THESE young innovators are keen on finding solutions for a persistent urban problem.

Manila, one of the densest cities in the country, is considered to be a top contributor to ocean plastic waste, as urban waterways have been transformed into residential areas for informal settlers and dump sites.

Twelve young innovators from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) School of Design and Arts Architecture Program (SDAAR) decided to dedicate their skills in creating an artificial intervention that would hopefully first raise awareness and eventually address the issue. The design solution marked the first wave of the Estero Community Project, SDAAR’s initiative that aims to enjoin the public in the rehabilitation of the city’s poorly maintained canals.

“Right now, the putrid smell and relentless pollution of the esteros indicate the lack of sanitation which could be the cause of human infirmity and ill-being,” noted architect Maria Cynthia Funk, associate dean of the College’s SDA Environment Studies Cluster. “It also corrodes our sense of beauty and care for nature.” She reiterated that the issue is beyond individual efforts — that people need to work together as a community.

To further equip themselves for the conceptualization and execution of the project, SDAAR students Robertson Go, Ryan Chai Cabanez, Maisie Rivera, Bea Viloria, Xavier Ticzon, Ira Yap, Noel Narciso, Bien Alvarez, Nathan Faller, Althea Ballesteros, Mathew Gan and Paulo Mapoy underwent the intensive two-week Global Summer School 2018 of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, a Barcelona-based center for research, education, production and outreach.

They came up with an artificial intervention designed to portray how the canals can accommodate unwanted floodwaters and allow it to flow into the tributaries and into the sea

STUDY and scale model of the Estero Community Project. GSS, “an international platform defined by multi-scalar investigation on the implications of emergent techniques in planned environments,” is participated in by various teams located in key cities around the world. The recent program explored how digitization affects the urban landscape, connectivity and lifestyles. Led by expert tutors and professionals whose discussions and workshops were broadcasted real-time in the different node-cities, it served as a global laboratory that allowed the participants to share and create critical research on relevant emerging methodologies and test their design hypothesis.

The Manila Node, which was hosted by SDAAR, elaborated on the Estero Community Project, with the theoretical, practical and advanced knowledge on urban planning and entrepreneurial and social architecture needed for the development. The students reviewed the applications of advanced digital design strategies as essentials for the change, tested the combination of software and hardware and explored real-time data capture, energy generation, storage and reuse, material adaptability, real-time management of time-uses and citizen-space interaction.

After a thorough research that included a comprehensive site analysis of the canals of its neighboring barangays, conceptualizations and discussions on the physical and social conditions of the site, including flood levels, space typology, access points, population density and culture, the team concluded that the physical decay of the waterway was a result of lack of public space. With this valuable finding, they formulated a solution that understood the estero (estuary) as an evolved common ground.

the team intends to involve the planning office of Manila in conducting workshops with the affected communities. They came up with an artificial intervention designed to portray how the canals can accommodate unwanted floodwaters and allow it to flow into the tributaries and into the sea.

“Using building technology, they developed a structural mesh net that when held in tension provided a public space above the estero allowing for multi-programmable spaces to grow, while the second level net features shade.”

The heights and form of the nets were determined by a scoring system that tabulated user activity, trash build-up and accessibility. The project is a prototype into exploring real time physically evolving public spaces that defend itself. The team coded a series of Arduino boards, motors and even sensors that detected trash thrown onto the net and increased its tension to return the disposed garbage.

“It is finding technological interventions and eventually influencing the inhabitants of the areas around the estero to be more aware of their responsibility towards the environment,” Funk stated. “We intend to further develop the interventions and make it doable and sustainable. This will entail a long-term approach which we hope to improve on in the course of the planning track research work. For us, the work has just begun,” she added.

The Manila Node was participated in by studio master Architect Cesar Augusto Concio III; workshop supervisor Architect Lyle La Madrid; SDA Architecture Program tutors Architects Ferdinand dela Paz and Joel Deocaris and various lecturers, including Funk on the relevance of advanced architecture to developing countries.

In addition, SDA Architecture Program Chairperson Architect Harry Serrano mentored on integrating the paradox of sustainability in the daily lives of the estero community dwellers; Architect Gerard Joson on parametric design and digital fabrication, and Architect Jumhaila Morgia on solid waste water management.

THE students came up with an artificial intervention designed to portray how the canals can accommodate unwanted floodwaters. Now that the design has taken shape, the team intends to involve the planning office of the City of Manila in conducting workshops with the affected communities to establish the scope and the tasks needed to push through with the rehabilitation.

“Architecture ought to respond to the needs of man and his surroundings, as well as meet the increasing demand for sustainability in design,” declared Funk. “Public spaces define man’s relationship with one another and with his environment so much that, if set aside, the damage becomes incalculable as we see it happening now.”