GREEN architecture has become a buzzword among property owners and developers. True advocates of this movement equate green architecture with sustainability. For them, it involves construction designs that are energy efficient and environmentally sensitive.
In the Philippines, a group of university students are using the concept of green architecture in their campaign to promote wetlands conservation.
Known as critically important ecosystems, wetlands provide significant ecological, economic and social benefits. Wetlands in the Asean region, however, are under extreme pressure from human activities, such as urban expansion, wetlands conversion and pollution.
To contribute to wetlands conservation, the Architectural Students’ Association of the Philippines-University of the Philippines Diliman Chapter (ASAPhil-UP) joined hands with the Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands Inc. (SCPW) in 2005 for a design competition dubbed “Designing the Lumban Delta as an Ecotourism Site.”
The pioneering design contest sought to create awareness among college students on sustainability in the fields of architecture, tourism and the environment.
The winning entries were turned over to the municipality of Lumban for implementation. By promoting the Lumban Delta as an ecotourism site, it is expected that there will be an increase in economic activity in its catchment area, alleviating the local inhabitants’ poverty and increasing the capability of the community to help preserve, protect, conserve, sustain and limit stress on the catchment area.
In 2009, ASAPhil-UP and SCPW conducted another contest, the Candaba Wetlands Center Design Competition, to provide a venue for Filipino architecture students to showcase their architectural talents while contributing to the greater cause of advocating the wise use of wetlands.
Envisioned to be an educational gateway to the Candaba Marsh in Pampanga, Philippines, the Candaba Wetlands Center will rise at the edge of a 3,000-hectare system of freshwater marshes that is a major staging ground for thousands of migratory birds.
Stanie Soriano, manager of the Philippine Convention and Visitors’ Corporation of the Tourism Department, lauded the students’ initiative, saying the wetlands center will help boost ecotourism by promoting the Candaba Wetlands as a premiere destination for bird watching.
According to Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Philippines’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, the design contest shows the commitment of the architectural profession to natural resources conservation.
“ASAPhil-UP aims to help raise awareness on the conservation of natural resources through programs and projects promoting sustainable architecture. Through the years, ASAPhil-UP has conducted two design competitions that were geared toward educating the youth on biodiversity conservation and wise use of wetlands. The organization currently takes an active stance toward the development of managed forestry in the Philippines in the vision of a harmonious natural and built environment,” said Mary Grace Montemayor, project manager for Wetland Center Design Projects, ASAPhil-UP.
In 2011, ASAPhil-UP bagged the third place in the youth category in the Asean Champions of Biodiversity, a recognition program for ongoing projects on biodiversity conservation and advocacy in the Asean region.
The award is aimed at generating greater leadership, public and media awareness of the problems facing the region’s rich but highly threatened biodiversity and the need for a concerted effort in biodiversity conservation and advocacy.
The recognition program is a project of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, the Asean Foundation through the Japan-Asean Solidarity Fund, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, the European Union, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Asian Institute of Journalism.
