Sustainable Mañosa

I recently visited a new residential development that re-imagines how we should live our urban lives without throwing nature or comfort out our doors. Lantana Lane, by the Mañosa Properties Inc., is a townhouse project in historic New Manila, Quezon City. It has only 14 units but each is imbued with a rare blend of high-quality architectural design, expansive interiors, and integrated landscape and green-design features.

The name of the developer is familiar because it is a company that has evolved from, but is fully integrated with, the design firm of iconic architect Francisco “Bobby” Mañosa. Bobby Mañosa has built an extensive body of work in Filipino Tropical design that few, if any, can come close to. He took the quintessential bahay kubo and turned it into Filipio modern architecture that emphasizes the use of indigenous materials to create spaces that are culturally correct and environmentally sustainable — way before it was fashionable to be green…or correct.

Gelo Manosa won the competition for this sustainable residential design that wowed the competition’s judges.

Mañosa’s designs over the last 35 years since he established his own practice (after a historic partnership with his fellow-architect brothers) have become synonymous with green contemporary Filipino design.

Bobby declares, “I design Filipino, nothing else.” His design philosophy also offers nothing else but quality. He advocates a no-compromise approach to keeping within the tenets of his vision of Filipino architecture… so much so that he has even lost a few clients, whose primary aim was profit and not perfection.

This approach has, however, produced such landmark buildings as the Tahanang Pilipino (the Coconut Palace), the Aquino Center in Tarlac, the world-famous Amanpulo Resort in Palawan and The Pearl Farm Resort in Davao, the Ateneo Professional School in the Rockwell Center, as well as the Medical City complex.

Mañosa has also lent his design genius to a slew of houses and residential estates that owners treasure now, not just because they are solidly built and well designed, but also because they are Mañosas. These houses are going to be passed on by their proud owners to their sons and daughters as a legacy of their family.

The Lantana lane development is 60 percent green with the landscaped open spaces extending to rooftop decks.

Bobby Mañosa’s “crusade” for Filipino architecture still burns bright, and this legacy is shared and sustained also by his sons and daughter. They are the next generation of Mañosas that promise to build what has become a brand to the next level. That level is one that expands beyond the boundaries of design.

The siblings Mañosa have come together again after pursuing academic training and work experience outside of their father’s wings, to work together to make Filipino design into this next century. All this without losing sight of unique Mañosa core family values of “building on the legacy (of Filipino design),” “making sure to have fun doing innovative projects that deliver quality yet make a profit,” and achieving “work/life balance (family/health).”

Architect son Angelo “Gelo” Mañosa is now the CEO of Mañosa & Co., the design arm of an expanded group of companies carrying the Mañosa brand. He aims to be true to the founder’s vision while developing cutting edge global architecture, redefining sustainable architecture for the Philippines. “Green design is just good design,” says this next-gen Mañosa.

Bobby’s architectural agenda are now sustained with his children — all professionals in design and real estate — (from left) Gelo, Bambi and Dino — with Bobby Manosa (seated).

 “Too many buildings (here) are designed to look good without considering how liveable they are,” explains Gelo Mañosa. Echoing his father, he continues, “The bahay kubo was the original sustainable house. In essense, it already embodies the principles of climate-conscious architecture …what we do at Mañosa & Co., is to take these principles and apply them to modern designs…”

The younger Mañosa explains that this principles are shored up by modern green technologies like high-performance glass that block the sun’s heat, energy-saving appliances, LED lighting and low-VOC paints. All these are coupled with indigenous materials like bamboo and wood and are melded together in innovative ways to “reduce carbon footprint…” and increase the lifespan and therefore the value of these buildings.

The new Mañosa & Co., though best known for their residential and resort work, is now applying the same principles to large-scale institutional projects like office buildings, mixed-use developments, schools and hospitals. The company is also setting its sights on the international market.

While Gelo takes care of the buildings’ designs, sister Bambi is expanding the group’s design services to interior design and furniture via Mañosa Interiors.

The living rooms of the units are spacious and bathed in cool natural light.

Bobby Mañosa, like the great western architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Mies Van der Rhoe and Eero Saarinen, has always taken a holistic approach to his design.

Bambi is carrying on this approach with furniture, finishes and spaces that are executed with the artistry of the Mañosa touch. Her team creates feelings and emotions in the experience of space and objects that reflect the Mañosa ideology of Filipino design, materials and spaces.

Finally, Dino Mañosa, heads Mañosa Properties Inc, as CEO. He, together with his COO Rony Mayor, are stretching the envelope for the Mañosa brand to its fullest objective: that of building sustainable and distinctive communities.

Dino explains that the company wants to address the deficiencies of current estate developments, that of “cookie-cutter designs that are lifted wholesale from foreign models (no matter how inappropriate), corner-cutting in construction to save on costs, the complete absence of design flair.”

Continuing, Dino states the company’s goal: “We want to present a real alternative to the more discerning buyer… our pitch is: concept to construction, then marketing and turnover to property management.” He says they call it “managed development,” meaning that the units are designed and built from the end-user’s point of view, not the seller’s, so that the emphasis is on liveability, not profitability.”

MPI team: COO Rony Mayor; architect Ludwig Alvarez, chief creative officer; CEO Dino Mañosa; Bambi Mañosa-Tanjutco, interior design head; architect Bobby Mañosa, group chairman; architect Gelo Mañosa, CEO; and architect Yuchi Chua, COO

The Mañosas have walked this talk in their Lantana Lane project I started this article with. It looks so liveable and comfortable that even I would move there tomorrow… that is, if there were any units left. The development is sold out and in fact, the secondary market has prices for units 40 percent more than the original selling price.

Dino happily announced that they are continuing the formula, and the brand, in a few select new sites, mostly in the New Manila area, too. Reservations are already coming in, proving that this brand of holistic development, though new and pricier than the average, has a market. It is a niche market that knows lasting value when they see it.

Seeing is believing. I toured Lantana Lane with my discerning professional eye. It is a game-changer few developers will be able to sustain. There lies the key concept of his success: sustainability.

Bobby Mañosa sustained his often-quixotic advocacy for Filipino design over the last 35 years. He and his next generation continue with this effort and build on past successes with an eye to the future, the guts to stick to their Filipino design philosophy, and the intelligence to address a culturally-correct and green agenda.

It is an agenda that all Filipino designers must take, one that ultimately will go a long way to achieve a truly progressive Filipino architecture, one that sustains Filipino families, engenders Filipino communities and evokes Filipino national pride.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.

The views outside the units are not a crowded mass of concrete but green landscape and blue skies.