We are back with another feature of Outwiths Faces of Innovative STEM Youths! This time, we had the incredible opportunity to talk to Filipino architecture students who won an interschool design competition, which challenged them to propose solutions and scale models to tackle the design problems of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

With the theme, “Intermodal Transportation: Revolutionizing Metro Manila's Commuting Facilities,” Team Powerhouse dominated the 2020 Projéto Ideas and Design Competition of Wordlbex, the Philippines' largest building and construction expo.

Their winning proposal, The Node, aims to be a focal point for pedestrian and vehicular circulation at Ermita, Manila and strives to offer efficiency and access to modes of transport. Further, The Node provides common spaces to foster community development by enhancing the site’s existing cultural context by utilising modern transportation technologies to alleviate commuters’ daily stress.

 

 

Without further ado, let’s get to know Team Powerhouse composed of architecture students from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde—Gabriel Espiritu, Sebastian Francisco, Alfonso Datuin, Jerome Jacildo, and Kiara Abcede—and mentored by Architect Ronald John Dalmacio. Keep reading to learn about how they emerged as the grand champion of the competition!

 

How was your team formed?

Alfonso: We were formed by our great mentor, Sir RJ. Most know him as Sir Ron Dalmacio. It was back in ARCDES 5, our fifth design subject, that we got to do this together as a group as we took over this competition in line with the curriculum. It was sort of like hitting two birds with one stone. So, that’s how we ended up as a group, and we teamed up to face this challenge, and after almost two years, here we are.

 

You said your professor was involved in selecting the team members, but how about you guys as peers? Did you see each other complementing strengths and weaknesses, or did you have an idea for this common project and you thought of getting together? Please elaborate.

Gabriel: We were formed by Architect Dalmacio, our previous architectural design prof. He informed us that there is an upcoming competition titled Projéto by Worldbex. It was a very sudden and spontaneous moment for our team as we were informed five days before the registration for the competition. Our group is very familiar with each other’s design process and how we tackle each design problem in our previous design classes. So, on that day, we chose each other based on our strengths and how we wanted to tackle the broad Projéto competition entirely.

 

Impressive! In just five days of informing you guys about the competition, you’re able to win it! So, what inspired you to join this competition despite the short notice?

Sebastian: Well, one of the things about competitions, especially when it comes to going outside the scope of learning within our school’s curriculum, we’re able to be exposed to more design and architectural problems that we could later on encounter in the future. We’re also able to exercise our design practice and how certain technologies or advancements today could be applied. In addition, this could also help out in our portfolio, give us more experience when it comes to competing against other schools or those in similar professions.

 

You’ve mentioned portfolio; how important is this [portfolio] in your career advancement? How do you showcase this to your future employers or business opportunities?

Alfonso: I think we could use this by indicating it in our CVs and our portfolios. Also, I think more than that, it’s what we can see, so it’s more on the experience that we had as a team, and perhaps the experience on how we fared compared to different schools. I think that was very important, and in the future, when we are to be asked as students and as aspiring architects, then maybe you could say that somehow we’ve gotten a bit of how the real world is. So, being exposed to these things could be of great influence to our future portfolios.

Gabriel: As part of the academe, there is a rare opportunity for us to solve one of the crucial problems in the metro, which is traffic and congestion. So, joining [the] Worldbex [competition], it’s a great opportunity aside from the CV alone, and we can showcase our intent to solve that problem.

 

How about the biggest challenges you encountered as a team or maybe as an individual? What are those challenges, and how did you overcome them?

Gabriel: For me, in regards to the competition, it was time pressure. The competition demanded a lot of files be passed.

Sebastian: If I may add to that, the thing about the Projéto competition was that this was supposed to take place pre-pandemic. So, it was moved back multiple times, and within that time during the pandemic, there were a number of times where we had to meet up, we had to talk, we had to communicate with one another. Because of the pandemic, there was this barrier between us—there were limitations to what we could do and how we could do them together, whether online or something physical. 

Alfonso: Also, I think what was most challenging for us was really logistically, like what Sebastian and Gab are saying, but when in terms of how we tackled the design problem and how he worked as a team, I don’t think we had any problems with that as we really covered each other’s weaknesses if there were any and of course, we capitalised on each other’s strengths. I think it was very advantageous for us, and eventually, it did show throughout the competition span.

 

How did you feel on the day of the competition? Tell us about the experience.

Kiara: On the day of the competition, it was held online. We did most of the preparations, like the video recordings before the actual competition day, since it was streamed online. So, we were able to prepare beforehand most of the things that we needed, and on the day of the competition, we were just more focused on what the results would be, and we were kind of nervous, but we were really hoping for the best, and luckily we got what we wanted.

Jerome: It was very good, and we had a lot of research. So, we were confident with what we had, and I think that made us more sure of our design. 

 

Project planning stage of The Node

 

Team Powerhouse presenting their design to invited students from a different university 
 

Can you tell us more about the competition or the competitors you had? How does “The Node” differ from other proposals?

Alfonso: I just want to share that we actually went over that situation numerous times throughout the competition. We were very worried. Well, I’d always tell them that other schools were doing so well. I think I may be wrong, but from how I understood it when we entered the competition, we were the youngest, we were third year college [students] at that time, and others were fourth year, even fifth year, some were even fresh grads. So, we were kind of the “babies” in the competition. We could say we were somehow intimidated, especially since some of them [the competitors] were actually working for this certain workshop that sponsored Wolrdbex Projéto. Sebastian and Gab were actually interns of that workshop, and they were aware that their co-interns were also part of the competition, and they knew the skills that they had, so that added to how we felt entering this competition. The competitors’ works and videos and the walkthroughs they created were really nice, and we were in disbelief at how everything turned out for them. We were doubting ourselves already, like would we even place even third at least? Maybe second? We were even not considering being first, to be frank, maybe some of us did, but in my end, we had no intentions or clue on whether we’d end up first or even second. In fact, before the results came out, we discussed that maybe being third is already the highest rank we could get. That shows how well the other schools did and how everyone put out their best in this competition.

 

We would like to commend the team for humility and producing an excellent project. So, what was the most valuable lesson you learned about going through the competition? 

Gabriel: The most valuable thing for me, and I also think for the group, is how we transitioned our design into various states. It shows our growth and development, which are very important in designing proposals. It’s also important in other instances where changes in our design are required to somehow produce a better outcome in terms of the urban transport system we procured.

 

How do you think earning the title of champion impacts you as architecture students?

Sebastian: I would say this project sort of gave us this boost in terms of confidence, in terms of insight in pursuing an architectural career. Personally, when we won the competition, it made me fall in love with what I was doing a little bit more, especially as the majority of us are taking our thesis now. We got the announcement of our win in the midst of our thesis. It gave us this sort of winning mindset, especially as we were working on our thesis, and it made us think of how a lot more of what may come about in our architectural career may seem more doable and achievable.

Alfonso: More than our individual agendas, of course, we want to excel as architecture students and as classmates; it does more on promoting the brand of the school as having a very young architecture program. It’s very young, yes, but we also wanted to promote it as fast as we could to other schools and even nationwide, perhaps to, of course, invite more students to believe in the architecture program of Benilde. So, these competitions give us that opportunity to be known to other schools and perhaps to the government or the public in general. With this, winning as a team in the Projéto competition uplifts the school’s morale, of course, and it shows that this young architecture program is capable of placing in these sorts of competitions. It was very fulfilling for us as a team and as students, as we are under the Benilde architecture program.

 

How about moving forward to more opportunities or global recognition? What do you think will be helpful for you guys to attain that?

Alfonso: I think this is very mind-opening to those who don’t know about architecture. To have this character and brand in the architecture field alone gives us that edge. With this competition, we want people to know that students are capable of coming up with solutions like this, but in my opinion, there’s more to be fixed here in the country. So, the long-term or the long-shot goal is just to be known in the country that students are capable of these sorts of ideas and concepts. It’s more of the intent or rather the capability of coming up with these ideas. Hence, the country needs to invest in students and give more trust and belief to those who are, of course, in the fields of creating such structures like engineering, architecture, etc. In that aspect, I think this recognition would be very fulfilling for us if we were to be known nationwide.

Gabriel: What we can do regarding our project, The Node, nowadays we can lessen the political aspect of the design. We should somehow lessen the political agenda and focus more on the perspective of the academe, where projects like this heighten the mindset of young designers and professionals.

Kiara: We’re also able to apply the edge assessment, wherein we were conscious about our project sustainability, and I think that would be a really good aspect that could be shared globally, not just within our country but also in different countries where sustainability would be an important part of all projects and all designs.

 

Team Powerhouse:  Alfonso Datuin, Gabriel Espiritu, Kiara Abcede, Jerome Jacildo, and Sebastian Francisco  (from left to right)

 

Going green and sustainability are also friendly directions for business, design, architecture, science, so that’s a good addition. To conclude, what would be your advice to other stem talents or design students who are going through competitions or aspiring to win competitions like you guys?

Kiara: I was very grateful to be in a really good team and with a really good prof and a lot of guidance, and to future students who would join this competition, I think absorbing a lot of information, working well with your teammates, and also tackling all the things that are needed with each member would be the most beneficial and would benefit the project all in all.

Jerome: I think what has helped us the most to become successful with this project is, of course, the whole team and other mentors. A big motivation for us within this project is its great opportunity to learn how to design something, especially with this kind of structure that has a big impact on society and the environment. So, I think that having a lot of research and considering everything that will be in the design is very important.

Gabriel: Generally, I think one should be open to review, to be flexible in terms of the design process, and it would be very helpful to identify the problem first and how one should tackle the problem in the entire design process. After identifying the problem, one should have a clear perspective on the goal of producing design iterations. After finalising the interventions, you should be open to criticisms and opinions of others in order to have space for growth in the field.

Sebastian: The best advice I could give not only when it comes to competitions like this but also in pursuing a career in STEM would be to love what you do or to do what you love. Because once you do that, everything else will just follow. If not, try to see the importance of what you’re doing, try to see its value, try to be passionate about it. That way, there’ll be that motivation to really pursue what you do, and then everything else will be easier if you’re just driven enough to want to go for it.

Alfonso: I think it’s more than just taking on these challenges that would merit and later on, like in our experience we had joined competitions individually in the past and we, of course, did not win in those competitions but in joining those we’ve learned what to do and what not to do, and it benefited us in our growth. Hence, when we joined other competitions, Projéto being one of them, we did find some lessons that helped us. So, those kinds of opportunities, regardless [of whether] you will win or not, will be very beneficial in your career, in a bigger aspect. Also, I think the fact that you’re willing to do something and to commit to a certain design problem or a challenge, in general, is a win, to begin with. It doesn’t have to be an architectural problem; it doesn’t have to be a grand idea. As long as you commit to it, you put your 100 percent into it, and you really want to do. To sum it up, you shouldn’t be scared about facing these kinds of things. Other people, even outside of the architecture program, were telling us, “Wow, I could never do that,” “I could never think of such things,” but really, these are simple problems that require simple solutions. So, it may look grand in the bigger picture, but if you try to analyse it, it’s actually very simple. We’re still the students, and anyone else could think of these sorts of projects with the right preparation, focus, and commitment.

 

There you have it! These spectacular students just shared with you their secret to being champions. Team Powerhouse is indeed a team of great strength, dedication, and combined action, and they show that students do play a role in improving society.

Young people like Gabriel, Sebastian, Alfonso, Jerome, and Kiara, with their energy and fresh perspectives, can genuinely help how to effectively address challenges and opportunities in society, with the proper involvement and support.

Will we see you in future competitions and be counting on you for our next feature? Send an email to hello@outwiths.com if you have a project to showcase. Outwiths will be your platform!

 

Disclaimer: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

 

Created on: 12 January 2022

architecture portfolio transportation