NEW ERA UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering and Architecture

Architecture Undergraduate Degree Program

Bachelor of Science in Architecture

MetrOcio Recreational Hub

(A Proposed Recreational Hub for Urban Oasis)

By

Berana, Queencel A.
15-13090-493

Diliman, Quezon City

February 2020
 1.1 Introduction: Background of the Study
Recreation is one of the outlay of time designed for having therapeutic state of
one’s body or mind. While leisure is a contrary from the word “work” provided oneself a
freedom to do enjoyable activities. Leisure was simply defined as “the free time from
work”. Not allowing oneself to have some occasional recreation will results to wear out
the body. After all, life shouldn’t be all about work. One man’s body should balance
work and play and that’s why recreation and leisure come in place.

According to Ambrose Bierce, writer and journalist: Recreation is ““A particular kind of
dejection to relieve a general fatigue”. Meaning the refreshment of one’s body and mind
is through amusement or play. But people nowadays became too busy to the brink they
forgot to take a time out from all the works handing in them. Working can lead to stress,
illness, disease and etc. everyone’s body need a rest, relaxation and enjoyment.
Recreation is an opportunity to take time out from work, the more you balance work and
play, the more enjoyable life might become.

Metro Manila is the country’s economic heart. Meaning there’s a huge number of
employment in Manila. In Gallup’s annual Global emotions report, Philippines placed
second on the list of most stressed countries, with a percentage (%) of 58. Leisure
activities plays an important function including relief from demands and restrictions.

Recreational parks, centers and hub are popular across the globe wherein you got to enjoy
a time for yourself. There’s a lot of benefits of having recreational facilities within the
city. It benefits both social, economic and environmental. Having parks and recreation
increase economic property values. And as stated earlier, recreation is one of the key of
balancing one man’s body from work and enjoyment. As for social benefits, sharing
leisure time enhance family bonds. Parks and recreations provides activities and places
for leisure activities. Having parks and recreation around manila can increase community
engagement and reduce crimes.

Therefore, this research is to aim having everyone within urban area a time for recreation.
This paper is to proposed a recreational hub for urban oasis. Urban Oasis is a place, park
or plaza that is placed between building or built surrounded by building structures.
Proposed MetrOcio recreational hub will offer relaxation and entertainment to the users.
Metro leisure hub (“ocio” Spanish word for leisure) is a recreational hub within urban
oasis. The hub includes a variety of recreational activity in physical, cultural, social and
intellectual categories. The project also offers outdoor activities, there are also retail
shops, coffee shops and restaurants.

I.2 Rationale

One might ask what’s the purpose of developing a recreational and leisure
facilities in an urban city. Recreational hub supports social, physical, cultural and
intellectual activities for all the ages. Taking part in recreational activities improves
physical health. having a steady balance on work and play enables our body to move
livelier.

Developing a recreational hub for urban oasis provides an economic benefit to the
community. As urbanized city continuously growing and becoming more densely
populated; planners, officials and community advocates considering the parks as a
powerful tool for urban communities and local economies for addressing issues about
urban infrastructure, social, economic and health issues.

I.2 Review of Related Literature

This section outlines the related literature/ project of the previous studies that are
relevant to the topic of the study. It gives a brief description of related work and its
relevance to the thesis.

According to the article of Anne Luisa Villarico, (Blending with Nature with an Urban
Entertainment Center): Greenbelt malls focuses on the outdoors as it blends the mall and
dining experience with the park. Greenbelt mall’s main attraction is the leisurely
atmosphere and open-air bistros offering casual dining clustered in a modern setting. The
article tells about the concept of green architecture surrounding the mall creates
sustainable structure.

In study of Jennifer Roemer (2012): Satisfaction has been a focal point in the study of
recreation behavior since the 1970s. Prior research has used numerous variables (e.g.,
study year, activity type, setting, group behavior, crowding, past experience, encounters,
use levels) as predictors of satisfaction (e.g., Herrick & McDonald, 1992; Vaske,
Donnelly, Heberlein, & Shelby, 1982; Vaske & Roemer, in press). The concept is
commonly used as a measure of recreation quality, and it can be defined as “the
congruence between expectations and outcomes” (Manning, 1999, p. 10). Quality of and
satisfaction from recreation experiences reflect management goals and visitor
expectations. Stated that satisfaction is needed to measure the recreation quality that meet
the needs of the users.

According to Derek Thomas (2002): Options for recreational space should include a
range for both formal (e.g. organized games) and informal (e.g. play space, parks) uses.
Whereas formal recreation space should be incorporated as an imperative in an urban
environment, in practice such facilities will be determined largely by available space,
official perceptions of sustainability, and the ability of the target population to bear the
costs. In a study of community needs in the developing world, the Urban Projects
Manual (Culpin et al. 1983) provides the following synthesis for formal facilities:

 The location of the recreation facilities should be as central as possible to

the areas which the spaces serve, though this need not be the most
valuable area of the project site.

 Access will be important, but a location behind commercial, industrial or

public facility areas would be suitable, provided that they are safe areas.

 Areas for formal games should be reasonably level and of suitable surface.

Based from the book of Environment and Ecology at the Beginning of 21st Century
(2015): Parks are functional and aesthetic spaces, giving peace to the city. While
providing opportunities for Protection, utilization, health and education, they also
organize social life. Urban parks should be planned in terms of natural and cultural
features of the most exclusive places in cities. They should appeal to every age
groups, and have active and passive recreation opportunities and facilities.

Recreation can be defined as the evaluation of leisure which is freely chosen,

made on voluntary basis, active or passive participation. Broadhurst (2001) defined
recreation as participate activities in leisure time. These activities may have physical,
social or emotional content. Recreation consists of any activity persisted during leisure.
It can be free or done for fun (Neumeyer & Neumeyer, 1958). Recreation involves many
leisure pursuits,
such as sports, arts, reading. Kraus and Curtis (1982) stressed that recreation comprise
of some experiences carried on free time, either for pleasure or to achieve certain
desirable physical, social or emotional outcomes. If it is supported by public or
voluntary agencies, it must be planned to achieve goals for participants and for the
community.

As stated from the book “The Roles of an Urban Park Systems”, D. Ellis and R.
Schawartz (2016): Urban parks are generally seen as valuable assets; however, the only
quantifiable value attached to urban parks is sometimes seen as their capital and
maintenance costs. Parks, like most elements of publically provided services, are not
directly profitable and thus the justification for investment is not always clear. The
recreational activities that take place in parks can also be hard to define and accurately
quantify. The assets in parks and the activities facilitated by an urban parks system are
commonly seen as very important to a community but without an understanding of their
roles and values to the community, planning and managing them to optimize their
services is challenging.