Master Planning Archives

Horizon Manila Wins Overall WAFX Award

December 10, 2021May 22, 2022

Dec. 10, 2021, Manila, Philippines – Horizon Manila by WTA Architecture and Design Studio is the 2021 WAFX Project of the Year at the 2021 World Architecture Festival (WAF). The project was awarded as the winner of the WAFX Water Category in July 3, 2021 and was announced overall winner during the last session of the last day of WAF, December 3, 2021. The WAFX Award herald’s the world’s most forward-looking architectural concepts, and is awarded to future projects that identify key challenges that architects will need to address in the coming years.

Horizon Manila is a 419-hectare reclamation project that is currently the largest reclamation project in the City of Manila. The project is meant to serve as a new hub for growth and development for one of the densest and largest mega cities of the 21st century. Its concept – the Manileño – presents a bottom-up community-centric organic growth model in contrast with the archetypal command-driven top-down master plan. It centers on creating shared experiences and building distinct community identities by establishing soft boundaries and edges.

WAFX 2021 overall winner Horizon Manila by WTA

This masterplan is composed of 3 islands bisected by a 4 km long canal park that recalls the identity of the Tagalog (River) people who settled along the mouth of the Pasig River. It focuses on people and local activities as the main determinant for diverse and organic growth. The goal is to grow 28 unique communities or barangays along the water’s edge. Each of the 28 communities will have its own development guidelines and will promote mixed-use development in each locality. Barrier-free developments with complete accessibility for all, such as open spaces and parks, will be obligatory and urban infrastructure promoting social connectivity will be the defining framework for the city. Shared experiences that tie the communities together are developed through activated public spaces with programs that strengthen the vitality of the streetscape. Placemaking features that stimulate local experiences define these spaces. They range from the ubiquitous streetball culture of Manila to lush tropical gardens, from water gardens to civic and religious plazas. Each place is a kernel of ground activity that evokes the culture and lifestyle of Manileños.

To learn more about the project, visit: http://wtadesignstudio.com/horizon-manila-manileno/

WTA’s Horizon Manila Project Wins WAFX 2021 Award

July 24, 2021May 22, 2022

Manila, Philippines, July 24, 2021 – WTA Architecture and Design Studio is proud to announce that the firm’s project – Horizon Manila – is a final winner in the Water Category and has been shortlisted for the Future Projects – Masterplanning Category at the World Architecture Festival 2021.

Horizon Manila is a 419-hectare reclamation project that is currently the largest reclamation project in the City of Manila. The project is meant to serve as a new hub for growth and development for one of the densest and largest mega cities of the 21st century. Its concept – the Manileño – presents a bottom-up community-centric organic growth model in contrast with the archetypal command-driven top-down master plan. It centers on creating shared experiences and building distinct community identities by establishing soft boundaries and edges.

Principal architect William Ti, Jr. presented the Horizon Manila Project during the WAF Futures online event last July 14, 2021. You may view his presentation by accessing the Day 3 World Architecture Festival Live Stream.

World Architecture Festival is the world’s largest international architectural event. It includes the biggest architectural awards programme in the world, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to delegates and international juries. In 2021, twelve big-picture architectural initiatives addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges have won the first of this year’s WAF Awards. The WAFX Award winners are all selected from entries to the Future Projects category in the WAF Awards Programme, for their ambition and scope.

Horizon Manila_Diversifying Scale and Density

Horizon Manila Celebrating a Cultural Landscape

Horizon Manila _ Connecting the Community

Horizon Manila_Promoting inclusivity and community engagement

City of Tomorrow: Our City Anthology Festival 2021

January 30, 2021February 2, 2021 William Ti, Jr. | Philippine Daily Inquirer

We spend more than 90 percent of our lives in our city. We eat, sleep and work here. We grow up and raise our children here. For the last 6,000 years, the story of man has been intertwined with that of our cities. Our populations have long been thriving in our urban environment. More than half of humanity now live in cities. More than 4 billion people are living on 3 percent of the world’s land mass.

We have laws and advocacies to protect and care for our natural environment. Yet where are the laws and regulations that protect our urban environments? We have building codes and urban plans that control and determine the safety and growth of our homes and cities. We control this artificial environment we have built around us, but oftentimes we forget that, as with most things, it, too, needs care and protection.

If degradation of our natural environment harms so many of the world’s wildlife, degradation of our urban environment harms us directly. The quality of our public spaces, the accessibility of open spaces, the preservation of our urban history and heritage, and the efficiency of our roads all affect our physical and mental health and balance. Yet what else lies beyond that?

How do we take care of the natural, physical and human aspects of our urban ecosystem? How do we extend our attention beyond the physical spaces that we occupy and own into the urban relationships that determine the well-being of our cities? What are the socio-ecological systems that we’re forming with each and every structure we build?

Anthology is a festival that brings together architects and designers, policy makers and advocates, to shine a spotlight on our built environment. This year, we are seeking to create awareness about our city, about its physical and social aspects, about its health and well-being, about how we should care about this urban environment we have built to protect and provide for the vast majority of humanity.

This year’s festival, with the theme “Our City,” will be held online from March 19 to 21. We are bringing together everyone in our community to celebrate and share their ideas for our cities. The festival is open to everyone and will be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. We are also inviting everyone to participate in our chatrooms via Zoom and Viber. Registration is now open at Anthologyfest.org.

We invite everyone to actively join the discussion this year during, before and after the festival. We have set up an architecture community on Viber for everyone to join and we hope to have everyone engage in our various chatrooms and platforms as we collectively strive to garner attention and focus ideas on “Our City.”

Manila – Philippine Daily Inquirer publishes WTA Architect William Ti’s City of Tomorrow Column: Our City Anthology Festival 2021. Click here to read more.