Architectural beauty

While inspecting some site work on the project for the improvement of Ayala Avenue with an associate the other day, we noted a commotion at the other end of the CBD’s main drag. It was Shamcey Supsup, the third runner-up in the recent Miss Universe being given a ticker tape parade. We suspended work just to be able to wave at the beauty.

Excuse me …beauty…and brains. Shamcey was a student when I was still teaching at the UP College of Architecture in Diliman. She was a quiet but diligent student who stood out because of her height, but more notably because of her academic excellence.

Congratulations to her and to the UP College of Architecture, as well. UP Arki (as we call our academic corner in the wild and woolly expanse that is Diliman) is proud to add Shamcey to its pantheon of beauty queens. She actually made it to different pantheon — that of only a handful of magna cum laude in architecture — before she even thought of donning a bikini.

Three beauties make a summer of it in the suburbs. Name this new-fangled subdivision.

UP Arki is currently headed by one of Shamcey’s professors, Dean Anne Espina, another beauty and brains (a triple-degree holder). The dean is claiming a new motto for the college: “UP College of Architecture produces nothing but beauty.” I proposed an addendum, “Today the Philippines, tomorrow Ms. Universe.”

Filipinos are known for the beauty of their islands, the country’s natural resources, and yes, its women. In the 21st century this may not be entirely politically correct but it is the truth. The other reality, however, is that not much else about the Philippines is all that aesthetically-pleasing; most especially those things that Shamcey would like to devote her other talents to — architecture, and its context, our universally ugly cities.

The fact is that Shamcey’s ticker-tape parades (can anyone explain the origin of the term?) were held in select portions of the metropolis — Makati and the revitalized Cubao are two of only a handful of districts, mostly privately developed — that can host truly world or universe-class public events.

Most of the rest of the metropolis is a riotous patchwork of blight and billboards, traffic and decrepit informal settlements, sprawled suburbia, unmitigated mayhem…and more billboards.

1969 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Gloria Diaz (also that year’s Miss Universe) with Bb. Pilipinas-International Binky Montinola

Billboards have, in fact, become the main building blocks that shape our cities’ skylines…from Manila to Mandaue, Baguio to Bacolod. I do not think that these structures are what Shamcey aspires to design. That is, if she gets the chance to design at all.

The other reality is that unless you are blonde and blue-eyed, you have little chance of designing anything of note. Almost all developers here prefer to give the choice projects (read … anything worth designing) to foreigners and foreign firms … or unless you are as famous as Paris Hilton.

Shamcey is famous but the most she can aspire for is to have her visage and winning smile help market some real estate development copied from Shanghai or Singapore (which were copied from something in San Francisco or New York). I also do hope that her face is not plastered on even more gigantic billboards.

I do hope that Shamcey resists the wiles of these developers. I hope she does not go to the dark side — of vacuous Philippine show business. Maybe an intelligent talk show on cable TV would be good. I believe UP Arki has trained her to prefer this rather than the lure of bright lights and inane world of the likes of Willie Revillame (who would jump on the chance to pervert her for his evil purposes).

Shamcey has actually declared her wish to teach but I do suggest that she go out there and work first as an architect — from the bottom up for one or two known local firms, then practice for a few years before she starts to teach.

Gemma Cruz was Miss International 1965. What Metro Manila school threw her this summer parade?

We need teachers, yes, but we need real Filipino architects first. I do hope she uses her fame to an advantage. It can open doors. Hopefully these doors lead to her eventually designing not just doors, but whole buildings, and maybe even Philippine cities … ones that can be described as beautiful, and ones that can stand out in a universe of cities, no matter which god or gods the populace prays to.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com. World Architecture Week is coming soon. I will give a walking tour of the architecture and landscape architecture of the University of the Philippines campus on Oct. 2, 8 to 11 a.m. Please check out my Facebook page for details.