by ALECKS P. PABICO

IN THE cookie-cutter residential community for academic and non-teaching personnel of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, the home of the Navals on M. Viola Street is a standout. Amid rows of abodes with roofs inclined at a university-mandated 15 degrees, the cream-and-terra cotta Naval house has 30-degree sloped roofs and a two-meter wooden balcony that splits the upper portion of the structure.

	THE Navals' house on M. Viola Street inside the U.P. Diliman campus. [photo by Alecks P. Pabico]

Of course it didn’t use to look like this. But when Jimmuel Naval, an award-winning writer and Filipino professor, took over the house in August 2004, he consulted architect-friend Clifford Espinosa on how to make the place more suitable for his young family. By the time Espinosa was done with the revamp, almost a year had passed — and the house had a roof structure that was in complete disregard of the university’s building regulation.

“It's an American-inspired design, suited more for heating back in the 1960s,” says Espinosa of the old roof. He explains that a 30-degree slope is more appropriate for the Philippines as it leads to less accumulation of dust, fallen leaves, rain, and even moisture.

The roof, however, was not the only innovation Espinosa introduced to what was once a standard university house. He raised the ceiling height and changed the flat, dropped ceilings into cathedral ones. He added windows and openings all around the house. Thus, the Navals now have the luxury of daylight illumination for practically the whole day, plus a constant supply of cool air. Professor Naval himself says they now use a low-power air-conditioning unit only occasionally, unlike when they used to live in the sweltering Hardin ng Bougainvilla, one of the university’s tenement housing complexes.

Espinosa says he is foremost a “spatialist,” or one who creates humanizing spaces. “The medium of architecture is space,” he declares. “Without space, light and air are impossible. Life is not possible.”

Yet in these days when global warming and climate change have become household bywords, there is a more fashionable term for Espinosa's preoccupation: green architecture. The idea emerged in the last few years, particularly in the United States, as an offshoot of the mainstreaming of green awareness among consumers. Many people are paying more attention to the kind of food they eat, what they use in their homes, and how they can live healthier lives that are more attuned with Mother Earth.

For sure, environment-friendly and energy-efficient design has been with us since the days of the bahay kubo (nipa hut), and later adapted to suit the Spanish-era bahay na bato (literally house of stone). But Romulo de Jesus, a leading member of the Green Architecture Movement (GAM) of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), says green architecture has of late become imperative, in large part because it has become obvious that we humans can no longer continue with our wasteful and destructive ways.

BY DEFINITION, green architecture involves design that is environmentally sensitive, in harmony with the natural features of the sites, and energy-efficient. It employs materials that are ecological, recyclable, or are derived from sustainable sources. And it means buildings that last longer and are easy to maintain.

GAM started out as a committee of the 23,000-strong architects' association back in 2000. But de Jesus says it has since evolved into an advocacy that continuously educates members on green-architecture principles so that they can apply these in their practice. At the same time, GAM reaches out to the academe, other allied professions, and the general public to spread the word about green architecture and its benefits.

“We encourage and promote the use of green building practices in all buildings we construct, remodel, and renovate,” de Jesus says, with the emphasis on incorporating Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) methods and techniques in the construction of facilities.

Adopted from the United States, LEED is a rating system that provides the building industry with nationally accepted standards for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. It promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit group composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry. It believes in transforming the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated so that these become environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.

	FRONT balcony makes use of old wooden balusters from an ancestral house in Nueva Ecija. [photo by Alecks P. Pabico]

Given GAM's expertise in the practice of green architecture, it has become a vital partner of the recently established Philippine Green Building Council (PhilGBC). Initially composed of representatives from the different sectors of the country's building industry, the council has been expanded to include the business sector, particularly developers and property managers, academe, socio-civic and nongovernment organizations, and government agencies.

PhilGBC executive director Christopher de la Cruz says the group was a rather belated response to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003), which mandated local governments to promulgate regulations requiring owners of premises containing six or more residential units to provide for waste segregation.

According to de la Cruz, architects had not anticipated the law's implications on the building sector. In fact, they were unaware of the new law and so continued to use old design standards that only rendered their designs obsolete before construction even began. There was also the problem with securing building permits from local governments since these now required buildings to install solid waste management facilities.

These days, though, architects can refer to a design manual that integrates the provisions of RA 9003 in the architectural design of buildings. And just three months after it was officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission last March, PhilGBC held its first Building Green Expo, during which a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the council and its partners to promote green building practices locally.

Foremost of these practices are improving air quality and water efficiency, promoting energy efficiency and conservation, establishing solid waste management practices, advancing ecologically friendly site development, and increasing the use of green materials in all phases of construction. The council is also spearheading efforts to develop a nationally accepted green building rating standard patterned after the LEED system.