First Concept Sketch

Visiting the Philippines for the first time (in my teenage years) made such impact on me. The culture and environment was so different than here in the United States. What I noticed is that tourists usually stay within the confines of Metro Manila, the city full of tall buildings, nice hotels, and huge shopping malls. Since most of my family lives in Manila, I was able to look at the communities lying outside Metro Manila. These are the places that I think of when I think of Manila. They are places that are dirty, run-down and crowded and they are located all over Manila. Although my aunt lives in a nice subdivision, right behind the wall of the community is an even larger community of “squatters.” These people make use of whatever materials they can find to make homes. Their homes are tiny and piled up right against and on top of each other. This is just a starting point but maybe there’s a way to create cheap but safer living environments for the people who live here.

Mateo Reading Response

Mateo’s article focuses on the process of design. This process is described as having and moving toward a fixed direction (moving from the abstract to the material or concrete). According to Mateo, a project begins with something he described as a “phantom” that has no precise boundaries. Therefore, there are many possibilities and ideas to be explored. Once this phantom is established, hierarchies are defined in order to establish systems of order and dictate an internal structure. The final stage is bringing the “phantom” into material form and seeing what this object will be in reality.

The article is both helpful and interesting, because it seems to offer a view from a professor’s perspective. This article may act as a guide on how to go about starting and following through with a project as well as warns us about certain dangers that may lead us off track. One particular danger that I understand from experience is that ideas shouldn’t imply a specific form. Mateo states that “Geometry, volume and plan are always a result, never an end in themselves (in the latter case they become an oppressive, constricting straitjacket.” I believe that I’ve fallen into this trap a few times before. There have been times when I quickly adapted a certain form or layout early in the process. Eventually it became harder to develop the project further because I was stuck on a certain form and timid to step away from it. In general, the article focuses not only on how to design a building but how to create and drive a project. I see why this article is the first reading assigned to us, because essentially, for thesis prep, we are taking over this role (usually held by our professors) of defining a project that is set toward a fixed direction of our choosing.