A coffee table book on the origins, evolution, and unique zeitgeist of the first master-planned community in the country, is currently being undertaken by a group of current and former residents of this still existing Quezon City suburb.
The project focuses on Philamlife Homes. The book (still untitled) will be in landscape, embossed format.
“We envision the book to be about 100 to 120 pages, and will predominantly be carried by photography, artworks, mementoes/memorabilia of the culture, history, architecture, interior design, and nature of living in Philamlife Homes from the early 1950s to the present,” said Rafael Bauza, business head of the project.
Painstaking research
“Currently, we are conducting interviews with many Philamlife Homes alumni; and doing research of all files we can get our hands on from Philamlife/AIG, as well as from the files of Carlos D. Corcuera Arguelles, who was the chief architect of the village,” Bauza added.
Bauza said the other members of the team include renowned artist Pandy Aviado, art consultant; Sabrina Estrella-Kintanar, Philam Homes barangay liaison; Joel Lacsamana, editor; and urban planner Paulo Alcazaren as project consultant.
First middle-class development outside Manila
It was in the early ’50s when insurance firm Philam Life set up the innovative residential development just off Highway 54. The Philamlife Homes village (later shortened to “Philam”) was the first middle-class development outside of Manila.
Roughly at the same time, Forbes Park was being built in Makati, targeted at the relatively wealthy. But Philamlife Homes was envisioned by founder Earl Carrol as the first master-planned community in the country, aimed at the rising, young middle class of the era—civil servants, ordinary wage-earners, businessmen and women, and celebrities, with a modest but growing spending power.
Carlos D. Corcuera Arguelles was tapped by the Philam Life Insurance Company as the chief architect of Philamlife Homes. Under the guidance of Carrol and his board of trustees, the project would became the template used by countless developers ever since. Arguelles designed the bungalows in variants to suit middle-class Filipino lifestyles that had maids, a central toilet and bath facility, and a modern garage.
Meanwhile, urban planner Angel Nakpil, was designated to lay out the roads and open spaces, and subdivision of the lots. Arguelles was the architect of the houses and the shopping center.
Philamlife Homes had a large central park with amenities, a clubhouse, swimming pool, and even a supermarket (Jopson’s), and soon its own parish church. Arguelles designed the shopping center, which would be a hub of a commercial activities for Philam residents for the next 60 years.
Long-term mortgage scheme pioneered
Revolutionary, too, was the concept of a long-term mortgage scheme introduced by Philamlife company, with young couples scrupulously profiled and vetted to ensure that buyers (mostly men) had enough capacity, and stability in their jobs to make monthly payments from about P150 to P300 per month, for properties costing some P25,000 spread across a 25 year mortgage.
Unique, as well, was the concept of drawing lots for properties around the then cogon landscape of Philamlife Homes. Add to this an agreement signed by buyers waiving one’s rights, as well as submitting to the authority of a company-appointed administrator to manage the village’s development, architectural design of the tract bungalows, provision of services, and even a commitment to join in community activities organized by the community.
Compelling story
Philamlife Homes today has changed: the pretty houses, cozy bungalows that radiated warmth and egalitarian well-being, are gone. The park, a place to stroll in and commune with nature, remains but has steadily been encroached upon by unforgiving concrete.
“This coffee table book project aims to tell a compelling story of a fledgling community that exuded a strong sense of camaraderie, where neighbors talked to one another heartily and candidly over low fences—if they had fences at all,” said Aviado, a long-time resident who continues to create art from his bungalow-type studio in Philam.
In a press statement, Bauza called on Philam Homes alumni and culture buffs to help beef up the team’s research (especially in terms of photographs and stories), as well as contribute funds “to get the project off the ground.”
Microcosm of PH society
Philam Homes is actually a microcosm of Philippine society. Today, many communities like Philam have spawned a generation of children with hardly any attachment to the community, preferring to lose themselves in a cyber world where nothing is enduring amidst ever-changing imagery of information, escapist games, and the chatter of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Our not-so-old world is disappearing as consumerism gnaws on our souls and scientific-technological advances unmoor us from the past. What is left is a new world that is producing both an angry, alienated youth and a lost generation of children who have become modern-day nomads—without any roots tying them to the community of their parents.
“It is our modest hope that this project will help tie some of the halcyon strings that remain, and slowly rebuild a bond among us that once was,” Bauza said.
