Five University of Santo Tomas (UST) Bachelor of Science in Architecture graduates won third place in the Design for Living international competition hosted by the Institute for Advanced Architecture for Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona, Spain.
The team consisted of Aramis Corullo, Paula Casia, Gellaine Burgos, Althea Poblete, and Angelo Landicho. The Filipinos competed against over 190 other entries from 80 countries.
The Filipino designers' entry was entitled "Wall-E transforming waste into a floating city to restore the Sunken Kingdom of Binuangan." Binuangan is a barangay in the coastal municipality of Obando, Bulacan.
Wall-E is a Walt Disney character from it's 2008 film "WALL-E" which follows a solitary trash compactor robot on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth, left to clean up garbage.
The designer's version of Wall-E is a series of walls that connect and provide a foundation for settlements in Binuangan, sunken fortifications serving as the walkways that connect the people to their homes.
Binuangan is slowly sinking into the ocean and it lacks proper water treatment and solid waste management. To address the environmental issues, the team's Wall-E project proposes amphibious pods made from recycled plastic waste.
"The future presents us an opportunity to transform our coastal habitats into resilient cost-effective and mass-produced alternatives which positively impact our environment," the designers said.
For their third place win, the Filipino designers will receive a cash prize and a tuition fee scholarship to complete a master's degree at the IAAC for the 2020-2021 or 2021-2022 academic year.
The jury members comprised 33 reputable architects and designers from around the globe.