Sustainable Mañosa
Date Published: August 02, 2012I recently visited a new residential development that re-imagines how we should live our urban lives without throwing nature or comfort out our doors. Lantana Lane, by the Mañosa Properties Inc., is a townhouse project in historic New Manila, Quezon City. It has only 14 units but each is imbued with a rare blend of high-quality architectural design, expansive interiors, and integrated landscape and green-design features.
The name of the developer is familiar because it is a company that has evolved from, but is fully integrated with, the design firm of iconic architect Francisco “Bobby” Mañosa. Bobby Mañosa has built an extensive body of work in Filipino Tropical design that few, if any, can come close to. He took the quintessential bahay kubo and turned it into Filipio modern architecture that emphasizes the use of indigenous materials to create spaces that are culturally correct and environmentally sustainable — way before it was fashionable to be green…or correct.
Gelo Mañosa won the competition for this sustainable residential design that wowed the competition’s judges.
Mañosa’s designs over the last 35 years since he established his own practice (after a historic partnership with his fellow-architect brothers) have become synonymous with green contemporary Filipino design.
Bobby declares, “I design Filipino, nothing else.” His design philosophy also offers nothing else but quality. He advocates a no-compromise approach to keeping within the tenets of his vision of Filipino architecture… so much so that he has even lost a few clients, whose primary aim was profit and not perfection.