Mega emergency quarantine facility sa Camp Crame, nai-turn over na sa PNP
Category: Projects
Supreme Court Complex
The Supreme Court is one of the most important buildings in the Philippines. It is a singular project that has many facets that make it interesting, and it is the totality of these facets that make it such a great building. So for WTA Architecture and Design Studio’s design entry, the building needed to consider much thought. It was not just a symbolic piece of architecture, but a working institution.
We have used the idea of courts as the starting point for the Supreme Court Building. The various programs are arranged around and connected with a series of courtyards that serve as the primary organizing system. These courtyards allow us to create order and spaces to accommodate shifting numbers of people as well as shorten the distances and travel time between various divisions.
The site lies within a community fragmented by walls and boundaries which dominate the landscape. We have been able to use this separation to inform our design process and allow us to give something back to the community by creating connections and catalyzing the growth of the surrounding barangay.
The social aspect of our design works beyond our site and emphasizes sightlines, pedestrian connections, preserved green spaces, and public spaces that redefine the urban relationship between the surrounding communities. It is a public-friendly space for people to interact with. The Supreme Court has to be incredible. It has to offer something inspiring and be an aspirational pinnacle for the people in the spirit of supreme courts and institutions around the world that are typified by domes and pillars as symbols, not of raw power, but enlightened authority.
Symbolic elements have been streamlined yet traditioinal forms were retained. The domes allow us to present the idea of a very Filipino gentility that embraces justice tempered with wisdom and compassion. Domes have a much smaller surface exposure than a rectilinear structure and allow for greater passive cooling and thermal insulation as well as air penetration on site. By creating a series of linked domes that defines us not as an island nation but an archipelagic nation of connected islands sharing a common history, culture, and tradition, we are giving the Supreme Court its identity.
Varna Library
Every book is a journey, each tells a story. The quest for knowledge always flows through no matter what time or age. We believe that libraries must evolve and continue to have a distinct role in the sharing of knowledge through the stories that this sharing entails. Experiences and stories will always remain precious and provide a web that connects society. These stories form the Varna Library. It disseminates and generates experiences and stories in addition to preserving and sheltering ideas. It is a series of variated experiences that bring people together, not
just with knowledge and learning but also into the act of sharing these learnings. This community of spaces form interrelated civic areas creating an assembly of the richness and breadth of Varna is history and culture. It is a concentration of public activity acting as a new type of urban knot that ties together the energy of active pursuits with the quiet contemplation of reading in a narrative that the people of Varna and its visitors will share and relate to.