Authentic Italian

24 September 2012

Our Housing class had a field trip around the Southern part of Metro Manila. First, we went to the New Bilibid Prison resettlement area, which is funded by the National Housing Authority. Then we went to the neighboring Portofino Residences by Brittany. Lastly, we visited the Bonifacio Global City under AyalaLand and Evergreen Holdings.

The whole day was interesting in itself, but I'm only going to discuss Portofino here because the whole "authentic Italian" schtick they have rubbed us the wrong way.

Pizza Pasta Pepperoni

Before I had Architectural Theory classes, I already felt uncomfortable with themed developments. The ads in newspapers and magazines, though pretty, had never appealed to me. It took one HTC class for me to understand why I felt iffy with these imitations.

There are reasons why Filipino architecture is different from any other architecture found in other parts of the world. A few of these reasons are climate, availability of materials, and differences in culture.

Transplanting an authentic foreign style into Manila simply won't work. It's not just a matter of nationalism. There's a reason why the basic Filipino houses don't have cupolas and chimneys and basements. It's because WE DON'T NEED THEM. Having useless and costly design details that are completely foreign is pretentious.

And they introduce their developments in first person. I find that extremely unusual.

As the trip was composed of three professors and eight vans of idealistic architecture students, we had a lot of questions, but the number one question was simply... why?

Why build all these thematic developments (they have a Switzerland-inspired  one in Tagaytay and an American... thing somewhere else)??? Why not just build high-end exclusive villages wherein people can have their own designs? WHY???

Their answer? Because there's a market for these kind of things.

Alfie asking a question.

Kurt asking a question.

Bibbokid Ice asking a question.

Kuya Don asking a question

They fed us adobo rolls..... bwahahahaha.

Their clubhouse was posh-looking, but certainly not as Italian as I expected.

Despite the artificial-looking facades, I'd have to commend them on the Interior Design. At least they did something right by commissioning the Almario Sisters to do the interiors.

Christian and Arvin on the balcony

We were taken to two of their model houses. We were greeted by classical music as we entered the houses.

Becky orgmates welcoming people in.

The house design was named Alessandro. All their designs are named after Italian artists.

Fake books

REAL Vidka???

A room named Alex

For display purposes only

Mariz, Ell, Alyssa and Gelmer

A lot of pictures were taken that day.

I forgot the name of the second house. But it has a courtyard.

A small one, but hey! At least meron.

I like the table settings, but I'm too messy to have them in real life.

I have so many photos of Donna and Liz. They actually own the house.

Gonna have a wall like this someday.

The donyas.

I don't like wallpaper in general... but these two do.

We were not allowed to sit on or touch anything... but bleh.

A lot of Chinese stuff for an Italian home.

We left Portofino with mixed feelings. Personally, I think that they are trying to mislead people by selling "authentic Italian architecture". But their definition of authentic is skewed. If you built something like that in Italy, it won't fit the context at all. It's not authentic Italian. It's a hodgepodge of styles that the designers think is Italian. It misinforms people.

The sad thing is that people actually buy these properties, and at very high prices. It's like the people's definition of luxury includes homes that can fit inside theme parks.

Then again, who can fault the buyers? This proves that colonial mentality still exists. One thing is for sure... none of us taking the field trip would want to live there.

Ell is running away from it already.