arch 16 - context

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DUNGHIT, Vladimir Bon F.

January 09, 2013

How Context Affects Architecture

A UP Student Experience: Arki I vs. the Philippine Climate

The University of the Philippines College of Architecture is probably one of the very

few institutions inside the campus which owns a structure that catches my attention and interest.

Let us consider one of its two buildings. Take UPCA Bldg. 1, for example. The UPCA Bldg.

1 has never failed to fascinate me, an avid fan of structures with large windows (like the

Bauhaus Dessau in Germany), with its glassy look. Before I have been able to set foot inside

this building of interest, I was always wondering, How does it feel inside? At first, I thought,

Sosyal. It must be cold inside because of the air-conditioning units (an assumption I made

when the solid and closed look of the building came to me). But then, I noticed that some of

the glass windows on its side were open. I gave up that air-con idea afterwards. Then there

came the change of my judgment from Whoa, it must be cold in there to Meh, all I can get

from there is sweat.

Was the change in my way of thinking toward the building necessaryor, more

appropriately, correct? That was the question whose answer I have come upon during the class

opening last semester. I walked up the ramp that looks like it is trying to go through a massive

tree but decided to just overtake it. When I got inside, what I saw is a very large space where

you can draft and draw stuff. There is also no ceiling, just the roof which is way up high from

the floor I was standing on, in that part of the building (a fact that I couldnt see when I pass

by this structure before) so the feeling was not maalinsangan during my stay. The glassy


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structure of the building also generated much light inside for the students to see what theyre

doing without having to turn the lights on (at least, during the daylight). Clever, I thought.

What I felt and saw during my first time staying inside the UPCA Bldg. 1 started to

make sense when we visited the building again (this time, not to draft anything but observe,

and with some backgrounds on how climates affect architecture). According to Patti Stouter in

Shaping Buildings for the Humid Tropics: Cultures, Climate, and Materials, high ceilings are

ideal for tropical architecture as they allow heat in an enclosed space to rise above the people

in it, and thus, making them feel cooler. Stouters remark on this element might be the

explanation as to why the feeling was fresh and cool when I entered the building once. Aside

from the floor-to-ceiling measurement, what may have also contributed to that feeling are the

light colours used on the exterior walls of the building. In the same book, Stouter mentioned

this kind of effect done by light colours and white to walls, roofs, and pavements in tropical

architecture. Another possible factor to the cooling effect inside the building are the many

windows and the opening at the top of the building. The air that enters the windows on the side

rises toward and exits through these openings, creating a cooling effect to the space it passes

through (Santamouris, 1996). The large windows help in lowering the temperature in the

building also by cutting the need to turn the lights on, and thus resulting to fewer sources of

internal heat (the heat radiating from the objects inside the building to its interiors).

Now, aside from the hot and humid temperature in our country, another problem that

the UPCA Bldg. 1 has to endure are the rains brought by the typhoons and monsoons. How the

architect of this building may have countered this problem might be, as said by Stouter, the

type of window used in the building. Most of the windows (if not all) installed on the walls are

awning-type, preventing water from flooding the interiors even if it is opened (because of the

slope of the window panel).


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Ive been doing my plates and other drawing needs in that building for more than half

a year now, and I havent experienced any weather-induced glitches with it. So looking at

things differently, if the UPCA Bldg. 1 and the weather patterns of our country were to battle

each other, the former might have a chance withstanding the unpredictable hits of the latter.

With the structural elements integrated by the architect to the building design, heavy

downpours and dehydrating heats of the wet and dry season, respectively, can do ideally

nothing to heavily and negatively affect the individuals using the said space.

arch 16 - context

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