Villar Farm House: Simplicity is beauty

Straddling at the border of two cities — the cosmopolitan Las Piñas and the bucolic Bacoor — the Villar Farm House offers the best of both worlds: the convenience of accessibility to greater Metro Manila, and the peace and quiet of provincial life.

The Villar Farm House is located inside the compound of Villar SIPAG Farm School, Villar Foundation’s open-air farm tourism complex dedicated to training farmers and encouraging the new generation to pursue sustainable farming.

Built in 2016 alongside the farm school, the farmhouse has been conceptualized by former Senator Cynthia Villar as a place to entertain guests like her fellow solons, while they enjoy freshly brewed coffee and a breakfast that includes vegetables from the Villar Farm School’s fresh produce and kesong puti (white cheese) freshly made of milk extracted from the school’s carabaos.

Outside the farmhouse, guests are greeted by sustainable artworks by local artists in the shape of real farm animals found inside the farm school complex — carabaos, horses and egrets.

By the one-storey farmhouse’s veranda are more artworks like paintings and leaves laser-cut with the Villar family’s portraits.

The wide doors swing open to reveal the house’s impressive ceiling — dried anahaw leaves enveloping the ceiling like a giant umbrella that embraces the entire interiors in Filipino touch. The very Filipino tropical atmosphere is enhanced by ample wooden accents — from driftwood table support retaining their original shapes as parts of giant tree roots from Paete, to the many carved wood shelves, chairs and souvenirs from all over the Philippines.

According to the former senator, all paintings and memorabilia were gifts to her and her family, while the anahaw ceiling is the same that could be seen in their family home. More than just aesthetics, the high ceiling effectively enables air to freely circulate within the space, so the house has been powered mostly by natural provincial ventilation, making it a good case in sustainable design.

Wide floor-to-ceiling, see-through sliding doors connect the interiors to the beauty of the outdoors, where the piece de resistance is the infinity pool that is seemingly an extension of the powerful Prinza de Molino Dam that irrigates the land.

Built by hand in the 19th century, Prinza de Molino Dam is a colonial dam designed to irrigate the surrounding rice fields in Las Piñas and Bacoor. It has been declared a National Historical Site for being commissioned by Fr. Ezequiél Moreno, a Spanish prelate that served as parish priest of Las Piñas Bamboo Organ Church and was later on canonized as saint.

The pool is only separated from the dam by Negra trees, which according to the former senator, are classy and do not attract insects unlike bamboo. These are also less expensive and more sophisticated than cement wall, so the senator’s spouse, former senate president Manny Villar, also uses Negra trees for walling their subdivision developments.

Meanwhile, circling the farmhouse are pine trees that could survive in low land. According to Senator Cynthia, Senator Manny bought the trees for local reproduction from an Australian supplier and these pine trees are the same ones that give their subdivisions their luxurious appeal.

“Akala kasi n’ya bumibili tayo ng pine trees every Christmas (He thought we buy pine trees every Christmas),” Senator Cynthia said of their Australian pine tree supplier. “Hindi n’ya alam, ang mga Pilipino bumibili ng plastic (He didn’t know Filipinos buy only plastic trees).”

From the refreshing swaying of the trees to the splashes of the dam that massage the soul, the farmhouse offers delight and respite — no wonder the former senator spends much of her time here — away from the noise of politics and closer to her advocacies.