Men, spaces, and their meanings

SKYSCRAPERS (the photo bomber looming over the Rizal Monument in Manila quickly comes to mind) usually crowd a city’s open spaces and destroy what is otherwise a picturesque landscape. And in the age of consumerism and condominiums, it comes as no surprise that the remaining open and green spaces diminish in size to welcome the sprouting towering edifices.

According to landscape designer, urban planner and advocate Paulo Alcazaren, the original Greenbelt mall complex in Makati City’s Ayala Center, which include the Ayala Musuem designed by Leandro Locsin, was initially developed as a one-hectare space for greenery and an aviary. Mr. Alcazaren noted in his column in The Philippine Star, City Sense, that the complex was inspired by the plant nursery set up by the Ayala family when they were constructing Makati City in the 1950s.

The Greenbelt complex (beside the chapel and near Greenbelt 5) used to be home to 500 birds which were thought to have disappeared together with the aviary that once housed them. But one still catches sight of birds when one passes through the area today. Orioles, colasisi, white-collared kingfishers, and zebra doves are still found in Greenbelt.

Ayala Malls has maintained some greenery within its complexes. “Ayala malls always takes into consideration the environment we are present in. With Greenbelt, we preserved the park, and in our original malls like Glorietta, we integrate greens through pocket and rooftop gardens. We allocate spaces to greenery,” said Ayala Land Malls, Inc. president Rowena Tomeldan.

Last year, it launched Blooms and the Organic Gardens, which is a campaign that preserve indigenous plants. This year, it is hosting Arkitektura, a festival that celebrates architecture, spaces, and environment through lectures, art installations, and discussions. The idea is to prove that architecture can coexist with nature and enhance the human experience.

On view until Oct. 8 at the Greenbelt Park (the former aviary) is a sound installation called Vocalisations by sound artist, composer, and recipient of National Culture for Culture and the Arts’ Ani ng Dangal Award Teresa Barrozza. Last month, she did another sound exhibition in the United Kingdom called This Too Shall Passed.

“This is a layered experience of man, nature, and space,” explained Ms. Barrozza, who has done musical scoring for film and theater productions including Brillante Mendoza’s films �Ѳ�’R�Dz��� and Kinatay and Cinemalaya films Birdshot and Nabubulok.

Vocalisations is a cornucopia of symphonies, which she calls an “urban jungle.” If one listens – really listens – there are sounds of birds, people mimicking birds, and machines imitating birds. This is meant to simulate the former aviary. But according to Ms. Barrozza, the installation is not a commentary or a call to bring back the aviary. It is what it is, she said.

Over 120 speakers have been installed in the park complex, and mallgoers are invited to stop for a while and listen.

“Let’s learn how to be silent, which sometimes can be noisier. Sometimes, mas maingay ang katahimikan (silence can be noisier), pero (but) at the same time, it is calming,” she said.

While most people are primarily visual (“We go to concerts to watch and not to listen,” said Ms. Barrozza), the ability to hear and listen is something we ought to learn and develop.

Also part of the festival is display of works of Filipino ingenuity shown side by side with international design, at the Greenbelt 5 Gallery from Aug. 22 to Sept 10. The digital exhibit is a preview of 50 contemporary worldwide examples of organic architecture on display at the Ayala Museum. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) presents the exhibit Silya, featuring award-winning chair designs made from native and organic materials. CFIP will also be hosting talks with featured designers on the weekends of August to September at the Greenbelt Gallery.

A series of lectures and discussions on architecture and environment and their relationship with humans will be held at the Ayala Museum from Aug. 24 to 27. The panel includes industry leaders Gregory Burgess (“Working with Living Architecture”), Luis Lopez (“Bamboo, Material of the Future”), Nicanor Perlas (“The 12 Sense and the Environment”), and Richard Coleman (“Learning from Heritage Townscapes”), among others.

For more information, visit . – Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman