Blazing the path for women architects
IN a field dominated by men, architect Cathy Saldaña stands tall, whether on construction sites wearing a hard hat or in the office where she is the boss. President and founder of her firm, PDP Architects and Projects Design Plus Architecture Management Corp., she has always pushed for women to raise their level of participation in difficult and more technical projects.
“Beyond doing residences, it is good to see more women in transportation projects such as railways and airports. Gender is not a defining issue in both leadership and role assignments,” Saldaña maintained.
The award-winning architect is known for hospitality design, retail mixed-use, commercial and residential high rises, industrial facilities, and transport design for airports and railways. Some of her more prominent projects include the Shangri-La Resort Group, the airport at El Nido, Palawan, and the Damosa Diamond Tower in Davao. A pioneer in the Philippines for sustainable island developments, Saldaña believes that it is important for women to be part of the high-rise design and
township developments.
“The seats for women in these fields need to be multiplied,” she continued. “The country is very embracing towards female chairmanships. We need to see this kind of leadership more in the challenging sectors of the building industry.”
An advocate for women in the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry, she also embraces the role of mentoring other women, especially the next generation of architects. One of her goals is “to push our younger set towards being more focused on sustainability alongside technical prowess.” A certified Green Building Professional under Berde, the Green Building Rating System, she espouses sustainability in all her work.
An influential figure in real estate, urban planning and design, she has been featured in the book “100 Women: Architects in Practice.” The book, authored by Harriet Hariss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder, and Tom Ravenscroft, speaks to the underrepresentation of women in architecture.
Mentors and heroines
According to the publisher’s website, the book’s showcase of 100 “exceptional” women in the architectural field, including Saldaña, “presents an equitable sample of architects from every continent. We all need heroines as much as heroes.”
Saldaña counts as her mentors the leading lights of architecture and business, many of whom she met while taking her undergraduate degree at the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Architecture and her master’s with honors at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
“I was mentored in planning and tropical design by our Dean at the UP College of Architecture, Arch. Geronimo Manahan and his business partner in master planning, Arch. Manny Mañosa,” she said.
Former supervisor Carlos Guico taught her a lot about architectural detailing. Then she dove deep into business mastery with AIM Dean Ed Morato and Tommy Lopez.
Before university, while growing up at the formerly all-girl school Miriam College (then known as Maryknoll), Saldaña “looked up to women achievers and still do … I marveled at the stories of their passion and grit.” One architect she admires is the late Zaha Hadid for her pioneering work.
Saldaña’s path to architecture was largely influenced by her parents, who gave her a good balance in loving science, math, and the arts. Her father, a geodetic engineer who worked in public housing, “was very technical and loved math. My mom was very creative from handicrafts to literature,” she said. As a result, Saldaña was always the class artist in high school but also found enjoyment in geometry and physics. Architecture combined her love for art with math and science.
At one point in her career, she decided to strike out on her own and establish her own company, which has since been rebranded to pdp + Architecture. During the firm’s first years, she did retail rollouts, schools, multiple restaurant chains, and midrise projects.
One of her early lessons was “to account for and be responsible for everyone — their plans, dreams, and their mistakes.”
To young architects who want to follow in her footsteps, especially women, she says, “We also must learn from and document our lessons to teach others. Even if the odds are against you, soldier on.”