On Friday, August 10 Sofia Soller Sinco Hall filled with around 750 students and community members drawn by curiosity, generosity and a love of music. Headline performer, American singer-song writer Ryan Villanueva entertained everyone with his smooth tenor and talented looping guitar. Attendees included Bais Mayor Karen Villanueva, prominent members of FENOR, friends from Silliman University and Peace Corps amongst many others. Thanks to the generosity of audience members, the student-led benefit concert raised over 25,000 pesos towards construction costs for Estudio Damgo.
During a short intermission, Architect Instructor Ray Villanueva played a music video (watch here: vimeo.com/47346127) featuring the youth and landscape of barangay Malaunay — where Estudio Damgo will be constructing a new daycare facility.
A mountainside village of about 500 farming families, Malaunay is tenuously positioned high on the craggy banks of the Okoy river, as it makes its journey from Twin Lakes National Park to the sea. Last December, Malaunay was forever transformed by Baguio Sendong when the river flooded, washing out the two bridges that connected the village to the provincial capital. Malaunay was without power and water for two months.
Malaunay currently has one daycare serving over 30 preschoolers in a small room of the barangay hall. Last December, the room was flooded with three feet of water during the storm. Foundation University’s Estudio Damgo will be designing and building a new daycare center for Malaunay, adjacent to the Dungga Grade school high up in the cornfields.
When asked to describe his experience with Estudio Damgo, senior architecture student, Rick Depalas Gando used the word “exciting” many times. “At first, I was not sure what Estudio Damgo meant — because it is the first of its kind in the Philippines — but now that we are nearly finished with the first semester, I am very excited because it is a real community project and this will be my first time to be involved in actual construction.”
“I have really enjoyed every aspect of the class — from community meetings with Malaunay stakeholders where we get ideas and get to know one another better — to trainings where we learn about the different kinds and treatments for bamboo and how to operate table saws and tampers. Even the 20-odd construction documents that we have to generate which go into detail about the architecture, structure, electrical and plumbing features of the daycare center. All of which are necessary to prepare for permitting. Even though it is a small building, there are lots of details!”
“It is very different from working in theory, with paper and computer only. It is hard! At FU, we are lucky to have a full workshop with professional carpenters and masons to teach us. Before other schools consider starting their own design-build studios, I would caution them to consider all of the details involved [Estudio Damgo estimates total cost of the class to be just over 900,000 pesos — FU has committed over half, but will need to raise another 350,000 pesos to cover construction materials].”
“At the end of this semester we will have submitted our construction documents and thesis paper. Next semester we begin construction. In Estudio Damgo we learn what architecture is really about. It is very exciting because we are putting all our theory into actual practice. To the students coming up next, my advice is to explore more! Research other design-build studios and get some practice with construction. Be prepared to get out of the classroom.”
