bonifacio Global City and
Rockwell Center, retail environments SM Mall of Asia,
Gateway Mall, Trinoma, and Greenbelt Mall; and
gated communities of suburban pretensions.
o Global architectural firms bestow designer
labels to megastructures like Michael Graves World
Trade Exchange, I.M. Peis Essensa Towers,
Arquitectonicas Pacific Plaza Tower, Kohn Pedersen
Fox Associates LKG Tower, and Skidmore and
Owings & Merills Yuchengco Tower.
o Architects were labeled as late
modernists and, later as neo-
modernists and super modernists.
o Inspirations were drawn from aircraft
technology, robotics and cyberspace as demonstrated
by the One San Miguel Building, the PBCom Tower,
and the GT International Tower.
o Reflective blue or aquamarine curtain walls,
aluminum cladding, metallic sun visors, and metal
mullions are mainstays of millennium skyscrapers.
o Presence of architecture of deconstruction,
which is characterized physically by controlled
fragmentation, non-linear design processes,
stimulating unpredictability, asymmetric geometries
and orchestrated chaos like the works of Alexius
Medalla, Eduardo Calma and Joey Yupangco.
o Advances in computer-aided design (CAD)
and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
technologies.
o Implementation of green architecture to
reverse the negative impact of buildings on human
health and on the environment by enhancing the
efficiency and moderating the use of materials,
energy and space.
http://triptheislands.com/travel-tips/a-brief-
history-of-philippine-architecture/
History of
Philippine
Architecture
Understanding the roots of Philippine architecture
is an interesting adventure as you revisit your
heritage and discover how the lives of Filipinos
from different periods of our history were reflected
through structures of houses, churches, mosques,
temples, government buildings, cultural centers
and many others. Just by reviewing our history as
a nation, the Philippines is a melting pot of various
cultures not just from its Western colonizers but
even from its neighbors in Asia even before the
Spaniards came. Our countrys history produced a
conglomeration of architectural design which still
exists at present. Let us trace our nations
architectural history and characteristics through its
five periods.
Pre-Hispanic Era
The earliest records of pre-colonial architecture in the
Philippines are rock shelters and caves in Palawan.
Early Filipinos are nomadic since they are constantly
in search for food through hunting or fishing so they
mainly rely on nature when creating shelter and do
not need to build permanent structures. With the
development of tools, tent-like shelters and tree
houses were also created to serve as their abode. As
farming became a stable source of food, the locals
were accustomed to creating permanent structures to
serve as their home. The houses of the natives before
the Spanish colonization were predominantly
rectangular in shape and built on stilts so it may be
lifted and be transported to a new site. Several factors
also affect the type of materials and configuration of
houses such as the difference of climate and
topography of numerous Filipino groups in different
parts of the country. For instance, there are variations
when it comes to pre-Hispanic houses of those from
Ifugao, the bahay kubo (nipa hut) from the lowlands
and the Maranaos very intricate torogan house.
Beautifully designed mosques were also widespread
in the Mindanao region as early as 14th and 15th
century due to the emergence of the Islamic religion
even before the arrival of the conquistadores.
Spanish Colonial Era
The arrival of Spanish conquerors introduced the
Antillean style of architecture. This type of architecture
is European (but originated from Central America and
not Spain) which was tweaked to suit the tropical
climate of the Philippines and thereafter, had its own
Filipino and unique character. Aside from houses,
Mother Spain also bestowed its influence on the
architecture of churches, the symbolism of its major
endowment in the Philippines, Catholicism.
The most glorious colonial churches are still standing
firm and most of them are found in the Visayan
islands of Panay, Cebu and Bohol, Ilocos Regions,
Southern Luzon particularly in Laguna and Batangas.
According to architectural experts, most of the
colonial churches are Spanish or Mexican baroque
based on the evident elements. It is also notable that
the construction of these churches was mainly
influenced by the environmental conditions of the
country which would constantly experience natural
disasters (typhoon and earthquake) and human
destruction as well (fire and attacks) during that time.
One thing that we must appreciate from these
churches is how they were crafted with Asian Moorish
style and elements. It is not well-known that during
the Spanish period, Chinese and Muslim elements in
architectural style became part of the Catholic Church
structures. This is due to the fact that mostly Filipinos
are inexperienced with the construction of stone
buildings. Master builders and artisans who
participated in the creation of the churches were
Chinese and Muslims from the South. Chinese
influence are shown through red air-dried bricks which
were produced from a mixture of coral lime and/or
loam and sugar cane juice and lion figures made of The Japanese invasion during World War II lasted
granite apparent in front of San Agustin Church. On only for three years and did not bring any significant
the other hand, Moorish and Islamic style is apparent architectural change in the Philippines.
in deeply incised relief carvings of church facades and
its interior. We learned from Philippine History that
there was obligatory construction work imposed on The Late Twentieth Century
natives in non-Muslim areas during that period but
most of them involved cutting, transporting and
During this period in Philippine history starting in the
processing the materials to build the churches.
60s architects started to merge modernist style with
the use of traditional and local materials.

American and Japanese Era And in the 70s Former first Lady Imelda Marcos
popularized a national architectural style through the
The 1896 Philippine Revolution paved the way to the regimes ostentatious building projects using
countrys independence from Spain. However, it indigenous materials and icons.
became a short-lived liberty when the Americans
became the countrys new invaders. There was a
drastic change on the architectural design which was
introduced by the Americans as they establish the civil
government. A lot of structures were built to serve as
government buildings from cities to municipalities. The New Millennium
The design and style of the establishments were akin
to Greek or Roman constructions.
At present, the Philippines has embraced the tripartite
decision of columnar architecture (Tower-on-the-
Famous American architects such as William Parsons Podium) for skyscrapers. More micro-cities such
and Edgar Bourne started the proto-modernist way of as Rockwell Center and Fort Bonifacio Global City are
designing constructions and they were commonly developing.
unadorned facades together with large windows.
Another prestigious master designer during that time
The Filipino architects nowadays are considered to be
was American architect and urban planner Daniel
late modernists and eventually neo-modernists or
Burnham. He was the one responsible for creating the
super modernists.
master plans for Manila and Baguio. His contributions
to the local architecture together with Parsons were
the Kahn system of concrete reinforcements and the Modern commercial buildings are known for their
introduction of hollow blocks, the use of anti-termite unpredictability and orchestrated chaos exuding the
hardwood and the mass fabrication of building types. architecture of deconstruction vibe just like The
Gramercy Residences.
American architecture influence in the Philippines can
be classified in two types; the so-called first The clamor to fight climate change has generated
generation Filipino architects who studied architecture green architecture to minimize the negative results
and engineering in the United States who were of modernity and building high rise structures. The
sponsored by the colonial masters and the Second current trend is to improve efficiency of constructed
generation architects who emerged in the late 1920s buildings while moderating the use of energy.
and 1930s.

True enough, the evolution of Philippine architecture

The first generation exemplifies combined Beaux Arts
is a source of pride for Filipinos. Let us make sure
elements with a touch of modernism promoting the
that we contribute in the preservation of our cultural
ideas of utility in architecture.
heritage through the structures of the past which will
make us appreciate our identity as a nation.
The second generation on the other hand introduced
the Art Deco portraying exotic embellishments.
https://www.hoppler.com.ph/blog/design-and-
architecture/history-of-philippine-architecture