Preserving the past, sustaining a future

Gateway to the past. Pride swells from the members of the College of
Architecture (CA) as they inaugurate the college’s Museum of Architecture,
the first of its kind in the University. On hand to preside over the event were
(from left) Architect Lisa Santos, CA College Secretary Nicolo Del Castillo,
OICA Acting Director Rubén D.F. Defeo, museum curator Dr. Gerard Lico, UPD
Chancellor Sergio Cao, special guest speaker Dr. Jaime Laya, CA Extension
Program Director Maria Cristina Turalba, current CA Dean Danilo Silvestre,
former CA Dean Prosperidad Luis, and Architect Arvin Sarthou.

CA inaugurates Museum of Filipino Architecture

From the towering pyramids of Egypt to the quintessential Nipa Hut, one of the most concrete reflections of a culture is its architecture. At UP Diliman (UPD), often described as “the Philippines in microcosm,” a glimpse of the country’s modern history can now be seen at the College of Architecture (CA).

The Museum of Filipino Architecture, housed at CA’s Building 1, was inaugurated on March 10 as part of the opening ceremonies of the Haraya 2008, the annual event celebrating the best in the college.

It features, almost exclusively, pieces from the National Museum’s “Building Modernity: A Century of Philippine Architecture and Allied Arts” exhibit. The exhibit was curated by CA professor Dr. Gerard Lico and was launched in February 2007 as part of the Philippine Arts Festival of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Lico, also the museum’s curator and “mastermind,” said the museum “started as an idea to build a digital image archive,” a an image databank of Philippine architecture. Lico was largely instrumental in effecting the turn over of the National Museum’s collection to the CA.

“[W]e have large format photographs, framed photographs of buildings from the 20th century beginning from the American period to the present; building ornaments and components of demolished buildings,” says Lico.

Aside from photographs, the museum also features pieces like postcards and fragments of the old Insular Ice Plant in Manila erected by the Americans and demolished when the LRT was constructed in the 1980s.

According to Lico, the plant is an important building since it was the first large building constructed by the Americans because they needed ice and refrigerated meat. In addition, it had components from gabaldon schools, which are schools made of capiz found in the provinces. It also featured grillwork designed by Juan Luna’s son Andres Luna de san Pedro, he adds.

The inaugural exhibit is divided into several themes, namely: modern as civilizing project; modern as vernacular; modern as tropical; modern as technological progress; modern as state craft; and modern as global enterprise.

Guided tour. Museum curator Dr. Gerard Lico
shows UPD Chancellor Sergio Cao part of the
exhibit.

Labor of love: Putting the museum together wasn’t easy.

While the actual building that will house the entire exhibit collection has yet to be constructed, Lico has managed to find some space for it in the CA’s Building 1.
Lico likewise had difficulty acquiring initial funding to develop the space but he soon found a partner in the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) under the leadership of Director Rubén Defeo.

“Because of [the] meager budget, I had to rely on OICA for funding,” he said. The funds were used for carpentry, repainting and other refurbishing works. But since the shell was there but it lacked the exhibition system, Lico had to construct one from materials he scavanged around.

“I had difficulty fitting the entire collection in that existing room so we kept the rest because the room is only supposed to be used as the research office which I head,” he said. This is also part of the reason why not all the pieces from the “Building Modernity” collection are currently on display.

The future: Plans have been laid out for the museum’s permanent home right between Buildings 1 and 2 of the CA. Lico further shares that the museum, estimated to be built next year, will be the linking structure between the two and serve other functions as well, such as student tambayans and the library.
“The area will both be a destination and a congregational space among students,” Lico said.

Funding for the construction of the actual museum building is also being worked on. The funds will come from various sources, including an allocation from the seed money given by Senator Edgardo J. Angara to UP.

Lico hopes to make the museum one of the “must-see” landmarks of the university someday, on par with the College of Arts and Letters’ Jose Vargas Museum, as well as expand its current collection.

Lico lamets that he was unable to display some parts of the original collection, such as the continuous video. “It’s a video documentary covering the 20th century history of Philippine architecture which I did not include because of the maintenance and equipment it requires. Another piece of the exhibit that has yet to be displayed are the plans for a National Theater that was to be built behind the Rizal Monument in Luneta. They were designed by National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil.

Despite the resource constraints, Lico remains steadfast in the endeavor. “[B]uildings are part of our collective consciousness,” he says, to which CA Dean Danilo Silvestre agrees:

“Though the thrust of our college is really environmental sustainability and design, we felt that it was important that people somehow recognize that historical conservation is a sustainable act in itself by being able to conserve our heritage resources.

Lico is exerting every bit of effort to make the museum project a success and judging from the kind of reception the collection is getting, a promising future is foreseeable .

“The National Museum exhibit itself, which was supposed to run for only two months last year, was extend to October because of public demand,” he said.

The National Museum charges a minimum fee for the CA exhibit.

—By Anna E. Regidor