Urban planning dilemma
IN an increasingly crowded city like Metro Manila, space for business and commerce is so valuable real estate developers have coined a word to determine how much a particular city could build before it becomes saturated.
It has many names – floor area ratio (FAR), floor space ratio, plot ratio, and floor space index – but all mean the same: the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. The terms can also refer to limits imposed on such a ratio.
Violate FAR and you are in trouble.
This is the quandary faced by DMCI, builder of Torre de Manila, who now has to face the courts to justify building the 49-story tower. The National Culture Commission and the Arts (NCCA), also want the building reduced to seven floors or entirely demolished.
DMCI refused to demolish the structure, saying that the site of their condominium is outside of the NCCA jurisdiction.
The NCCA cites the Heritage Act that says monuments and statues and cultural sites should have a panoramic vista and that, when viewed by citizens and tourists alike, there should be no structure to block, mar, or ruin the view, or desecrate the sanctity of the particular site.
Authorities said Manila and the 15 other cities and one town in Metro Manila have limited capacities to absorb additional FAR.
Today, urban planners, builders, real estate developers, and cultural guardians are tearing their hair in frustration on how to deal with the flood of construction and yet save the cultural sites from desecration.
What if, in the near future, the Philippines is finally able to build one of the tallest structures in Asia, if not the world? Where do we build this skypiercing piece of architecture? Manila has the biggest number of statues and monuments and the rest of the cities have FAR limitations.
Internationally famous architect and urban planner Jun Palafox said tall buildings and culture can co-exist, citing other cities that build the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur and the Empire State building in New York.