A Filipino landscape aesthetic
This week the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects remembers two of its original founders, one who passed away last year and another pillar of the profession who left us just a week ago. These were National Artist for Architecture Ildefonso P. Santos and another original founder of the association, Carlito B. Pesons.
Carlito was head of the Board of Landscape Architecture at the Philippine Regulation Commission when he passed. He was 71. The UST alum had spent 50 years as a landscape architect, first as an associate of IP Santos, and then as one of my partners in the firm of PDAA Partners Landscape Architects before his government service.
Both he and his former boss shared a design talent in creating landscapes of beauty. Carlito’s avenue of creative expression other than design was via the microphone at karaoke sessions. Santos’ never liked the night life and sought to pontificate via the written word. Both influenced me and a younger generation of designers. Santos writing and his ability to face audiences of stern clients was a skill I picked up.
IP wrote beautifully and of beauty. Here are excerpts form a talk he gave at a gathering of the International Federation of Landscape Architects in Athens in 1988.
The title of the piece was “Aesthetics in Landscape Architecture as Applied within the Context of a Developing Country.”
He made the case for aesthetics in design, stating, “Before the feasibility of aesthetics in landscape architecture can be discussed within the framework of economic constraint in a developing country, the overriding consideration must be its justification. For in its very essence, is aesthetics in landscape architecture a luxury or a necessity?
“At first glance, it seems fairly obvious that in a starving society where it is not uncommon to hear the dismal sobbing of hungry children the subject of landscape beautification may be hard to justify. And why not? How could anyone even think of providing food for the eyes when there is not enough for the stomach? Why then must a developing country that is desperately fighting for its very survival concern itself with aesthetics in the first place? Unless, of course, aesthetics play such an important role in man’s physical environment, without which his senses and his whole spiritual being is adversely affected and he is reduced to no more than a zombie.
“The problems attendant to a depressed society are complex and multifaceted. Life is not only miserable, it is cheap. It is a daily struggle for survival. In the crowded cities of Metro Manila, for example, hunger stalks the less fortunate of the urban poor…Squatting is a way of life that breeds ghettos reeking with appalling squalor and filth…These homeless transients clog waterways and street gutters with their trash and plastic bags and wrappers, causing constant scummy floods during the rainy season.
“Aprodico Laquian, a political scientist and a former squatter himself, best described the problems, dilemmas and challenges of squatters when he observed that “these poorest of the urban poor live in dilapidated settlements that cling precariously to hillsides, line smelly canals, block roadsides or crowd inner city alleys. In their tattered misery, they mock the aspirations of all those yearn to make their cities sophisticated and modern.”
“In the ‘70s, at the instigation of Metro Manila Governor Imelda Marcos, the government undertook a slum improvement program designed to mask eyesores that mar and malign the beauty of the urban landscape and adversely impinge on the environment. However, government ineptitude and kid-glove handling of this social malady — whether out of humanitarian concern or for reasons of political expediency — have abetted and encouraged the fragile urban environment farther into unmitigated deterioration.
“To be sure, there are more than enough laws on environmental protection and conservation. The main stumbling block to the enforcement of these environmental laws is the government’s seeming partiality to economic progress over ecological concern, which has made it difficult for the law enforcers to crack down on violators, such as owners of factories that dump tons of pollutants into the waters, for fear of stifling economic growth and leaving thousands of Filipino laborers jobless. The government authority’s reluctance to enforce strict implementation of these laws has prompted the catholic bishops’ conference of the Philippines to issue a recent pastoral letter, calling on the government “not to pursue short-term economic gains at the expense of long-term ecological damage.”
A quick tour of the metropolis will invariably reveal that the city air is thick with noxious gas and soot spewed from ill-situated factories. Compounding the pollution problem are more than one million vehicles, half of which would not pass gas emission tests. The streets are rutted and full of potholes and are king-size obstacle courses. They contribute to the creation of monstrous traffic jams that plague motorists and test their patience, especially during rush hours. In a very real sense, Metro Manilans are killing themselves and their city.
Surely there must be more to life than mere physical needs of flesh and blood that must be served. We can only draw inspiration and wisdom from this oft repeated and meaningful phrase: “Man does not live by bread alone; while his body is nourished by food, his soul is enriched by beauty.” To the hungry poor and, unfortunately, even to some of the more affluent segment of society this phrase may mean little, yet little do people realize that this phrase carries a message of sublime importance.
Psychologists have long understood and accepted the importance of aesthetics to our physical environment, because of its indelible effect on human behavior. The visual effects of beauty result positively in the stimulation and gratification of the mind and the senses — eliciting pleasurable feelings of satisfaction and happiness, delight, ecstasy, rapture and joy to the beholder. On the other hand, it is generally accepted that ugliness and discord of any sort are offensive to the sight and cause visual pain, disturb the nervous system, create tension and leave an uncontrollable depressing effect on the individual, usually without his being aware of it.
For the environment has a unique preponderance over man — it molds, shapes and leaves indelible marks on him. That is why it is so important to surround ourselves and our children with the greatest possible beauty. As Eric Newton so fittingly wrote in The Essentials of Beauty: If my eye sends me nothing but reports of visual chaos in the outer world, the part of my brain that receives vital messages will be in a permanent condition of distress.” Imagine the effects, then, of a depressed environment upon a society that is already flooded with feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and frustration — it could be devastating! Both the physical and mental activity of people already troubled and given to brooding, lack of patience, irritable and short-tempered, can be adversely affected to such a point despair and apathy as to render them unproductive.
IP concluded, “It is these negative effects that have to be guarded against, especially in the developing countries where a similar disturbing scenario prevails — differing only for the most part in the gravity of the situation. Thus, it becomes imperative that in such a developing nation saddled with heavy debts and in a state of economic crisis, aesthetics plays a very important role and needs to be introduced as a matter of urgency, if only to buoy up sagging spirits and offer hope for the future.”
IP Santos, aided by Carlito Pesons, his senior associate until the ‘80s, created scores of public parks, gardens and settings. Many of these, like the Rizal Park (also partly designed by landscape architect Dolly Perez) are in danger of being compromised by encroaching development. A number of their other work like the Nayong Pilipino, and pocket parks around the metropolis are either gone, ill-maintained or being redeveloped into commercial complexes.
We need to recover an aesthetic that emphasizes the beauty of landscape and a cityscape that delights rather than depresses. It is the task of Filipino landscape architects, urban designers, architects and planners to design for the essential needs of people — and not just for profit or politics. Carlito Pesons and IP Santos have made their contributions. It is up to the rest of us to continue the fight for beauty.
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Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.
