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In 1996 Saratan conjured a unique hilltop aerie with a spiral staircase leading to a Zen garden. Set within the confines of the Ponderosa Golf Course above Puerto Galera, this 160-sq-m masterwork was inspired by Japanese Zen gardens. Buffeted by the wind at 400 meters above sea level, it has spectacular views in three directions (see right). Set on a 2,000-sq-m plot, but on a 45-degree slope, it is essentially a two-story babay kubo standing nimbly on four-story concrete piling posts sunk two meters into the slope. Cubic in shape, it is topped by a thick cogon roof. Its most celebrated feature is the magnificent stone staircase that spirals down (two circles) to a white-pebbled Zen garden at the base. One crosses to the house itself over a bridge posted with six thick yakal trunks. Inside, bamboo pole ceilings hover above walls clad in woven bamboo, and black and brown Mangyan nito vine weavings. Japanese slatted wooden screens and Philippine latticed windows of capiz shell add to the overall textural symmetry. The linear aesthetic is Japanese, while the earth-brown tones are very Filipino.
The stunning stone staircase (left) spirals down to a white-pebbled Zen garden at the base; set with candles in the early evening, it takes on a magical air. The house walls (above and right) are clad in a skin of interwoven bamboo and the entrance resembles that of a Japanese temple; the structural posts are made from shale rock found in Mindoro. At the bottom of the spiral staircase is a granite water fountain (previous page) by Mexico-based Filipino artist Eduardo Olbes.
Inside (left and below), Saratan's eyrie house impresses with its thoroughly native Philippine symphony of rustic materials. Walls and windows are covered with black and brown nito vine-woven panels, made by the Mangyan tribespeople of Mindoro. The vaulted ceiling is clad with bamboo poles and pebble-washed concrete. There are slatted wooden screens and Philippine capiz shell windows on all sides.
Jaime Zobel Beachside Guesthouse
beachside guesthouse in mindoro
Three years after Don Jaime Zobel's hilltop house was completed, the Open House guesthouse was brought into being. Set back from the beach front, it is approached by a long wood-plank bridge (above) that crosses a stream dredged for aesthetic purposes. At the end of the bridge rises a pyramid-shaped staircase, with steps on three sides clad with fine slate stone chips. More wooden steps bring the guest into a proscenium-like verandah which adjoins several picturesque bedrooms.
The overall feeling in the architectural details is Japanese. Roof-to-ground posts line all four corners, and outer wall panels of capiz shell and wood trellises that swing open are reminiscent of shoji screens. On the other hand, the interiors which were designed by Johnny Ramirez have a distinctly vernacular Filipino touch. Plant-life murals cover the walls, giving the house a feeling of rusticity and fecundity. The piece-de-resistance is a six-paneled mural of Mindoro plant life by Emmanuel L. Cordova, while on either side of the sala are two bedrooms with heirloom bedsteads. There are four bedrooms in all. each tastefully furnished for weekend guests.
The guesthouse's airy verandah (above) features the six Mindoro palm murals by Emmanuel L. Cordova, as a background setting to plentiful butakas (traditional, long-armed plantation chairs). The petite escritoryo or traditional writing desk (right) is paired with an unusual seagrass-upholstered armchair designed in Cebu and a wastebin woven of nito vine by the neighboring Mangyan tribes of Mindoro. On either side, folding panels of wood-and-capiz can be drawn across to provide privacy for the ad joining bedrooms, two of which have heirloom bedsteads: one is an exquisite art-deco "rose" bedstead carved by the sculptor Tampinco in the 1920s; the other (above right) a wide kamagmtg four-poster of American-Shaker style. A third bedroom (far right) in quiet blue-and white faux-Japanese style has Philippine abaca wallpaper and shades.
Escaño House
tropical rustic
Designer Budji Layug declares that this clay-colored house with dark slate-tiled roof is in "Asian-tropicale style—always tropicale with an 'e'!" and it certainly fuses many elements. His brief was to take the half-finished house-structure and reorient and redesign the architecture and layout. Firstly he either removed walls or pierced picture-windows into them, generally decompartmentalizing the spaces to let in the light. Then he covered all interior surfaces in smooth, matte-clay tones—to give a feeling of modernity. And lastly, he added the garden: using roughly hewn railway ties and old Cambodian carvings, plus a rustic-Japanese style gate The result is an all-Asian composition.
The main house approach is clean and modern. Enter the wide door on its asymmetrical pivot, and you are greeted by a reproduction of an Ifugao pukok granary, now a reception table. Inside, the space soars to the two-story ceiling, giving the scale and proportion of a much larger house, complete with large glass picture windows high above eye level. A few steps further, and you start to focus on the furnishings and artworks: the sala centerpiece is a giant painting by Ben Cabrera, a landmark painter of women in dramatic, swirling robes; it is complemented by large sofas and armchairs covered in sica, the inner core of rattan, and touched with ethnic, earthy tropical colors.
Beyond a set of sliding glass doors, is the back lanai covered in sleek modern buff tiles. It connects well with the Japanese-style garden. Here, plants have been carefully chosen to provide a mottled shade, cut glare, and soften the modern textures. There is also a guest wing and the entire house is surrounded by a fence of wood molave railway ties.
The sleek wooden door (above) turns on an asymmetrical pivot, as one enters what feels like a modern Mexico setting on smooth buff riles. Everywhere in the Escaño abode one feels Budji's designer touch on the furnishings. (Opposite, clockwise from top left): The back patio is furnished with contemporary armchairs woven of fine rattan sica and mixed with Filipino rural furniture. The white-pebbled garden at the front makes a modern Japanese statement with with its dark trellised gate and modernist stone bench. In the bedrooms, comfy occasional chairs have subtle Oriental forms and textures; the guestroom carries the modern rustic theme with deep earth-colors
