Archbishop's Chapel, Mt. Peace, Baguio

Mt. Peace Retreat House

50 Governor Pack Road, Baguio

Completed 2007

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Sanctuary of St. Anthony of Padua Parish Church, Singalong, Manila

St. Anthony of Padua Parish Church, 

2126 Singalong St. corner San Andres St., Malate, Manila
Structural Engineer: Ronald Santiago, MACRO

The Renovation of the Sanctuary provides fresh focus on the Eucharist and on the life of St. Anthony of Padua. We drew inspiration from the strengths of the architecture created by Architect Carlos Santos-Viola.

The Tabernacle Tower is the new focus of the building. It draws your eye as soon as you walk through the front door. In the vastness of the interior, the focus does not equivocate. It is Christ on the cross.

As you approach, the other elements of the sanctuary become more legible. The altar table is a long, white, horizontal slab that sits improbably on three slender plant-like curves. On the left, the lectern is shaped like a large book resting on a single blade of grass. On the right, the baptismal font is a white, egg-like cradle perching on three slender leaves.

These elements are physical expressions of the iconography of St. Anthony of Padua: lily, bread, book, and Infant Jesus. The white plant-like curves represent the lily. The long white horizontal slab of the altar represents the symbol of bread. The lectern represents an open book. The baptismal font is not itself the symbol, but the backdrop of the symbol: each infant that is baptized at the font represents the Infant Jesus.

The lily symbolizes St. Anthony's purity and chastity. The open book represents his scholarship and knowledge of the Bible. The Infant Jesus is a symbol of tender love. Bread symbolizes the sustenance of life. (Two portraits of St. Anthony - by El Greco and Francisco de Zurbaran - served as our guides in the renovation.)

The juxtaposition of heavy objects upon lightweight objects - the open book resting on the lily, for example - alludes to miracles. In Roman Catholic tradition, St. Anthony of Padua is known as an instrument of God in the performance of miracles. 

St. Anthony, by El Greco


Before renovation

EDSA Shrine Baptistry

Mary Queen of Peace Shrine (EDSA Shrine), 
EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City
Completed 2002

The Baptistery was completed in 2002, commissioned by Rev. Fr. Socrates Villegas, EDSA Shrine’s very first Rector who was Rector at the time and who provided the concept of the new space: Exodus.  Fr. Villegas stated that the metal basin that had been used in San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel was no longer considered sufficient for baptisms.

John Paul II speaks of Exodus in his 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae”:  “The fullness of the Gospel message about life was prepared for in the Old Testament. Especially in the events of the Exodus, the centre of the Old Testament faith experience, Israel discovered the preciousness of its life in the eyes of God. When it seemed doomed to extermination because of the threat of death hanging over all its newborn males (cf. Ex 1:15-22), the Lord revealed himself to Israel as its Saviour, with the power to ensure a future to those without hope. Israel thus comes to know clearly that its existence is not at the mercy of a Pharaoh who can exploit it at his despotic whim. On the contrary, Israel's life is the object of God's gentle and intense love.”

Fr. Villegas’ selection of Exodus as the theme of the new Baptistery adheres to the goal of EDSA Shrine to evoke the country’s deliverance from bondage and “despotic whim.”

The Baptistery is a gathering of distinct architectural components that help maintain the clarity of the existing context created by EDSA Shrine's architect Francisco "Bobby" Mañosa.

The space of the Baptistery is a perfect circle at the exact center of the light well located to the immediate right of the sanctuary of EDSA Shrine.  Depending on the need, the Baptistery can be visible to the rest of the worship space or be shielded from view by sliding into place a series of capiz door panels that are sufficient in number to completely surround the space.  The capiz ceiling of San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel inspires the capiz of the door panels, capiz being a material that shields the view but permits the light through.

The central element is the solid marble Baptismal Font, composed of two basins. Closer to San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel is an upper basin in the shape of a deltoid triangle, for the baptism of infants by pouring.  Concentric with the circular plan of the space is the lower, larger basin, a larger immersion pool at floor level, for the baptism of adults by immersion.  Connecting the upper basin with the lower basin is a pair of carved marble blocks that represent the parting waters of the Red Sea, reflecting the moment described in Exodus Chapter 14 Verse 16 when God commanded Moses to “lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass through the sea on dry land.”

The staff of Moses plays an important role in the story of Exodus, and is first mentioned in Chapter 4 when God tells Moses to use it “to perform the signs” by which the people would be brought to freedom.  At the Baptistery, the long Bakawan handle of each capiz door panel that surrounds the Baptistery symbolizes the staff of Moses.

Shielding the Baptistery from the direct sunlight, and suspended from the pyramidal glass skylight, is a large capiz “cloud” or shield in the shape of a curved equilateral triangle, or deltoid curve.  It symbolizes the cloud and the Trinity that Pope John Paul II refers to in June 2000: “…the mystery of the Church, which has been made a community of salvation by the presence of God the Trinity. Like the ancient People of God, she is guided on her new Exodus by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, symbols of God's constant presence.”

The Baptistery thus augments the significance of EDSA Shrine by introducing the Exodus narrative close to the sanctuary.

Archbishop's Chapel, Arzobispado, Intramuros, Manila

Chancery, Arzobispado de Manila, 121 Arzobispo Street, Intramuros, Manila
Completed 2003

Architectural Design Statement

January 7, 2003

We started with history, that very palpable reality - the gust of ages - that connects the energy of the present church with the stillness of the church's past. The Chapel resides in the path of that gust that sweeps between the Courtyard of the Arzobispado and the ruin of the Jesuit Church of San Ignacio.

The ruin of San Ignacio reminds us that the recent history of Intramuros is about sorrow and loss. For many of us, a visit to Intramuros, no matter for what purpose, leaves us with a sharp sadness. First, there is the memory of those who died there in World War Two, and the manner in which they died. Second, the war and its aftermath eradicated the majesty of one of the centers of Christianity, and left us with niggardly traces, ruins that we today tend to ignore.

Many of us find the loss difficult to bear and therefore choose either to ignore it, or to treat it recklessly. The Chapel of the Arzobispado can not turn its back on that loss, and should not even be numb to it.

Carillon, Magallanes Church

St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Parish Church

Humabon Place, Magallanes Village, Makati City
Structural Engineer: Ronald Santiago, MACRO

Angels Chanted as Jesus Passed

Four steel arches of increasing height, 
the tallest at 17 meters, 
carry 18 bronze bells from the Netherlands. 
The Carillon stands next to the entrance of the church, 
and acts as the entrance gateway 
to the Garden of the Way of the Cross, 
designed by National Artist for Landscape Architecture 
Ildefonso P. Santos. 

The bells become a Greek chorus 
pealing their lamentations 
at the beginning of Christ’s passion.

Baptistry, Magallanes Church

St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Parish Church, 
Humabon Place, Magallanes Village, Makati City
Completed 2000
Baptismal Font design executed by Roberto Robles
Baptismal Font partially damaged, Baptistry destroyed in September 2004 fire

The Baptismal Font is carved from one solid block of white Thassos marble, the same marble used by the sculptors of ancient Greece. There are three basins at three different levels; holy water cascades from one basin to the next in a continuous recirculating flow. The lowest level permits small children to dip their fingers in the holy water. The top level is for the baptismal rite.

The three basins represent the Trinitarian nature of God; holy water recirculates to signify the oneness of this trinity. The most complete, or perfect, circle is the topmost basin, representing God the Father, followed by basins of decreasing degrees of completion, representing the Son and the Holy Spirit. The texture of the marble transforms from very rough, near the base, to a polished smoothness at the top level, to signify the spiritual purity of the human being, and how purest it is at the moment of baptism.

The Baptistry is in a corner of the church that used to be exterior space. The triangular floor, covered in random-cut araal stone, follows the plan of the canopy overhead. Although clear tempered glass panels enclose the space, outdoor plants that border the space act as the visual boundary.

Adoration Chapel, Magallanes Church

St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Parish Church, Humabon Place, Magallanes Village, Makati City
Completed 2001
Destroyed by fire, September 2004

"I adore Thee from the abyss of my own nothingness."
from St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori's Prayer to Jesus Christ

Architectural Reverence at the New Magallanes Adoration Chapel

By Augusto F. Villalon

Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 7, 2003

VERY rarely does one come upon exquisite architecture in Manila. The Magallanes Adoration Chapel is one of those exceptional pieces.

The chapel was done by architect Dominic Q. Galicia, who was graduated a few years ago from the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

The adoration chapel is at the St. Alphonsus de Liguori Church in Magallanes Village, one of the more outstanding works of the National Artist Leandro Locsin that deserves national preservation status.

Within the context of working within the confines of an existing structure, and a Philippine architectural icon at that, Galicia solves the sensitive question of how to respectfully tuck a chapel into a church.

His new construction stands out, but is in total harmony with the Locsin structure.

Fitting something new into an old structure is something that is rarely done in this country. Respecting an old structure is outside the consciousness of many Filipinos. What normally happens is that either the old structure is taken down to give way to the new, or the old structure is remodeled beyond recognition.

Local architects have taken a design cue from the outdated Intramuros Code, which states that a new structure can be "compatible" with the old if it looks like the old, and should the new structure be of contemporary design (that is, not duplicating architecture from another era like all of the new repro-architecture in Intramuros do) it should somehow repeat some of the original design elements from period architecture.

In other countries, the old mixes with new seamlessly in a way that the old still looks obviously old and the new looks very new.

But not here. A string of architectural pastiche monsters have been proudly created in Manila in blithe misrepresentation of the Intramuros Code.

Sensitive

Galicia sensitively fits an adoration chapel into a small triangular space at the rear of Magallanes Church. He does this straightforwardly, introducing a new vocabulary of wood construction that is in agreeable counterpoint to the heavy, dated concrete details of the church.

In between the heavy, sculptural concrete fins that support the shell of the church, Galicia wove strips of different Philippine hardwood to enclose the small adoration chapel.

The texture of the wood joined with the precision of Zen carpentry softens the brutal hardness of the concrete by introducing a decidedly human touch.

A trellis-like canopy of wood peeps out of the concrete, signaling the location of the adoration chapel. Under the trellis, the new chapel is entered through a pair of sliding doors at right angle to each other, that when slid open, makes the building corner disappear.

The new structure is as light as it is transparent. The only walls added are constructed of narrow wooden slats that instead of being solid, appear to have been woven.

Bands of light stream in from the narrow slits of open space between the slats. Wooden walls turn out to be sliding doors.

At the end of each panel, the bands of wood fan out slightly to hold a floor-to-ceiling rod that serves as the door handle.

Polished wood of different colors and texture frames polished beige marble slabs. Sheets of transparent glass open the landscaped garden into the chapel. The natural-colored concrete envelope that the little chapel is tucked into is always evident. There really are no solid walls added to the original concrete walls of the structure.

It looks like Zen carpentry at first glance, but is it? The weaving of hardwood strips brings a sawali-like transparency.

Two sets of walls (one exterior and another interior) slide open to disappear, connecting the sanctuary to the foyer, and ultimately opening out to the landscaped entrance. It brings the outdoors in, and brings the sanctuary into contact with the lush planting around it.

Transparency

An expanse of floor-to-ceiling glass further achieves the transparency so valued in Philippine architecture that is achieved by this small chapel.

The elegant juxtaposition of natural materials and textures of the new structure adds a visual lightness that the original Locsin structure does not have.

Think of the bahay kubo, a house that really is a basket woven out of bamboo raised on poles. There are no solids in the small, one-room bahay kubo. Wall and floor surfaces are like a hand-woven basket that lets air and slivers of light into the structure.

In a bahay kubo, one is enclosed but always in touch with natural surroundings and ultimately the sky beyond. Galicia achieves the same feel in his small chapel.

So, it really is not Zen carpentry. It is craftsman-like Philippine carpentry that makes the adoration chapel a space to remember. The architecture subtly touches the cultural chords of traditional Philippine architecture, although it reinterprets traditions in a thoroughly contemporary way.

Impeccable architectural detailing is also what makes the adoration chapel.

Every surface and every joint was thoroughly planned out, true to what the Bauhaus architectural icon Mies van der Rohe said in the 1930's, that "God is in the details."