The Virtual Sketchbook

Being
The
Repository
Of
My
Creative
Ideas

Friday, July 31, 2009

Architectural Design And Construction (House 2)


A two-storey modern Asian residence


Exterior view from the right side


The exterior perspective of the house that was
modified during the construction stage to provide
for more living space in the second floor




Click for more photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015785&id=1461859526&l=487c4dcdd4

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Architectural Design And Construction (House 1)


A two-storey modern Asian residence


A quick sketch of the final revision of the house facade


The final exterior perspective of the house based on the final revision

Click for more photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015628&id=1461859526&l=a42ba93429

Book Cover Illustrations

Caracoa 25 (Silver Edition)
An Anthology Of Poems





Bayambang
Herminio S. Beltran Jr.


Book 1


Book 2


Book 3


Pagpaplanong Pangwika Tungo Sa Modernisasyon
Pamela C. Constantino


Pilipinolohiya: Kasaysayan, Pilosopiya At Pananaliksik
Violeta V. Bautista & Rogelia Pe-Pua






Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Haraya Sa Isla Boracay (written many summers ago when the island was still beautifully pristine)




Haraya Sa Isla Boracay

Labis akong nirarahuyo
Ng alindog mong taglay.
Naparito akong naghahangad
Arukin ang iyong kalikasan.

Mula sa niyugan ng dalampasigan,
Hubo't hubad akong lumalakad.
Hinay-hinay.
Nililigis ng aking mga yapak
Ang iyong puting buhanginan.
Nag-iiwan ng malalambot na bakas
Na masuyong dinarampian
Ng mga alon mong maligamgam;
At muli't muling hinahagkan
Hanggang maglaho
Sa mga bulang nagtitilamsikan.

Marahan.
Lumulusong ako nang marahan.
Dinarama ko ang malahininga mong paghaplos
Sa aking talampakan,
Sa pagitan ng mga daliri,
Sa bukung-bukong.
Nauunawaan kong nais mong banyusan,
Dampian ng iyong buhok
Na malaon nang babad
Sa walang-bangong tubig-alat
Ang katauhan kong nag-aapoy sa pagnanasa.
Mula sa paa.
At sa aking mga binti
Pumupulupot ang mga basang hibla
Ng alun-alon mong buhok.
Hindi ako makatinag
Sa higpit ng iyong pangungunyapit
Sa aking mga hita.
At sa magiliw mong paghagod sa aking kapusukan,
Gumagapang ang kilabot
Sa aking balat na nadadarang.
Sumisingaw ang mga butil ng pawis.
Dumadaloy, naglalandas
Sa lahat ng umbok, uka, at usli
Ng aking katawan.
Tumutulo, sumasanib
Sa alat ng iyong karagatang
Buong timyas na sinisimsim ng hangin.

Maalinsangan ang habyog ng hangin.
Lalong pumipilantik ang indayog
Ng alon mong pumipilansik sa kalawakan.
Waring nais sabuyan at paliguan
Ang tirik na araw
Na naghuhumindig sa kalangitan.
Nagliliyab ang dilang-silahis ng araw
Na dumarapo sa iyong karagatang
Kumikinang sa banayad na labusaw
Ng iyong pagtatampisaw.

Isang pigil-hiningang bulusok.
At sinisisid ko ang bughaw mong karagatan.
Malasutlang lagaslas ang hagod
Ng iyong pagsalubong
Sa pailalim kong paglangoy
Patungo sa nagkikislutang kulay
Sa pusod ng iyong bukal
Na tila batu-balaning humihigop
Sa aking kapusukan.

Isang nag-uumigting na pagtadyak.
Isang makaubos-lakas na pagkampay.
At sa isang kisapmata'y nagkislapan
Ang isang libo't isang perlas
Sa sinapupunan ng iyong karagatan.

Di-malirip na kaligayahan
Ang mahigpit mong pagyakap
Sa naglulunoy kong kamalayang
Lumulutang sa kalawakan
Sa saliw ng alon mong umiimbay.
Sumasanib ka sa aking katauhan
Habang nilalagok ng aking gunam-gunam
Ang sanlaksang haraya
Ng samu't saring halamang-dagat,
Korales, isda, kabibe,
At bulaklak ng batuhan
Na malamyos na kumikiwal-kiwal
Sa hardin ng iyong karagatan.

Binihag mo ang aking kamalayan.
Ayaw ko nang mawalay
Sa lunday ng iyong kagandahan.

Jose Rizal's Green Ancestral House


Photo Credit: Miro Aguilar
(Philippine Daily Inquirer - 19 June 2009)


Being a Laguna native who was brought up and taught since my early years to admire and honor Laguna’s greatest son, Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, I was aghast as I looked incredulously at this picture on the front page of Philippine Daily Inquirer on 19 June 2009 – the 148th birth anniversary of our national hero. How could they dare to repaint the historic Rizal ancestral house on Calamba’s Calle Real and turn it into a veritable green fondant cake? I wondered what the young Jose and his dog, Berganza, must have contemplated on as they stood there staring at their bahay na bato turned green. Even the deep well from where the Rizal family drew countless pails of water somewhere below the azotea was not spared. Could it have occurred to him that someday he would be reinvented by some government institution as an environmentalist and be honored as such by repainting their ancestral house green? Yet as an architect, while I was musing on this photograph, I was just as well amused with all its frivolity.

So whose bright idea was it to repaint Dr. Jose Rizal’s ancestral house green? The news report stated that the National Historical Institute (NHI), in all its zealousness, wanted to highlight the meaning of the national hero’s surname, Rizal – its root word being ricial which supposedly meant a green field ready for harvest. Hence the bright lime-green paint makeover with yellow for interior walls and blue for ceilings to match. But therein lays a fallacy. Green, in all its chromatic variations, hardly represents harvest in Laguna. Gold would be more like it if they were referring to rice harvest which, by the way, Calamba was not as known for. Sugarcane was what Don Francisco Mercado and the rest of the townsfolk planted their land with for which they had to pay rent to the Dominican friars who took it upon themselves to turn Calamba into a Dominican Hacienda – a friar sugar-estate – even if they could not show any proof of legal ownership. And then again if they were referring to sugarcane harvest, the color of choice should have been aubergine or deep purple which, I believe, would have horrified even more the Calambenos, the Lagunenses, and the Filipinos in general.

I have been trying to dig deep into my baul of architectural history and theories; yet I cannot seem to find any significant reference or allusion to any building or structure that was painted in such a manner as to highlight the origin of the owner’s surname. If this is an emerging architectural trend, can you just imagine what they might do to General Emilio Aguinaldo’s house in Kawit, Cavite? They just might send in a rappelling team that would wrap the historic house with reinforced polyethylene Christmas wrapper, not unlike what the celebrated Bulgarian-born American environmental artist Christo, and his wife, the French-born American Jeanne-Claude, did to Reichstag in Berlin or Kunsthalle in Bern or the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. And for the piece de resistance, oversized ribbons of red, green, and gold could then be tied all around the mysteriously wrapped structure so that the historic house would look like one big, well, aguinaldo. And what about Juan Luna’s house in Badoc, Ilocos Norte? Can you just imagine their crew painting the exterior burnt-orange brick-cladded walls of the tempestuous artist’s house with all sorts of moon figures and festooning its interiors with moon paraphernalia in order to highlight the surname’s lunatic origin? Well, of course, with Ninoy Aquino’s house at Times Street in Quezon City, they would not be able to do so much because, by default, they could only paint it yellow with, perhaps, some trimmings of yellow ribbons here and there. With Plaza Moriones in Tondo, Manila I presume they could just easily procure those brightly painted wooden angry-looking Roman soldier moriones masks from Marinduque to decorate the place. I dread to think what they might do to Plaza Dilao in Paco, Manila where once upon a time plants that produced amarillo or yellow dye were said to have flourished. And given a free rein, just what might they do to the historic walled city of Intramuros?

If the NHI’s over-riding concern is to preserve and conserve historical sites and monuments, do they really think this is the proper way to do it? Historical accounts state that Rizal’s ancestral house was confiscated by the Dominican friars sometime in 1890 because Don Francisco Mercado refused to pay the annual rent of twenty four pesos for the land that he tilled. The rent amount had been doubled from the previous year’s twelve pesos because he offended the friar-estate administrator by not giving him yet another turkey for his dinner. Don Francisco and the other townsfolk, who also refused to pay or had arrears with the Dominican Hacienda, were at once ordered to evict or dismantle their properties within twelve hours. Since the huge Rizal house could not be dismantled in half a day, the Rizal family just gathered whatever belongings they could bring with them as they left for Binondo in a hurry. Other accounts state that the confiscated properties were subsequently torched by the friars; while the menfolk, including Paciano Rizal, were arrested and deported to Jolo. It was quite unclear what fate befell the Rizal ancestral house.

Now the NHI is claiming that the present house is not really the original bahay na bato. It is actually a replica designed by Juan Nakpil, the first Filipino architect to become a National Artist; and built in the 1950s based on a vintage photograph, the remnants of the original stone foundation, and probably on the recollections of the Rizal family. It was built with the help of 25 centavo-donations of children from various schools at that time. And so is this any indication from the NHI that they are not bound to perform strict preservation and conservation procedures on this fifty-year old heritage structure and that they are free to paint it with whatever colors they may fancy?

Furthermore, they are also claiming that the NHI crew, when they scraped into the thick layer of paint of the house, discovered traces of green pigment within. Ergo it must have been painted green – the popular color at the time according to them. But did not they just say that they scraped into a painted replica and not into the original ancestral house? And since when did green become a popular color of ancestral houses in the Philippines? House paint was only made commercially available in tin cans in the United States of America in the 1880s; and I presume that it was not readily available here in our country for it must have been very expensive to import those tin cans of house paint then. This must be the reason why we hardly see a painted bahay na bato, or much less a bahay kubo for that matter, anywhere in this archipelago. Try scouring the country from north to south; and all that one will see are ancestral houses made of weathered wood, crusty red-orange bricks, pock-marked adobe ashlars, calcified corals, algae-covered red-orange clay roof tiles, and rusted galvanized iron sheets. Some of those ancient houses might have been white-washed with kalburo dissolved in water with the belief that kalburo would sanitize those houses from germs brought about by cholera or whatever disease. But apparently there was no streak of paint to speak of.

And now I am left wondering what if this precedent gets picked up by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the government agency tasked with the issuance and approval of building permits? Would the DPWH, through the city or municipal building officials, now require all the applicants to do a research on the origins of their surnames and submit henceforth for approval the corresponding colors of paint that they intend to brush or spray on their respective houses? I presume NHI would again be tasked to dig into the Catalogo Alfabeto de Apellidos issued by Governor General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua in 1849 to figure out the matching house paint colors vis-à-vis the long list of Filipino surnames printed on its delicately yellowed pages. Now I wonder how they would creatively colorize esoteric and quirky Filipino surnames such as Malaque, Pecpec, Estrellado, Bay-ag, Bagonggahasa, Dimacali, Dimaculangan, Macatangay, Camcam, Madlangbayan, Tatlonghari, Bayot, Mabajo, Polotan, Amargozo, Pichay… And the list goes on and on.

Why cannot they just simply admit that they made a big boo-boo instead of issuing those rather funny statements? I suggest that they should go back to the drawing board posthaste.



Two Poems Written While Contemplating On The Saudi Arabian Sand Dunes (sometime in the mid 1980s)




Halimuyak Ng Gabi Sa Disyerto

At kung ang lahat
Ay nabuhay
At nangibig
At naglaho na
Mayroon pa kayang maiiwang bango
Ang mga pinigang talulot ng bulaklak
Na masisimsim
Sa mga munting sisidlang kristal
Na hahalimuyak nang buong sangsang
Sa kalawakan ng disyerto
Tuwing maliwang ang buwan
At nagniningning ang mga bituin
At ang mga palmera ay umiimbay
Nang buong kalamyusan
Sa pagbighani sa mga manlalakbay
Upang sandaling magpahingalay
At magpatighaw ng uhaw
Sa malamig na oasis
Ng kisapmatang tunog at liwanag
Na kapagdaka'y malalambungan
Pagragasa ng buhawi
Sa buhanginan


Perfumed Desert Night

And then when all
Have lived
And loved
And died
Will there still be
A lingering presence
Of squeezed flower petals
Left in tiny crystal vials
Which shall fill
With magical lushness
The vastness of the dunes
When the moon and stars
Glow in the night sky
And the date palms sway
With sensuous delight
Enticing wanderers
To rest for a while
And drink from the cool oasis
Of fleeting sound and light
Which shall soon be blotted out
By the rampaging storm of sand




Sunday, July 26, 2009

Self-Portrait with Saudi Arabian Dunes



Painted sometime in the mid-1980s in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Monday, July 20, 2009

A Trip To Llavac Farm With My UP Arki Classmates




A time for bonding with classmates from college.
A time to update on each other's whereabouts.
A time to get away from the daily grind.

Please click the link for photos of the trip: