Brighthouse
Alabang, Muntinlupa

Located south of Manila, Brighthouse involved the renovation of an existing 80s-era house to come up with a completely new program and look.  Only a fraction of space was added on the north-west section of the existing floor plate to accommodate the needs of a growing family.  The existing main structure was in good condition and was preserved, retaining and recycling as much as was possible down to the smallest elements.  In place of discarding the metal panels of a defunct solar water heater, the aluminum parts were recycled and re-purposed.  It now forms part of the main entrance door panels. The prominent spiral staircase at the north facade works to passively cool the house through it’s stack effect function. Brighthouse was completed just before  2000 to welcome the new millenium.

Artlab
Alabang, Muntinlupa

Artlab is the other half of Brighthouse.  It was constructed 10 years after and comprises the living areas, studios and gallery of the artist-couple and their children, all artists in their own right today.   Artlab was completely built upon the floorplate of an old house in an effort to keep as much as possible, avoiding any wastage of materials and recycling and re-purposing all the materials which the old house contained.  All existing structural elements were kept and restored, employing all existing embodied energy in the resulting structure. The large glass-faced north facade is so designed to take in as much north light as it can.

The interior floor is in high polished white ceramic tiles.  The completely redesigned staircase uses all of the existing elements of the old stairs, with its treads and balusters modified to give it a more coherent dialogue with the rest of the interior composition.  The existing plaster walls are finished in acrylic paint.

Above is Artlab’s main studio on the second floor and showcase in the ground floor seen at night.  It has oversized windows to allow northern daylighting over work tables and easels.  Artlab has been featured in BluPrint Magazine.

 Asian Modern Village
Tagaytay City

The Asian Modern Village is a small residential development consisting of seven houses, with a compact but airy plan suited to the vacation character of Tagaytay City.  It is finished in simple, hardy materials.  Scale and color were important elements in the design for this development.

Differentiation among the houses was the objective even before personalization by the occupants. This was achieved by alternating layouts and a play of color.  Asian Modern Village has been featured in BluPrint Magazine.