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MY
girlfriend Nikki and I enjoy taking road trips. After a
long week of deadlines and being swamped with work, we
sometimes take road trips to sort of disappear from city
life. We both love what we do (we’re both architects),
but sometimes you really have to take a break and spend
uninterrupted quality time with the person you love.
Since
Valentine’s Day is coming up, I decided to invite her to
a road trip. I sent her an e-invite through her e-mail
to spend Saturday with me, complete with an RSVP number.
Of course, I could have just texted or called her, but
sending an invitation made it both romantic and funny at
the same time. What was even funnier was when she
actually called me and RSVPed. We decided to celebrate
early, as Valentine’s Day was going to fall on a
Thursday, and we won’t be able to spend the whole day
together knowing that we both will have work the whole
day.
 When
I picked her up on Saturday morning, the first thing I
did was to explain to her what the day would be like. I
explained that one of my gifts for Valentine would be
the memory of this particular day and an adventure in
the future, where we could retrace where the car would
lead us and relive our road trip. To make it even more
interesting, I had a number of tags made which had a
special message for her written on them. We would stick
them in an inconspicuous location in each place that we
would end up going to.
So off
we went and decided that we would head toward the south,
since we also had to check out a site of a potential
project that we would have together. Our first stop was
food—of course! She mentioned that she hadn’t eaten in
Sinangag Express, so we swung by the Parañaque City
branch to get a taste of its famous tapsilog. We
were fascinated by the success of the place even if it
was just a simple carinderia-like structure. The
place is usually full anytime of the day—breakfast,
lunch, dinner, after diner, even after gimmick! It’s
really the quality of the food that counts.
We
headed to Laguna after that. We passed San Pedro and
found its public art interesting. The one that made us
laugh was the welcome arch of San Pedro with two
roosters flanking it. We immediately remembered Yoyoy
Villame’s rendition of “Ang Manok ni San Pedro” and
burst into song while attempting to imitate his accent.
Being
both architects, we couldn’t resist the idea of finding
new structures and developments, so the next stop ended
up being in Santa Rosa. Our best architectural discovery
was in the subdivision of Laguna Bel-Air. Whenever I
pass the national highway on my way to Tagaytay, I
always catch a glimpse of a tilted cross inside this
village, but I never actually got to see what the
structure looked like and it never ceased to intrigue
me. I always knew it was a church, but this time we
decided to go inside the village and really view the
structure. True enough, it was a unique kind of church.
The most dominant design element is the roof. Imagine a
two-dimensional circle. Cut it into half, fold it to
form the roof covering, pierce one end with a tilted
cross and pierce the other end with a triangulated
skylight—that became the resulting form of the church.
The architectural style is very interesting, as it
doesn’t follow the standard forms and finishes. Most of
the structural elements and utilities are left exposed,
such as the I-beams, purlins, tie-rafters and downspout.
The architecture strives to attract attention for the
ultimate purpose of shifting people’s attention back to
their faith.
We
entered a few interesting developments after that. The
first was the Santa Rosa estates developed by Avida,
which is one of the real-estate arms of the Ayala Group.
It’s a quaint subdivision with about 400 or so lots
averaging to about 200 square meters each. The
open-space system for the subdivision is uniquely
planed. Aside from the central park where the amenities
are located (club house, swimming pool, basketball
courts, etc.), there are small pockets of open spaces
spread throughout the village that serve as private
access to the houses in those areas, and as recreation
areas for the homeowners as well. At that point my
girlfriend and I felt proud to be architects, because we
realized that we are partially responsible for shaping
the lifestyles of communities as master-planners and
designers. Seeing the residents actually use and enjoy
the amenities and spaces planned by its architect made
us excited to mold a community with our own concept in
the near future.
South
Forbes was just a few kilometers away, so we decided to
check it out as well. Its sales people were gracious
enough to give us a tour of the development and some of
its model units. South Forbes is a golf city being
developed by Cathay Land. It is a huge development with
the concept of having the whole world in one city. To
achieve this, it has different themed subdivisions—Phuket
Mansions, Scandia Suites, Chateaux de Paris, Bali
Mansions and Tokyo Mansions, to mention a few. We were
able to view the model unit of Tokyo Mansions. The
exterior achieved an authentic Japanese look with a
white, heavy base and an all-glass second story topped
with gray, concrete roof tiles. The interiors were also
consistently themed down to the finishes of the
furniture. You can easily imagine how it would feel like
to be transported directly to a Japanese village once
all the themed houses are done.
After
structure-hopping, we decided to relax and head toward
Tagaytay. It was a good thing I brought a bottle of
wine, because we chose to spend the rest of the
afternoon in good old Picnic Grove after getting snacks
from the famous Mushroom Burger. The last time I was
there was five years ago and was pleased to find out
that it had not change that much since. The same
pavilions were still there, the same salakot building
was still up and running; more important, people were
still doing the same things they used to do a few years
back—spending a nice afternoon with their families. It
was a refreshing sight actually, especially because in
the city we never see intimate sceneries such as in
Tagaytay. City dwellers get so caught up with work,
technology and trends that the important things in life,
such as nature and family, are often forgotten. We had a
nice time reminiscing about the simple things in life
over wine in plastic cups and a paper plate of spaghetti
with mushroom sauce.
I
wouldn’t let the day end without a bang. To cap off the
trip, I surprised my girlfriend with a dinner in Sonya’s
Garden. The last time she ate there was so long ago and
she was pleased to see how the small boutique restaurant
had grown. It was one of the simplest, yet most
romantic, places we’ve been to together. The dining
areas were designed in such a way that it feels like
you’re dining outdoors, the landscape and the fresh air
becoming an integral part of the restaurant’s ambiance.
The place also has a function area, a spa, a baker and
bed-and-breakfast accommodations for anyone who would
like to spend a night close to nature. These structures
are all interconnected by a winding pathwalk surrounded
by lush plants, fresh flower beds and various romantic
spots. After dinner, we walked around and spent some
time in one of its daybeds while talking about our life
together. Sometime in the future, my girlfriend and I
made a pact to try to retrace the adventure we had on
this day—a day of new discoveries, simple experiences
and love.
■ You may e-mail the author at design@buensalidoarchitects.com
and visit his web site at www.buensalidoarchitects.com. |
