Northern
(In)Convenience
at TriNoma
TriNoma, or Triangle North of Ma-
nila, occupies 13-hectares in one
of the most highly trafficked areas
in Quezon City—at the junction of
EDSA and North Ave. Accessible
from the MRT concourse, a steady
number of passers-by are easily at-
tracted to stop, for a quiet refuge
amidst the urban derelict; and
shop, from an abode of make-over
images of the ordinary.
In full knowledge of the site’s
context, Ayala Land Inc. once again
commissioned Callison Architec-
ture of Greenbelt acclaim. The Se-
attle-based firm, set out to create a
park that is self-contained, and at
the same time, bears a receptive
quality. Perching above the ter-
raced gardens on the opposite end
of the shopping center, this open
area contrasts the atrium formed
in the middle of the mall’s axis.
Actually, the building makes refer-
ence to its sister malls in Makati:
the dynamic Glorietta and calm
Greenbelt.
The driving concept of the mall
is the “story of a journey,” creat-
ing a sense of flowing space and
de-emphasizing exterior-interior
barriers. The character of its main
entrance is formed by a concave
elevated walkway positioned be-
tween the glass curtain wall and
multi-layered garden, framing a
magnificent view of the two-level
park teemed with lush foliage and
flowing waterscape. Arrival is then
officially announced by a “reverse
waterfall” incidence upon rims of
limestone in different sand hues.
Walking inside is like wander-
ing in an urban jungle. The shops
are arranged in curved paths ren-
dering a sensuous feel, yet lack-
ing consequently any direction.
Double-loaded corridors enhance
the grace of interminable window
displays, but with the fear of get-
ting lost; the fact that you can look
to the distance through the in-be-
tween openings offers a sigh of
relief. The experience is furthered
by cove lighting, as it provides sub-
dued illumination, reminiscent of
the shade of canopy trees. Thank-
fully, it is better implication in the
tropics to enter into a darkened
area where one is psychologically
sheltered from heat and glare.
Limited use of color palette as-
sists, however, in the legibility of
the whole composition. In effect,
the polished white Activity Center
TriNoma...
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A
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Achie
JULY 2008 #01
The Official Student Publication of the Department of Architecture+Drafting Technology
Traversing
the Triangle
Development of
Dissent in the QC-CBD
By Ysh Cabaña
T
he triangle signifies stability when resting on one of
its sides but is precarious when tipped on one of its
vertices.
The expression may be from
theories of composition or that of
visual communications. But the
statement is similarly articulated
by urban planning’s triangulation,
polarization of social class, conflict
between the monied few and the
feeble masses. These are typified in
the ongoing Quezon City Central
Business District (QC-CBD) project,
the most recent large-scale devel-
opment in Metro Manila.
Sited in contiguous tracts of
land in the East and North Triangles
and the Veterans Memorial Medical
Center, the ambitious project is be-
ing shaped up by the local govern-
ment with the business community
to be Quezon City’s answer to exist-
ing and emerging urban enclaves—
such as Makati and Fort Bonifacio,
Taguig. According to a World Bank
(WB) study commissioned by the
government, the huge real estate is
expected to be a potential area for
mixed-use development because
of its proximity and accessibility as it
is bounded by major thoroughfares
and traversed by main transport
routes. The project has even been
described by the international fund-
ing institution as “the center of grav-
ity of commercial developments in
Metro Manila in the coming years.”
Posturing Progress
President Gloria Macapagal-
Julius Lawrence Antido Junevy F. Llosa Kenneth Doria
2nd Place
pnp Digital Poster Making Contest
July 12, 2007
Coalition of Services for the Elderly
(cose) Painting Competition
October 7, 2007
Technological Institute of the Philippines–Quezon City
Arroyo’s Executive Order 620, which
prompts the “speeding-up of the de-
velopment of the East and North Tri-
angles and the Veteran’s Memorial
Medical Center into a well-planned,
integrated and environmentally-
balanced, mixed-use development
model,” is a precondition of the ad-
vancement of the legitimacy of her
regime. As McGlynn and Murrain
argued though there are clear and
good intentions, there seems to be
no safe assumptions that an accept-
able physical environment will be
achieved by stakeholders whose
interests a design is serving.
The President tasked Mayor
Sonny Belmonte, Jr. to head the
Urban Triangle Development (Tri
Dev) Commission, a three-mem-
ber body convened to manage the
implementation of the project as
harmonized with the recommenda-
tions made by the World Bank. The
administration capitalizes on Php3
billion of credit in undertaking the
framework plan of the CBD through
the Japanese consulting firm, Almec
Corporation. While succumbing to
financing on loaned resources, the
urban template is determined by
the WB through private market forc-
es. Such proposal is in itself an eco-
nomic booster, projecting the image
of the city as a progressive economy
in a third world country.
The area, dubbed Triangle
Finalist
cocolife Students Visual Arts Contest
October 22, 2007
Jefferson Padlan Semi-finalist
3rd Place (Sculpture Category)
40th Shell Natl Student Art Contest
November 7, 2007
MAIDEN ISSUE
Park, is more than 250 hectares of
land through accretions initiated
by Arroyo’s EO620. The sprawling
park is bounded by Project 6 on the
north, by East Avenue on one side,
by MRT-tracked EDSA on its hypot-
enuse and by the Quezon Memorial
Circle on the opposite.
Exclusive Domain
Through pioneer developer
(and biggest investor) Ayala Land
Incorporated, the project has been
jumpstarted with the opening of
the TriNoma or Triangle North of
Manila on the second half of 2007.
The mall has since been touted one
of the most popular commercial
complexes, offering high-end local
and foreign product brands, be-
cause of its accessibility from public
transportation. The cosmopolitan
destination and intermodal trans-
port hub is the premier bid to the
masterplan of the CBD which will
be implemented in the next three
years under the aegis of Belmonte’s
administration. Conforming to
trends of postmodernist planning
principles, the proposal melds Ay-
ala’s TriNoma with the five-cluster
2nd Place
gsis Painting Competition
May 25, 2007
7th artpetron Natl Student Contest
August 2, 2007
park incorporating retail, institu-
tional, office, recreational, and resi-
dential land uses. This exemplifies
an ad hoc solution to the logistic
issues that the urban fabric must
remain dense enough, and diverse
enough to foster an interactive
public life.
Dramatic urban reconfigura-
tion of existing zonal classification
characterizes the framework plan
to achieve the development of the
area. Investing on the demand for
medical tourism, the city’s Cham-
ber of Industries orchestrates with
the market forces to transform the
designer hospitals such as the Phil-
ippine Heart Center, the Lung Cen-
ter of the Philippines, and National
Kidney and Transplant Institute, into
auspicious institutions which are
partial to foreign patients, notwith-
standing the other public hospitals
that are lined up for private grants.
Early on, the state-run pen-
sion Social Security System (SSS)
disclosed its plans to relocate its
QC-CBD...
Kirk Jay Heraldo
Ma. Aiza Monteagudo
1st Runner up Table Tennis
Aimee Arellano
Champion Chess
UAPSA Arki-Sports Fest

TriNoma...
contrasts the otherwise coarse
natural pavement of the exterior.
The Wellness and Home Zones in-
duce a relaxed and laid-back atmo-
sphere with soft hues and furnish-
ings. Mixing a triad of blue, yellow
and magenta, muted lighting sets
apart the Teen and Sports Zone.
A browse in the IT zone presents
its sleek, elegant finish. Resonat-
ing theatrical drama, columns are
coated in silver with hints of green
on the Cinema level.
Upon reaching the topmost
floor through a winding flight
of stairs, one realizes the more
intimate setting created by the
noticeably dimmer lighting and
intimate character of waterscape.
Alfresco dining spaces outline a
chic café’s perimeter of varied
kinds of fern and bam-
QC-CBD...
headquarters in a property at the
junction of EDSA and East Avenue.
The City Council reclassified the es-
tate into a special economic zone to
pave the way for the new headquar-
ters, a retail emporium, and residen-
tial towers. The site of the present
corporate highrise, however, is still
on research for adaptive re-use.
Along the east, Quezon City
drives itself to heighten market-
ability and expediency to foreign
investors, mainly from the business
process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Institutional research and com-
mercial call centers are intended
to punctuate the infill areas along
Commonwealth Avenue, baptized
as Science and Technology Park
within the University of the Philip-
pines campus.
Modest-scaled residences
are integrated in the urban neigh-
borhood in varying densities, from
condominiums to townhomes, to
boo, and fish pools. The overall
theme beckons patrons, and idlers
alike, to explore the commercial
terrain beyond the bridges over the
film of calming water.
What is revealed by the signifi-
cant rise to prominence of TriNoma
as an innovative shopping complex,
the synthesis of nature over layers
of man-made domain, is a telling
tale of its conscious manipulation
of architecture of consumerism via
direction and enclosure. As it transits
from driveway, to entrance, restau-
rants and cinemas that conclude
into the realm of nature, a control of
power takes place. Somehow with
the culminating destination, conve-
nience is maneuvered to success.c
Ysh Cabaña
provide housing within the self-
contained community. A case in
point is The Commons. Illusory by
its generic name, it is envisioned
to offer recreational and residential
development “comparable to the
prime residences of Makati;” hence,
amplifying the phenomenon of
gentrification, in which the wealth-
ier class may displace low-income
households in a neighborhood that
undergo physical renovation and
increase in property values.
Urbanizing Paradigm
Contrasted by the seemingly
ubiquitous progress, this urban core
is presently occupied by more than
15,000 families of informal settlers
in what is surveyed as “neglected
and partly blighted” land. The gran-
diose project requires en masse the
relocation of the squatters who live
in the open areas while having no
genuine program for housing pro-
visions. That having been said, a
Issue No. 1
July 2008
Arki Posts
What is your favorite
late-nighter beverage?
If I am going to stay up all night
and do plates or researches, I
just drink cold water, and I got
used to it
—Sarah Certeza, 5th yr
I prefer to drink coffee, yet take
in sources of vitamin C if I want
to stay up late. es, or other things governing their
—Arch. Ernie Popes
Three cups of coffee best suits
me when I stay up late at night!
—Noel Alagao, 1st yr
A cup of tea blended with pow-
dered chocolate drink is what I
have experimented, and it sure
has great effects!
—Ana Tazula Ubaldo, 1st yr
A glass of water for the night is
fine with me.
—Lizlie L utero, 1st yr
I usually don’t drink anything for
the late nights, but if the tough
gets going, I take in a bottle of
Cobra energy drink!
—Jennica Batle, 1st yr
On late nights, I just fill my stom-
ach with a warm glass of milk to
keep me going.
—Vladymire Ramos, 1st
I simply drink Milo, especially
when it’s warm.
—John Carlo Anore, 1st
Sterilized milk. Coffee has no
effect on me, and sterilized milk
is more energizing, plus the vi-
tamins it has.
—John Paul Fiedacan, 1st yr
For late nights, I drink Cobra en-
ergy drink. —Malou Pitlo, 3rd
I seldom drink Kapeng Barako. It
has strong effects!
—Naomi Pangilinan, 1st yr
A cup of coffee helps me stay
up all night. With its antioxi-
dants, my beauty remains!
—Douglas Salibad, 1st yr
socialized housing project still does
not heed to the perennial problem
of squatting. It severely reduces
mobility—defined by the capacity
to move location to maximize one’s
own welfare—being a more im-
portant aspect for the low-income
bracket than for the affluent house-
hold. Social responsiveness must,
thus, be the tenet for a viable type of
urban structure.
There is, indeed, wisdom in the
dramaturgical raising of infrastruc-
ture whenever a regime prepares to
wane. At his most determined, Bel-
monte once avowed that he would
devote his final mayoralty term
to making the city’s invest-
ment core the center-
piece of his legacy.
Arroyo, on the
QC-CBD other hand,
is an urban finds her
last
pocket development, McGlynn, Sue and Murrain, Paul [1994]
The Politics of Urban Design. Oxford
highlighted from the rest QCCBD. PinoyWeekly Nov. 7-13, 2007
of the urban fabric and
underscored by the capacity
of architecture to draw a sharp line
between the privileged and the marginalized.
Editorial Staff: Kristine Mae Adami, Jennifer Alilita,
Yshmael Cabaña, Ana Ubaldo, Moses Zubiaga
[P]late nights
with coffee
k i
r
A
Fifty-two respondents from dif-
ferent levels of Architecture/Draft-
es
ing Technology department were
iev r
asked for their preferred beverage
that will keep them awake late at
night upon doing plates, research- Ach
course (see inset).
The survey shows that cof-
fee, with 27%, is the most preferred
Jun Michael Basa
stimulant against drowsiness out Olivia Valerie Rombaoa
of the other beverages mentioned. 2nd Runner up
Coffee is followed by energy drinks Badminton
(25%), water (17%), chocolate drinks uapsa Arki-Sports Fest
(15%), milk (10%) and other bever- December 1, 2007
ages, such as tea, sodas, and juices,
including their own concoctions, for Kirk Jay Heraldo
2nd Place
the remaining 6%.
Design Competition
According to most coffee
drinkers, coffee is the best beverage
Julius Lawrence Antido
that will prevent one from falling 2nd Place
asleep due to its caffeine content. Poster Making Contest
However, the other runners-up are
said to be as much effective as cof-
Ronniel Ferbin Andaya
fee because of the harmful effects of Adrian Nichole Borja
excessive intake of the latter. Yshmael Cabaña
Also, it’s surprising to note 1st Place
that there are no drink preference in Inter-School Quiz Competition
a year level. No prevailing majority
per level believe in a specified bever- Dese Lea Labiano
age that is more beneficial to them.c Anthony Rivera
Moses Zubiaga Ace John Atienza
Sarah Certeza
Send in your opinions, commentary, feed- Jelver Nargatan
backs and/or suggestions via SMS. 1st Place
Type: COLUMNS_[Your message]_ Structure Making Competition
[Name]_[student number]* to
(0927)687.17.26 Erwin Ermi
*Messages that do not comply with the re- Marilou Pitlo
quired data will not be published.
Genevieve Cardenas
Next Poll: Janelyn Chua
With which local architect [living or April Esteva
dead] would you like to work? 1st Place
Tile Mosaic Competition
tenure an opportune moment to
Cian Gorgonio
substantiate her government by Champion
gearing the country toward the rhet- Mixed Media Rendering
oric of “first world” status.
QC-CBD, like its predecessors, Moses Zubiaga
is an urban pocket development, Kristine Mae Adami
highlighted from the rest of the ur- Noel Alagao
ban fabric and underscored by the Julie Pearl Bellen
capacity of architecture to draw a Irma Funtanar
sharp line between the privileged 1st Place
and the marginalized. Measures to Body Painting Contest
eradicate the reputed signifiers of
poverty is no more than an exercise UAPSA TIP-QC Chapter
Overall Champion
of labor market segregation, which
uapsa 36th National Architecture Week
has a negative and significant effect December 6, 2007
on the city’s economic efficiency.
This introverted development in- Jennifer Alilita
culcates strategies of controlling Kristine Mae Adami
the built environment to maintain Moses Zubiaga
the existing triangular power rela- 1st Place
tions—on that note the tension TIP-QC Inter-departmental Quiz Bee
among the public is furthered on.c February 2008
References: TIP-QC Architecture Basketball Team
1st Place
FASIA Basketball Tournament
February 2008
www.quezoncity.gov.ph
Raquel Blaza
Recipient
Most Outstanding Jr.PIA Member
March 2008
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