St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Parish Church, Humabon Place, Magallanes Village, Makati City
Completed 2001
Destroyed by fire, September 2004
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Local architects have taken a design cue from the outdated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."
