Filipinos win design tilt for UK museum
ARCHITECT Abelardo Tolentino Jr. once drew up designs for clients in Moscow who had never seen a Filipino.
“When we presented there six years ago, they were surprised. Of all nationalities, Filipinos are the ones designing their projects. Aside from the
fact that it’s fun, it also gives us a sense of pride that somehow, we have given them an image of the Filipino talent,” Tolentino said.
Today, his all-Filipino firm Aidea is fast gaining international renown, winning this year’s Build London Live (BLL), a competition involving 10 teams from around the world to design a detailed virtual perspective of a museum celebrating 2012 as a landmark year for London.
Within the grueling 48hour deadline, Aidea’s design went from idea to form, earn- ing the judges’ nod.
There’s neither a cash prize nor immediate plans to build, but the award is far greater, Tolentino said, citing “bragging rights” and international recognition.
“We’re very happy, we did not expect that we’ll win,” he told the INQUIRER. “One very important reason why we joined this kind of competition is to show to the world that the Philippines can do something good or comparable to what others can do outside the country,” said the Aidea founder, president and CEO with a 25-year experience behind him. “Many people do not know what capability we have here. I’m sure there are a lot of people who were surprised that we won first place because people know that Europe is more advanced than us. But that’s not the case. We can compete with them,” he said.
“We want to stop this trend of people leaving to work abroad. We’d like to think that people leave not just because of money, it’s also because of exposure. And if we can provide that exposure—they travel, work on projects overseas—then there’s a bigger chance that they’ll develop their careers with the company,” said Tolentino, 46, who worked in a Hong Kong firm for nine years.
Toughest contest yet
Aidea’s BLL outing this year was its first, the firm’s toughest virtual build yet in which 16 architects and graphic artists squeezed some two months worth of work into two sleepless days.
From noon of May 21 to noon of May 23, the 10 participating teams, including those from the United Arab Emirates, India, Ireland and Chile, worked on the design challenge live.
Teams used a software called Building Information Modeling (BIM), a sophisticated design technology that architects use to create 3D models of their designs, even show how the building will be constructed from ground up.
The cloud-based technology, which Aidea has been using for seven years, could also automatically generate construction schedules, logistics requirements and possible technical glitches.
“It’s designing and it’s also applying the technology. The task is to apply as much BIM to the design as possible. So in 48 hours, we’re uploading information to a site in London, they’re monitoring our submissions,” Tolentino said.
Teams learned about the design problem on the day the competition started: Build a museum that would immortalize events in London this year, notably the 2012 Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee.
The proposed site is on a rotunda near O2 Dome and London Park, a space split by a road requiring architects to design two interconnected buildings.
Inspirations for building
Aidea responded with a three-story building that drew inspiration from three key words: identity, inspiration, innovation. The design aimed to capture London’s place in history and the future.
The result was a design that translated openness,
Monday - July 16, 2012 15th Week in Ordinary Time Our Lady of Mount Carmel 1st Reading: Is 1:10-17
Hear the warning of Yahweh, rulers of Sodom. Listen to the word of God, people of Gomorrah. “What do I care,” says Yahweh “for your endless sacrifices? I am fed up with your burnt offerings, and the fat of your bulls. The blood of fatlings, and lambs and he-goats I abhor.
“When you come before me and trample on my courts, who asked you to visit me? I am fed up with your oblations. I grow sick with your incense. Your New Moons, Sabbaths and meetings, evil with holy assemblies, I can no longer bear.
“I hate your New Moons and appointed feasts they burden me. When you stretch out your hands I will close my eyes; the more you pray, the more I refuse to listen, for your hands are bloody.
“Wash and make yourselves clean. Remove from my sight the evil of your deeds. Put an end to your wickedness and learn to do good. Seek justice and keep in line the abusers; give the fatherless their rights and defend the widow.” Gospel: Matthew 10:34-11:1
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to establish peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father and daughter against her mother; a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Each one will have as enemies those of one’s own family.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and come after me is not worthy of me. One who wants to benefit from his life will lose it; one who loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me. The one who welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man because he is a just man will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is a disciple of mine, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.”
When Jesus had finished giving his twelve disciples these instructions, he went on from there to teach and to proclaim his message in their towns. Reflection
This is one of those “terrible” passages of the New Testament. Why is the Prince of Peace telling us that he has not come to bring peace but the sword? Clearly, there are wrong kinds of peace - or rather situations that look peaceful on the outside but are full of injustice within. The Prince of Peace has not come to bless violence and oppression that have been so successful that the poor have no resistance left. There are people who crush life all around them and call it restoring peace. Look at public bodies and at business companies, certainly, but do not forget to look at your own family too! Why are your wife and children so quiet? Are they sinking into despair? Or have you a way of making your husband feel so bad that everything he might do or say is condemned even before he says or does it? strength and connectivity into sloping glass panels that offered open views of its surroundings and maximized sunlight, and a bridge and basement that gave people an unbroken route through the building.
“It has to talk about the events in London in 2012, not just the Olympics. And they had very specific requirements when it comes to planning, the flow of people, what the museum should have, the areas, they had requirements on how to connect two sites,” Tolentino said.
The Aidea team also had to do research about British design and construction standards. Participants were required to file progressive submissions online for everyone to see. Thus, everybody knew which team was ahead and lagging in the design process.
Judges from around Europe announced their choice on May 23 at the closing event at the Royal Institute of British Architects streamed live on- line. Congratulations and inquiries about Aidea’s design process poured in.
All-Filipino agency
It’s an accolade Tolentino could not have imagined back in 2003, when he decided to go on his own and turn the firm from a branch of the British firm RMJM into an all-Filipino agency.
“When we were starting out, it was really hard. We were a new player and I saw that Filipinos, we tend to be shy. But we need to believe in ourselves,” Tolentino said in an interview in his office overlooking Aidea’s recent designs: the Convergys and People Support offices, and the plush The Columns condominium.
Aidea’s other designs include developments of Ayala Land, among them the University of the Philippines Technohub in Quezon City. The firm has also been the architectural partner of multinational manufacturing firm Procter and Gamble, designing its headquarters in Geneva and offices in more than 40 countries.
This year, Aidea was ranked No. 86 among the world’s Top 100 architectural firms by Building Design, a London architectural communications company. Last year, it won second place in a similar 48-hour live design competition in Singapore.
Aidea has received delegations of architects from China, Singapore, Korea and Japan in its Makati City office, all curious to know how his firm does design.
“We had Japanese people asking us to teach them. And for a Japanese, that’s a very big thing,” he said.
“In other countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, China, if you look at their design companies, you will see a lot of Filipinos. These companies are powered by Filipino talent,” Tolentino added.
“If we can just get our act together in the industry, we can provide services outside of the country. Many architects choose to go abroad and stay there longer, but that’s not always positive. But with this new technology and a new mind-set, I think if we want to compete on a global scale, we can stay here and do our designs here.”
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