In the city of Tagaytay now sits this eclectic modern Filipino home fondly called “Tercera” by its creative, detail-oriented owners.
The project began way back in the year 2011. I had just left the stressful corporate life and traded it in for my original passion - architectural design. My first client was a friend from the corporation I had just left. They were building their home and had asked me to design it for them. At the housewarming party of their new home, they introduced me to their parents, who turned out to be old family friends of my husband. We began talking about houses and architecture and they mentioned to me that they had a piece of property in Tagaytay on which they wanted to build a vacation/retirement home in the near future. We bounced ideas off each other and had such an interesting conversation as we seemed to have so many design sensibilities in common.
Tercera’s living area adorned with bamboo window grills, a metal sculpted pendant lamp by Miguel Aguas, a painting of Taal volcano, Capiz transoms and privacy screens, and various traditional Philippine textiles.
A few months after, my client’s Mom (“Tita”) got in touch with me for a small renovation project in their existing home in Metro Manila. We worked on this for about a year but throughout the project, ideas for the future retirement home would come up every so often, exciting us both.
One day, Tita told me that they had finally decided on pushing through with the retirement home and asked if I was available to design it for them. I gladly said yes. And, after several years of brainstorming, planning and designing, we were finally ready for construction.
The family home turned out to be a unique mix of green architecture, traditional Filipino and Spanish elements, odes to tropical vegetation and landscapes, and original artworks by family, friends and local artisans. The structure was built purely from local materials, specifically chosen by the owners from all around the country.
Tercera’s version of the “Louvre.” A skylight above “Santi,” a full-grown indoor santol tree. The tree had been planted on the lot several years before the house was constructed and the family chose to build the home around it.
“Santi” the indoor santol tree
Indoor spanish tile staircase
Outdoor Spanish tile staircase
It is always a joy to work on projects that push your creative limits and force you to think outside of the box. Tercera was definitely one of those projects.
