The architect as nation builder

MANILA, Philippines - Celebrating his 40th year as architect, Felino Palafox, Jr. has been changing the landscape of the Philippines – and the world – brick by brick. With Palafox at its helm for 23 years, Palafox Associates has received more than 200 awards, citations, and recognitions.

“In 1989 I founded this company and I dreamed at that time that in 25 years we could make it number one in the Philippines,” Palafox recalls. “On our tenth year, we were cited by the World Architecture magazine of London as the first and only Filipino in the top 500 architects in the world. We ranked 220.”

Palafox continues, “On our tenth year, I envisioned to make Palafox Associates number one in Southeast Asia in another 25 years.” In 2006 – only seven years later – the firm made it to the world’s top 100 in world, the only architectural firm from Southeast Asia to be recognized.

“This year we broke top 100 again,” Palafox shares with pride. “We are ranked 89. In leisure projects we are ranked number 8 in the world.”

With more than 900 projects in 37 countries over the past 23 years, the firm has worked with some 12 billion square meters of land for urban planning and more than 8 million square meters of building floor area.

But success is not only measured in square meters. Palafox says that the company’s triple bottom line approach is what makes it unique: “People first or social equity, then planet earth or the environment, and finally profit or economic goals.”

“If one of the three legs of this triple bottom line is missing then we don’t take the project,” he says, adding, “Some people call me a maverick, some call me controversial, when we crusade for the environment – giving up projects or even exposing people who destroy the environment.”

In keeping with its triple bottom line advocacy, the company has been known to give up millions in architect’s fees by not accepting a project from clients that could not comply with their environment-friendly recommendations.

As an ex-seminarian, Palafox sees that his work and position’s importance is beyond economic success. Explaining the etymology of the word corruption – corfor heart and ruptusfor broken – he says, “We are a broken-hearted society because of corruption.”

Ground breaking

Palafox has led many ground-breaking, innovative projects throughout his professional life.

One of the local projects that he is most proud of is the Rockwell Center master plan because the project – a mixed-use high-rise development that is walkable – highlights the Palafox design philosophy of integrating together a place to live, work, shop, dine and worship – all within walking distance.

Some other landmark projects include the renovation and upgrade of Manila Polo Club and the Qatar embassy. The firm has also worked with some of the top architects in the world, and some of the top golf course planners in the world – Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones II, Tom Weiskopf, and Greg Norman.

As for personal milestones, in 1997, Palafox became the first Filipino architect invited to guest lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has also delivered lectures at his local alma maters – the University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas – took notice and started inviting him to lecture as well. Since then, he has been a guest speaker in conventions and seminars all over the world.

In a career that is dotted with firsts, Palafox is also the first architect to be the president of the Management Association of the Philippines. He is also a member of many international organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, Urban Land Institute, International Council of Shopping Centers, International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and the Congress for New Urbanism.

A truly global citizen, he chairs the environment committee of the American Chamber of Commerce-Philippines, was elected director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, and was founding member of the German Chamber of Commerce.

It was his time as urban planner for Dubai, however, that Palafox considers as life changing. “I didn’t even know where Dubai was,” he says when he was hired by the royal family of Dubai.

Palafox became the first Filipino to be invited to master plan Dubai. “This really had an impact on me on going international.”

As part of an international team, he was able to work with 20 architects from 14 countries. “Only two of us were Asian,” he recalls.

“In Dubai I worked with visionary leaders who had great respect for architects.”

It was April 1977 and the pool of architects was given their direction: “Bring Dubai from the fourth world into the first world in 15 years.”

The world according to Jun Palafox: Rockwell Center embodies the Palafox design principles (top left). Palafox envisions the future with a mixed-use tower (left). A proposed design for Vien Dong Meridian tower in Danang, Vietnam (above).

Palafox shares that they were told to plan Dubai as if there was no oil because they were aware that the resource would eventually run out. They were challenged to create a garden city out of the desert.

“They imported soil from Pakistan, irrigation from Germany, flowers from Holland.” The team’s goal was to make Dubai a city that would set the pace in the Middle East, a gateway city with their airport and seaport as anchor projects. Given their 15-year timeline, Dubai achieved all this in ten years.

Palafox adds that they were highly encouraged to travel all over the world to see what good practices and designs could be adapted in Dubai. While his colleagues went to the likes of London, Paris, and New York – cities that took hundreds of years to develop, Palafox decided to study five cities that became first world in less than 15 years – San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich, and Geneva. All of these cities were able to rise from third world to first world to quickly become top players in the world arena. “Those were my benchmarks for Dubai.”

As Palafox continued to make a name for himself in Dubai, it was Henry Sy and Enrique Zobel who took notice of him and enticed him to come home.

“It was Henry Sy himself who personally visited me in my home in Dubai,” he says. “The offer was to come back here because the country needs you more than Dubai, or if I get tired of working in Dubai I could work for Henry Sy or Ayala Corporation.”

Palafox did return home and he worked for Sy for a while, bringing SM out of the box – literally – designing the shopping centers differently from the usual box-style buildings.

Palafox also worked with Ayala for the redevelopment of Ayala Center, master plan of Ayala Alabang, Ayala Heights, Laguna Techno Park, and Cebu Business Park.

Since then, Palafox has worked with all the big names both locally and internationally, including the Lopezes, Enriles, Aranetas, Yulos, Florendos, Aboitiz, Alcantaras, Imee Marcos, Manuel Villar, Edward Hagedorn, the Sultan of Brunei, and the emirs of Kuwait and Qatar, among many others.

“It is both inspiring and challenging, and very interesting,” he says on working for so many important clients where he has had to deal not only with different landscapes and designs, but with different cultures.

Architecture for humanity

“Some people call it pro bono, I call it patriotic or democratic architecture, architecture for humanity,” Palafox says.

Among the firm’s CSR projects are the Gawad Kalinga conceptual development plan and Smokey Mountain urban renewal housing projects.

Palafox also recalls an eartquake-devastated school in Bam, Iran that the firm reconstructed. “It was funded by the Buddhists of Taiwan for the Muslim children of Iran and they hired us Filipino Catholic architects and engineers.”

Another important on-going architecture for humanity project that Palafox is doing has to do with the country’s waterways – including the Pasig River clean-up and the Manila waterways urban redevelopment and streetscape design.

“The Philippines has the third largest waterfront in the world,” says Palafox, recalling once again his experience in Dubai where they had to create artificial islands to lengthen their waterfront because they only had 70 kilometers of natural waterfront.

“We’re number one in the world in marine biodiversity... the Filipino is the best global citizen in the world – outside our country,” says Palafox. “Without corruption, we should be in the top 20 in the world in the near future.”

Postcards from the future

Palafox calls the 21st century a “Re-century.” It is an era wherein we will re-imagine, re-develop, re-plan; re-use, recycle, reduce. “Hopefully we will have a Renaissance,” he adds.

Palafox highlights that the architecture firm’s advocacy is to create urban spaces that are interconnected, walkable, bikeable, safe, and clean. He envisions developments that integrate places to live, shop, dine, work, and worship. In a project called “Postcards of the Future,” Palafox took different parts of the metropolis and re-imagined them.

For example, Palafox advocates the re-zoning of cities along the river to face the river, starting with the Pasig River.

BRICK BY BRICK: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Masjid, Cotobato City, Mindanao. The lakeside area of Sta. Elena golf course community. Designs for a private villa and Flamingo Mall, both in Jeddah.

“In other countries, waterfront is a front door of development, even making artificial waterfronts,” he says. “Unfortunately in our country, we treat our waterfront as the back of the house, basurahan. We are trying to reverse this paradigm and make our waterfronts the front door of development.”

He adds, “Hopefully this will have impact on the whole country because we have more than 400 rivers and 180 of them are dead. If we are able to revive and revitalize Pasig River, hopefully it will be a good model for the other 400 rivers in the country.”

Speaking of future projects, Palafox says, “When people ask me what’s our best project, I always say it’s the next one because we then have the advantage of hindsight, learning from previous experiences.”

At the moment, there are some 50 projects on the Palafox Associates drawing board, including three American Battle Monument installations; a 177-hectare development in Clark, with the emir of Kuwait as investor, a project that Palafox says will create more than 200,000 jobs in the area; another development in the Clark area with Korean investors; the new building of the Asian Development Bank headquarters, employing LEED-certified green architecture; and tourism projects in Ilocos Norte, Palawan, Puerto Galera, and Davao.

But, despite all these projects, Palafox says, “Beyond success, we’d like to be significant.”

“When people ask me, why do I go beyond my architectural box with this architectural activism, architecture for humanity, architecture for environment, and architecture for interfaith? It is to become significant and to give back to society.”

As a nation builder, visionary, and concerned architect, Palafox continues to give back to the society and the world by writing us postcards from the future. Cover Photo By Jun Mendoza