Architecture

 Architecture 06-16-23 Friday

My street


I did some cursory reading on the internet about Filipino architecture but such sources focus on the exemplary, the churches, mansions, and public buildings that curtsey to tradition. I am more interested in what I see around me, the quotidian structures that define the struggles that people have to keep the rain off while husbanding  a few pesos. 


If you landed from LAX and blindfolded  yourself on a trip to  my lodging you’d get a big outward false impression. {I haven’t been in the homes of my neighbors so it’s possible the interiors are similar to my digs, but I’d bet against it.} Everything in this place is made of stylish, modern materials, a mixture of bamboo and some sort of elegant wood. The porch and the bathroom floor are constructed of flat stones married together with some sort of clear adhesive. Wood studs keep this place together except for a few stone pillars that support the porch. The result is a space that seems airy but solid. It’s not a big place (my estimate is one thousand square feet counting the upper floor bedroom), but I feel like a rajah when I’m lounging on the rattan couch. 

My lodging


There are other palatial homes in this burg (called Wescom after the contiguous air force base). When I hitch a ride on a tricycle — which I do daily — I pass by two or three guarded developments that seem to contain upscale dwellings. I can’t get an upclose view of these homes but I gather they are ‘comfortable’. And there is this megamansion on the little road to the beach.
I don’t know my materials well enough to say what this place is made of, but it certainly seems like something akin to stucco. So I don’t want to give the impression that all of Wescom is ramshackle. 

But if you cruise down my street you will find a hodgepodge of building materials some of which seem to have been rescued from the city dump, or at least chosen because a person of limited training could put together something that protects from the monsoon and local thieves. This place is five doors down from my lodging. Like half the houses hereabouts the residents live upstairs while they devote the bottom floor to a tiny convenience store. It is amazing how many people in Wescom (including the caretaker of my lodging) operate shoebox-sized stores selling baked goods, chips, Coke, and whatever else can be merchandised to the neighbors. The puzzle for me is that so many other Wescomites operate the same sort of store so that I’m not clear who sustains these minimarts. When you count the meat markets, fish markets, tire repair places, drugstores, and bakeries it seems as if half the population is engaged in some sort of retail trade. 



There are two structures on my block that are made of local brick. My guess is that this is the cheapest building materials to be had in Palawan; and probably the easiest to construct. 



When I was in Laos years ago a man told me that tin roofs became aspirational in their village when electricity reached their community. Prior to that, thatch was favored because it dissipated heat. Once electrons were available residents could buy fans or air conditioners so they switched to tin. I don’t know if that’s the straight dope but there is evidence to support that hypothesis here in Wescom. About 70% of the homes on my block are topped by tin. When my host first described my lodging on Airbnb he said it offered an authentic Filipino village experience. I expected something like this place. 

Further down the street

The house across the street from my place


I should add to this discussion that half a mile west of me is the central city of Puerto Princesa City. You will find many of the same structures in the city that you find in suburban Wescom but there is also a giant mall that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. That place is relatively mammoth and Western with all the standard chain fashion stores, a food court, an Ace Hardware, and an electric Geely sedan on display in the front lobby. But the vast majority of the stores in the city are tin shacks just like my area. There is a multi-acre one-story market that forms the backbone of downtown. It contains a honeycomb of produce sellers, clothing stalls, and dozens of other single-proprietor hovels offering anything that will fit into twenty-five square feet of display space. 

My nextdoor neighbor





They're building something on the road to Puerto Princesa 

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