A Filipino architect is introducing metamodern designs in the Philippines to construct better and innovative buildings that embody technology, function, culture, national identity, environmental sustainability and social interaction in the digital age.
John Ian Lee Fulgar, chief executive of Fulgar Architects, a Mandaluyong City-based architectural and technology studio, says the metamodern philosophy is what comes after post-modernism.
“What we have now is assembly architecture which means you buy components and put them together. That is what is happening. That is why you could see most box types as in assembly line,” he says in an interview in Makati City.
“We are borrowing too much from the western ideas, where they mass produce and practice assembly architecture. While we are adopting these concepts, further studies on how it will impact our way of living as Filipinos must also be considered,” he says.
Fulgar says that as a tropical country in the Pacific, the Philippines has its own condition that should merit its own architecture.
Fulgar says that with metamodern design, his company is delineating away from the old school of polarity—black or white, good or bad. “What metamodern is is that it helps us become more subjective to try to think of more common ground where we can entertain polarities to come up with something new, something creative. That is the challenge now,” he says.
“What we are trying to do is get back to design and also to try to excite clients by trying new things, new approaches now that we have the capacity to review and compare with international works,” he says.
“I am hoping that with the trend of metamodern that we try to spearhead, sooner we will come up with different designs that hopefully could compete with the international market and world-class standards,” he says.
“In the metamodern, we are more facilitated by things that are digitalized. It is post-industrial agenda and it has a global message where everyone is more connected and we have more perspective of what is happening across the globe, unlike before when we were somewhat alienated from that,” Fulgar says. He says it is Google that pioneered the open space design.
“When we have technology influencing our social behavior especially the younger ones, more and more are now working at home. I think that is a new cultural shift that architecture should also listen too and try to translate into building designs,” he says.
On what makes metamodern different from the current form of assembly architecture, Fulgar says the former is heavily influenced by technology to become more functional.
“We are very particular with function. We address the primary impact of the project. In terms of style, we are heavily influenced by technology. We are also looking at parametric forms. We hope to come up with more of these interventions as we go. We are doing it slowly. I think there is a period when we could actually bring these new designs,” he says.
Fulgar, who has worked in mega projects in Singapore for a decade, returned to the Philippines in 2014 to help transform Philippine architecture.
He says sustainability is also a part of metamodern architecture. “Sustainability is a default part of it. We have to be friendly to our environment. In terms of function, we would like to reinvestigate the things that are no longer part of our spaces now….There should be a relook of architectural programming,” says Fulgar, who studied at the University of the Philippines College of Architecture and gained experience with worldwide industry consultants such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill of New York, Arup, Meinhardt, Cicada, Wilson Associates and Davis Langdon & Seah.
He now leads a team of 18 people who include architects, engineers, designers and IT experts in the office and another 30 to 40 people in the field who monitor construction of various projects.
“We have the technological component and the design component working together. We enjoy more of collaborative work. We have a table where we share ideas. It is more of a studio setting where we celebrate creative inputs and how we can think more outside the box and how we can offer something much more different than what is out there,” he says.
His company, established in 2014, focuses on planning and design specialties for hotel, resort and commercial developers, property owners and business enterprises with a pursuit for the metamodern in the next Philippine architecture.
Fulgar Architects specializes in parametric design and business approaches for lifestyle building designs and real estate ventures in the Philippines. It also does masterplanning for certain projects like subdivisions.
Aside from building design, Fulgar is also adept in computer programming and coding which allows him to employ 3D modelling in architecture.
Among his ongoing projects is The Fortress, a fusion of medieval and modern look with streamlined feel and amenities in Angeles City, Pampanga. The project is owned and developed by an international group which plans to establish 30 such hotels around the country.
Another is a 12-story hotel with roof deck in Olongapo City and an upscale resort on a 3.6-hectare property on a cliff in Puerto Galera, the Mars Ravelo Museum on a 2.4-hectare property in Tagaytay City and a high-end hotel and casino on a 7,000-square-meter lot in Tanauan, Batangas.
“We are blessed and privileged to have clients who are also excited about coming up with new things and they are very hands-on in the creative process and we encourage them to throw their ideas,” says Fulgar.
Fulgar says digital technology now enables architects to design better buildings. “The influence of technology has a lot of change in the mindset. When you have technology, you have data and you have something to analyze with in terms of circulation, orientation, flow, behavior. We are talking about information that affects the business model,” he says.
“There is a lot of change in mindset in terms of design, coming from the day of manual drafting on the table. When we design now, we are actually virtually constructing it. When we do that, we have some kind of visualization and simulation as to how the building will perform. That cuts a lot of wastages. The design becomes more efficient,” says Fulgar.
“You can simulate a lot to include fluid dynamics and circulation and how solar patterns affect the performance of the building, how you can manage energy load,” he says.
Fulgar believes that metamodern designs will allow the Philippines to build better structures that represent its national identity in the future.
“What we build affects all of us. What metamodern’s role here is to look at all these aspects—from sustainability, liveability, buildability, all of that—and try to come up with new forms with more technological innovations, to come up with better building designs that we haven’t tried before that could probably change how we live, how we interact with each other,” he says.
“What we also need is to go back to culture and identity. Sustainability can only bring you so far, but how we embody identity and culture in the design helps us remember things such as nationality, love for the country and sense of pride,” he says.
“It is more of a journey towards that—how we re-imagine the new Philippines and Philippine architecture,” says Fulgar.