A Tourist Information & Assistance Center, designed by Architecture students of Foundation University, by was inaugurated Tuesday at the Dumaguete port.
The Information & Assistance Center, funded by the Philippine Ports Authority, is a product of the country’s first student-led design-and-build project dubbed as Estudio Damgo. The information center is FU’s fourth Estudio Damgo project in Negros Oriental.
FU President Victor Vicente “Dean” Sinco said ED4 will serve as a place where foreign and domestic tourists can see for themselves where to go in Negros Oriental, and what to do while in Dumaguete City.
A US-trained architect by profession, Sinco also chairs the University’s Department of Architecture & Fine Arts.
Estudio Damgo, he explained, is for graduating Architecture students to design something that is useful for and relevant to the community.
“Estudio Damgo is an opportunity for the students to express their creativity, and experience the rigors of constructing a building that would suit the users’ needs,” Sinco said.
Any agency in government that would like to make use or avail of the services of the ED program may coordinate with the University, Sinco said, adding that the demand for it is getting higher.
Estudio Damgo was conceptualized as a “thesis” for graduating students in Architecture, instead of an academic research paper.
Patterned after a design-build program that Sinco went through as a student at the University of Washington, the project also aims to look for communities that need solutions for their infrastructure problems.
The first Estudio Damgo project, headed by Fil-Am architect Rey Villanueva, was a kindergarten school building in barangay Lunga in Valencia. The second was a multi-purpose building in a low-cost housing project of the Department of Social Welfare & Development in Bajumpandan that is being used by victims of typhoon Sendong. The third Estudio Damgo project was a floating marine sanctuary for the Bantay Dagat of barangay Bantayan, which was eventually destroyed by strong winds during a storm.
“The point is to give something to the community that is tangible, usable, something that makes sense, and which the community can say ‘This is ours; I will take care of this’,” said Sinco.
The tourist information project cost P2 million, which saw the involvement of FU Archi students: Je Vincent Villaruz, Jude Valencia, Michael Jeff Ponce, Kevin Silorio, Gean Michael Van Libeterio, Kerr Alvin Bambo, and Harriette Abilla.
The inauguration late Tuesday afternoon was attended by FU officials, the PPA, and local government officials led by Gov. Roel Degamo, Dumaguete Vice Mayor Franklin Esmeña III, and Councilor Michael Bandal who chairs the Tourism Committee.
During the program, Sinco revealed that plans are now on the drawing board for Estudio Damgo 5, a People’s Comfort Lounge to be built at the Rizal Boulevard. Ground breaking is set for Dec. 3, and construction will be completed by March, in time for the graduation of the Architecture students.
Governor Degamo and Vice Mayor Esmeña expressed their support for the project, saying the concept is within the ambit of a public-private partnership.
The Governor, a mechanical engineer by profession, was so impressed with the concept and design of the information center that he invited FU Architecture students to help the Province in designing their multi-purpose centers and various other buildings. (Judy F. Partlow)
