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Taking
cognizance of the importance of the structural designs
of the tribes inhabiting Mindanao, the United Architects
of the Philippines (UAP), Cagayan de Oro chapter, has
documented the abode of the tribes to better understand
the concepts of their dwellings.
Ray
Salva, immediate past president of the UAP, Cagayan de
Oro chapter, said that the endeavor is a joint project
with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
It is a documentation project on the architectural
motifs and construction details of vernacular structures
and sites in Southern Philippines, which could help
architects appreciate the beauty, history and purpose of
the indigenous structures.
Salva
said that his group has found its efforts rewarding as
it opened a window for more concepts that it can
incorporate in its future designs.
“We find
the endeavor challenging as we have realized that the
homes of the indigenous people and the Maranaos were
built according to their culture, aside from purpose,”
Salva said.
He said
that the Maranao design, for example, where the
so-called Panolong, a protruding art shape that adorn
rooftops, with some appearing like murals, has a
cultural dictate indicating the social class of the
inhabitants, notwithstanding that the house’s motif is
colorful.
As for
the Higaonons in the past, their houses were built high
above the ground, supported only with one big post,
their roofing made of grass. The interior of the house
had no partition just like that of the Maranaos’.
“Understanding the origin of the tribe’s designs gives
us an artful of concepts in the future, especially when
they are incorporated with the methods of modern
architecture,” Salva said.
The
architects, who have gone to the tribal villages, said
they would also endeavor to find ways of preserving the
architectural heritage of the tribes, which is now fast
vanishing that even in the hinterlands the use of cement
has already overtaken their cultural ways of building a
house. Worse, the indigenous design is already gone.
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