As there are no fences, a natural green border covers
the 1.5-metre distance between the house and the main
road. Just across the street, a clear brook adds another
touch of visual and auditory appeal to the area.
The resulting structure is divided into three levels. The
lowest, the house’s basement, contains the carport and
utilities. The ground floor is an expansive open-layout
living area that allows for easy, unimpeded movement from
the main sitting room, to the dining room, to the kitchen.
Glass sliding doors are a key element for this part of the
house, allowing a maximum of ambient light to illuminate
it in the daytime, and also opening it up to include the
verdant garden outdoors as a way of bringing an al fresco
touch, so to speak, indoors. Likewise, an indoor veranda
overlooks the sitting room and the high ceiling—around
6 to 6.5 metres from the floor—also helps keep the house
cool even on the hottest days of summer.
Originally, the second floor was supposed to consist of
five bedrooms. However, the team convinced the client to
merge two rooms to create a master’s suite that combines
comfort and elegance, creating the perfect sanctuary to
come home to at the end of the day. One other key point
on the second floor is the addition of a wide deck with
wide, magnificent views of the forest canopy—practically
an ocean of green as far as the eye can see.
“Imagine standing there, gazing up at the sky, and
knowing that you get a completely different view every
day,” Pineda says with a smile. “It really is a celebration
of nature.”
“We wanted the structure to be responsive to the
environment,” Layug adds. “In order to do that, we
always try to approach it from the basics.”
By “basics,” Pineda and Layug are referring to the
design principles of the bahay-kubo, the simple nipa
hut that served as a home for many Filipinos prior to
and even well after the colonial era. But while steel,
concrete, and glass have replaced wicker and bamboo
as building materials, the principles remain the same:philippine tatler. august 2019 69