Tierra Adorada

“You can’t bring an unwritten place to life without losing something substantial. Manila is the cradle, the graveyard, the memory. The Mecca, the Cathedral, the bordello. The shopping mall, the urinal, the discotheque. I’m hardly speaking in metaphor. It’s the most impermeable of cities. How does one convey all that?” - Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado

[decoarchitecture]

M… Manila

Metropolitan Theatre, Manila, Philippines Photo by Lawrence

Found many, many photos of this theater online. It’s covered in Deco rosettes, panels, etc. But I really liked this one of a statue.

[boybehindthelens]

Gargoyles, filigreed railings and a tattered flag

[arkitekturaph]

Manila Post Office by silentsnap on Flickr.

[arkitekturaph]

[theurbanhistorian]

Hi Guys! PhilAm life in building in UN Avenue in Manila is off for demolition. SMDC purchased the property and intends to build a stacks of shoebox building in place of it.

PhilAm Life building was trained by Los Angeles trained Architect Carlos D. Arguelles.

Learn more about the building here.

Learn more about Architect C. D. Arguelles here.

[tierraadorada]

It's such a pity that SM chose to demolish this. It was years ago when I first noticed this building on UN Avenue and I instantly knew in my head that this is some beautiful piece of architecture - but I never got a chance to really observe it. Now that I know it's off for demolition, it's as if my dreams of actually observing it would be demolished as well.

This building is beautiful and this building is loved. And if it really gets torn down, I hope it would be the last to fall before everybody in this country realizes the immense value of cultural heritage.

Why won't SM opt for adaptive reuse instead?

[pinoytumblr]

Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, takes a photo of Manila from space. From his Twitter — ‘Tonight’s Finale: At long last - Manila, capital of the Philippines, delicately shining in the night.’

(via Twitter / Cmdr_Hadfield: Tonight’s Finale: At long last …)

[theurbanhistorian]

The Aerial view is tilted almost 180 degrees. But as such, I could still trace Metro Manila’s Highway Network here :3

[legazette]

[burning-stmandard-deactivated20]

Shipping containers serve as homes for Shanghai families

The containers, which house different families, were set up by a landlord who charges a rent of 500 yuan (£55) per month for each container.

Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

[tierraadorada]

This would be a beautiful solution for cheap housing (although I bathrooms are another concern). It would also be cool if they used less damaged shipping containers in modern colors.

[paradigmthinker-blog]

[tierraadorada]

“...a big and beautiful bay, almost perfectly round, and almost totally enclosed... here, the water was calm, and the breeze was gentle... down the waters grew the forest primeval... everywhere you looked around was a world of blue and green... ”

- Nick Joaquin, Manila, My Manila

[tierraadorada]

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

- Leonardo Da Vinci

  photo by: P.S. Grivalho from arkitektura.ph

[adrianscamera]

[tierraadorada]

Hinahanap-hanap kita, Manila

Ang ingay mo na kay sarap sa tenga

[tierraadorada]

Architecture is not about form, it is about many other things. The light and the use, and the structure, and the shadow, the smell and so on. I think form is the easiest to control, it can be done at the end.

- Peter Zumthor

(c) D. Refuerzo

[artpartner]

QR Codes Embedded into Sidewalk to provide tourist information.

Rio De Janeiro has embedded QR codes into their sidewalks to help tourists learn more about the city and more easily get to where they are going. The codes have been embedded into the city’s traditional mosaic sidewalks in the form of black and white tiles. When the tiles are scanned with a smartphone, a local map and information is provided to the user in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Brazil plans to embed roughly 30 QR codes at beaches, vistas and various historic sites around the city, helping Rio’s two million foreign visitors each year get around.

[tierraadorada]

If the cobblestone-clad streets of Intramuros, along with the other tourist and historical sites across the archipelago, could get QR codes for maps and information, it would be a big step towards the future - although internet everywhere would also be needed.

[tierraadorada]

Green and Marooned: the built and natural legacies of UP Diliman

Walking or biking down the university’s central green core is like taking a refresher course in the tenets of design with, and not against, nature. It is also a tour of great architecture and the classical essentials of building — utilitas, firmitas, venustas (utility, strength and beauty).

Full article by Paulo Alcazaren here.

[tierraadorada]

All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.  - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Photo by A.J. Quesada

[thephilippineskylines]

stunningly beautiful aerial shot of Intramuros & Binondo District, Manila from afar 

[tierraadorada]

[ronahellyeah]

Standing Strong  at QC Circle  011313