Around the country in 33 designs
October 4, 2003 | 12:00am
The first booth we see is a modern interpretation of an old town; right beside it is a version of another old town done the traditional way. The first is Laoag in Ilocos Norte, invoking contemporary design fused with cultural significance – for instance, the pouf ottomans with metal legs are in the shape of garlic, which the city is known for, while the sofa is made of rattan, which was harvested in unbelievable quantities in northern Luzon’s mountains in the 1970s. The second is Vigan in Ilocos Sur, where an antique Dutch chandelier illuminates a sitting room-den that’s charmingly decorated as though ternos were still worn for Sunday Mass; there’s a three-seater sofa with sulihiya seat and framed by carved wood, a console propped up by kalesa wheels split in half, a heavy molave writing desk and half-opened capiz windows showing a trompe l’oeil of a cobblestone street flanked by ancestral houses as their view.
No, we did not go on a tour of Ilocos. Rather, we toured the 53rd and 52nd floor of PBCom Tower on Ayala Avenue where the advanced class of the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) is holding its exhibit. The theme for this year is ISLA: Interior Spaces, Local Application.
That PSID decided to go local in theme couldn’t have come at a better time. The Department of Tourism declared this year as Visit the Philippines year (despite kidnappings, rumors of coup attempts and a military insurrection – but never mind that) and the school wanted to showcase Philippine destinations through interior design.
Last year, its 35th year, PSID’s exhibit paid tribute to 35 Filipino designers and PSID graduates such as Lor Calma and Ben Chan. Thus the booths at the LKG Tower were mostly modern inspired and the designs were all about the honorees. You had traces of Scandinavian design, African design, Balinese design, etc.
Viewing this year’s exhibit, one cannot escape the contrast between the two batches. While students last year had to follow the design influences of the designer assigned to them, this year they had to look for inspiration on their own, they had to draw the essence of the city or town they were assigned and interpret it themselves. DOT opened its library to the young researchers, some of whom went to the places they were assigned – much to the enthusiasm of the groups who picked Palawan towns El Nido, Calauit and Puerto Princesa in the raffle. (For the record, of the 33 places that were raffled, the three most unpopular were Makati, Binondo and Intramuros – it had nothing to do with design, but with having an excuse to go out of town.)
The exhibit itself is all about diversity, culture and traditions. The students chose between making all this a showcase and being more subtle in their nuances – so subtle that in some you wouldn’t notice the cultural references during the walk-through.
For example, the Laoag group chose modernist lines but used indigenous materials such as abel Iloco, when they could have done it the Fort Ilocandia way. They also put imprints of tobacco leaves on the floor as tribute to the tobacco farmers (not to Mayor Binay’s cigarette ban in Makati, I suppose). In contrast, the Vigan group chose to highlight the characteristics that make Vigan "the living museum of the northern Philippines" by evoking history, the Spanish influence in the north and the sense of grandeur of old, rich families living in fabulous houses.
PSID Dean of Students Jie Pambid says, "The difference between the renderings and what actually comes out is an amazing learning experience for the students. They learn about costing, about dealing with suppliers, and how to put translate their concepts into three dimensions."
Also acting as adviser to the advanced class, Jie reveals that during the consultation process, students would come to him about the materials they were going to use and he was very strict in avoiding too much similarities. "In a way, it became unahan sa pag-consult. I really wanted to maintain diversity, to show 33 interpretations of the essence of the country, otherwise baka bamboo lahat. I’m very happy that not everybody went contemporary or ethnic or modern. After all, interior design is a very dynamic medium."
This year’s class is composed of 130 students (for some, interior design is their first bachelor's degree, for others it’s their second or third). Jie says they get a lot of architects who enroll at PSID after seeing the exhibit "because they want to hold on to their projects from start to finish. We’re not charging admission fee. What the school hopes for is that the audience would become aware that interior design as a discipline and a profession exists in the country."
The 53rd floor of PBCom Tower features Luzon booths, while the 52nd has the Visayas and Mindanao booths. In the latter, cultural diversity is so apparent and the design references so strong, you can almost guess which cities the booths feature without looking at the brief displayed.
One of the most colorful booths is Zamboanga City, the only dining room on exhibit. The furniture and accessories were borrowed from a sultan’s former house. No surface is left untouched – from the wooden dining table to the console with their mother of pearl inlay, from the walls covered with fabric to the chairs in rich Yakan tribe weave fabric sourced from Basilan, from the Moorish design of the end chairs to the wood carving ornaments called panolong, which signify the social standing of the occupants.
The student designers say their booth is typical of a house owned by a Muslim family of high social standing.
No detail was forgotten either. To give the impression of a typical Badjao tribe, "we used coco lumber wooden planks as flooring, bordered by hand-painted tiles with Moorish design." The dining room is surrounded by a narrow, linear pond with floating water lilies. On one side of the room is a door leading to the terrace and instead of using plain balustrades, they used authentic grave markers.
Another interesting thing is looking at the beach destinations – namely, Puerto Princesa, Boracay and Aklan, Bohol, Siargao, El Nido, and Puerto Galera.
Bohol, where the Blood Compact was signed in Tagbilaran City, is interpreted in contemporary lines and local accessories. The bedroom booth uses light colors to "simulate the white sands of Bohol and fieldstones to represent the beautiful coral stones used in Bohol’s churches." Rattan furniture is used, so are other native accessories. The bed itself is enclosed in a white box with circular "windows" (it reminds one of a themed motel room, but that’s just me) to represent Bohol’s No. 1 tourist attraction: the tarsier (or maybe the No. 2, depending on how you feel about the Chocolate Hills).
Siargao is interpreted in a verandah because when you have a beach house, this is probably where you’ll spend most of your time – looking at the sea and drinking your piña colada. Naturally, a surfboard rests against one wall. On the ceiling, native fabrics are hung in wave-like pattern.
Not to be outdone in the getting-away-from it-all ambience, El Nido is designed as a tropical bedroom with one section submerged in shallow waters for dipping one’s feet. Beside the bed, whose headboard is covered in native fabric, is a duyan.
One of the surprises is the Puerto Princesa booth, a bathroom suite. On its walls is a striking mural of birds of paradise – done incredibly well by a former PSID student. The style reminds one of the famous banana leaves mural at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Because of the theme ISLA, many of the booths have water features – water flowing from the ceiling down to the walls, water under the bed, even a huge aquarium in one wall, water under the floors. We are an archipelago, after all, the young designers seem to be saying.
Outside every booth are pendant lamps designed by the students. Some are painfully ordinary, but a handful are really beautiful. Go to the Boracay booth where you will notice these very dainty fiberglass lamps adorned with colorful beads. The designers say they’ve gotten a lot of offers from the public to buy the lamps once the exhibit is over. Our advice to them is to copyright their design and manufacture the lamps themselves because they have a winner in their hands!
The PSID exhibit once again proves the mettle of our aspiring designers. And this year’s theme shows that when it comes to creativity, nothing like your own country can inspire you.
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