How an Architect Designed This Home to be a Study of Light

0:01 So we started building this house, including the design phase,

0:05 sometime in 2014.

0:08 I remember meeting with our architect, Denise DeCastro, for the very

0:11 first time.

0:13 And she already had

0:15 these very smart questions regarding how we

0:19 want our house to look like.

0:21 Her very first question I remember was,

0:24 she said, what do you guys do?

0:28 I am Kay Concenco. My husband and I are the homeowners.

0:33 It's very important that the house

0:36 is able to

0:38 function the way that you already function.

0:42 What's your work? What do you do first thing in the morning? How does

0:46 your day go?

0:48 Do you entertain? So our lifestyle, it dictated much of how our house

0:54 was going to look like.

1:18 My favorite part of the house is the pocket garden. It was an idea that

1:22 was from our architect.

1:25 It sits in the middle of our house.

1:33 Our pocket garden

1:35 has a height of ten meters.

1:37 It acts like a divider.

1:42 It is made out of glass from floor up to the roof deck.

1:50 Someone once referred to it as the lungs of the

1:53 house because

1:55 air can flow through it from the side, from the top,

1:59 acting like like lungs.

2:12 My name is Hannu Virtanen and I'm the managing director of Arctic

2:16 Forest Products.

2:23 We have worked on this one, this is about 13

2:29 years ago, roughly,

2:32 and we remember this particular project because Architect Denise was

2:40 challenging us in many aspects, not only

2:45 on the

2:46 design aspects, but on structural aspects as well, especially on

2:52 the stairs, which we

2:54 didn't do earlier.

2:57 We used our laminated timber for the girders and the steps, and we are

3:03 proud to

3:04 notice that they are still in perfect shape today.

3:09 So that was a very special

3:12 demand, actually, from Architect Denise. In that time and it has

3:18 proven to be a very

3:21 sensitive decision from her side, but also proven to be very practical

3:27 and well analysed decision to trust us on that aspect.

3:34 Majority of our timber comes from Finland or at least Northern Europe.

3:40 Even you need to transport it here.

3:43 The timber in Finland grows

3:46 75 to 100 years before its harvest.

3:50 That requires

3:52 that you need to

3:55 plant

3:56 ten

3:58 if you cut

4:00 or harvest one.

4:14 My husband is a photographer, so when

4:17 our architect found out about that,

4:19 she used that as her inspiration of how she would use light

4:24 as a big feature of the house.

4:27 So we started calling the space, the house,

4:31 as some sort of museum of light because light really enters in very

4:36 interesting ways

4:38 in the different spaces of the house at different times of the day.

5:11 Of course, just like anything that you build, there are many challenges

5:15 that arise,

5:16 especially if you have many subcontractors, which was the case for us.

5:21 It has its pros and cons.

5:23 One thing good about having subcontractors apart from your general

5:28 contractor is the subcontractors get to focus on their expertise.

5:33 But, one of the challenges is you have to talk to so many people.

5:39 Sometimes they don't agree with each other.

5:41 But the one that really held everyone together was actually

5:46 our architect.

5:48 She would be the one to get everybody together and, okay,

5:51 let's sit down, let's get this in control,

5:53 let's

5:54 find the best solution.

7:10 I'm Joey Baltazar.

7:12 I'm the general manager of Yamal Creative Concepts Enterprise.

7:18 Architect contacted me to do the customized flooring combined with

7:23 the traditional flooring for that project.

7:26 So that project was quite very smooth during the entirety of the

7:31 execution of that project. I call myself as a wood specialist, basically,

7:36 because we're doing wood floorings.

7:39 I've been working with the architect for quite a long time already.

7:42 But as far as I know, after her graduation in Harvard,

7:46 wherein she graduated as magna cum laude in architecture,

7:51 I think it was the first two years she practiced here in the Philippines.

8:01 I'm architect Bejay Florendo. I'm the design director for DEQA

8:06 Design Collaborative.

8:08 So DEQA Design Collaborative

8:11 is a

8:12 design studio located in Makati and our founder is architect

8:17 Denise de Castro.

8:19 At first, the client really wanted to have a very minimal palette,

8:24 mostly with whites and grays. But architect Denise introduced

8:29 the

8:31 element of wood.

8:38 With the element of wood,

8:40 it creates more warmth and depth so every space gives you a refined

8:46 but inviting ambiance.

8:49 So with this project, we really prioritized the natural lighting.

8:54 So this project becomes a case study for

8:58 the whole theme that we tried to experiment.

9:02 See how natural light works all throughout the day and also how

9:07 artificial lighting supports it.

9:18 Walls, ceilings were adjusted based on how we want the space to be

9:24 used and how we want the space to receive natural light and at the

9:28 same time how artificial lighting complements

9:31 these spaces.

9:35 Architect Denise's design process is deeply curious.

9:39 We often ask questions that leads us to a better understanding of our

9:45 client's profile.

9:47 With these detailed questionnaires or interviews with our clients,

9:52 this translates to a more

9:55 personalized design strategy.

9:57 That's why we

9:58 are quite confident that all of our projects are quite unique because of

10:03 this process of hers.

10:29 I think this home was able to

10:32 accommodate the changes that were about to happen that we didn't

10:36 know were coming.

11:39 Design does not need to be perfect,

11:41 but

11:42 it has to be empathetic. It has to understand

11:47 the people that will inhabit the space.

11:52 And somehow, at some point,

12:01 It has to be able to anticipate that

12:07 life will change.

12:23 And if design has done that for you,

12:26 it has done enough.