Two volumes that amplify beyond architecture

“Arkitekturang Pilipino: A History of Architecture and the Built Environment in the Philippines” traces the history of Philippine architecture from its primeval roots to its contemporary creations. The work is a product of Gerard Lico's two-decade career as a professor and architectural historian. The set of books are a must-have for students, researchers, and enthusiasts, as it gives a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of Philippine architecture and built environment not only as a parade of buildings but as products of their times and contexts.

“Arkitekturang Pilipino” is a discussion of Philippine architecture and urban history in 10 chapters, with its chronological discussion divided into two volumes. The first volume covers early history to the American colonial eras, while the second volume covers the post-colonial to the contemporary eras.

Gerard Lico is an architectural critic and art historian. He teaches at the College of Architecture of the University of the Philippines at Diliman (UP - Diliman). He completed his BS Architecture, MA in Art History and PhD in Philippine Studies at the same institution. We’ve also seen him deliver numerous of talks as well as deeply informative lectures. His first book throws us back to 2003 with the title “Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and Marcos State Architecture,” his more recent ones are “Deco Filipino: Art Deco Heritage in the Philippines” (2020) and “Mañosa, Beyond Architecture: The Life and Works of Francisco ‘Bobby’ Mañosa, National Artist for Architecture and Allied Arts” (2020), which celebrates Bobby Mañosa’s contributions to the field.

Since the publishing of his work “Arkitekturang Filipino: A History of Architecture and Urbanism in the Philippines” in 2008, significant developments have been made in the architectural scene of the country. New discoveries have since expanded our understanding of how the nation’s built environment came to be and what motivations guided them. Developments in national policy and rise in economic activity have created a fertile environment for contemporary local architecture to flourish. Moreover, the growing field of heritage conservation was among those highlighted—a field given due recognition with the passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009. With these developments, a more nuanced and broader scope of analyses are presented in “Arkitekturang Pilipino.”

Two chapters are of note. In volume one, the chapter “Decadence and Destruction” highlights the beginnings and the development of architecture as a profession in the 1920s. On the same note, this chapter also presents more information on the works of prominent Filipino architects of the early 20th century giving a glimpse of the development of local architecture between the early Commonwealth and World War 2 eras. In volume two, the chapter “Heritage Stewardship” gives a comprehensive overview of heritage conservation in the Philippines from its roots in the colonial era until recent developments in the field. This chapter is a fitting culmination to the expansive narrative presented in the book and it also serves as a call to action to appreciate and preserve our architectural heritage for future generations.

All chapter discussions are accompanied by a wealth of archival materials, photographs, as well as models of prominent buildings in Philippine history, dissecting each of their parts, and showing how their spaces relate to each other.

“Buildings are historical records that palpably manifest the highs and lows of a society, and how that society creatively responds to environmental imperatives, the technological milieu, power structures, and even material constraints,” Gerald Lico poetically explains. “Architecture, therefore, is history built of wood, stone, concrete, steel, and glass among others, awaiting to be deciphered to recover the stories it had witnessed in the past. It is hoped that this book will connect us to this past by providing a channel through which walls could talk, and, at the same time, allow us to project into the future as we gain wisdom from the past framed by this book. As we experience the conditions that shape Filipino architecture today with a level of criticality endorsed in this book, we will be in a better position to decide what direction to take for Philippine Architecture to break new grounds.”

The two-volume “Arkitekturang Pilipino” is sold as a set, and is available at the Façade Books shopee account.