TAO architects with residents of Manicani Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar after undergoing a participatory design workshop for the development of a barangay evacuation center.
If it’s any indication, beneficiaries of TAO Pilipinas projects are pleasantly surprised after finding out that women make up most of the shelter-oriented non-government organization. That in itself is its own bane and boon. It’s good because it inspires; it’s bad, since there’s still the preconception that most architects are men.
But Arch. Geraldine Matabang sees this more as a challenge than a difficulty. It’s a tower easily toppled, and essentially, the work of the ladies at TAO Pilipinas speaks for itself.
Arch. Matabang is a licensed architect and environmental planner, her profile describes. This barely covers all the work that the organization has done to help uplift thousands of Filipinos whose only dream is to reap the benefits of proper architecture.
“We are a non-government organization of professionals providing technical assistance to poor communities with shelter-related needs. TAO’s core service is planning and design related, so most of us are design professionals – architects, engineers, planners,” she said.
The rationale is for a group of architects and designers to approach informal settler organizations who cannot afford the services of architects and engineers.
The organization has been women-led since its founding in 2001.
TAO-Pilipinas started with two architects, Arlene Lusterio and Faith Varona, working with informal communities with eviction threats because of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program.
They helped communities come up with alternative development plans or “people’s plans” to negotiate for secure tenure and decent housing. TAO has since grown and expanded its reach outside Metro Manila, working with community partners toward security of tenure, access financing for social housing, and building disaster-resilient communities. With multiple extreme weather-induced disasters our country has gone through in the last 15 years, TAO has also worked on many post-disaster shelter assistance projects.
The founders of TAO, along with many of its former and current staff, are graduates of the University of the Philippines and had initial exposure to working with the poor through the student organization UP Task Force Arki. They have been mentored by the likes of architects Geronimo V. Manahan and Fr. Jorge Anzorena who supported their pursuit of socially responsive architecture careers. Housing for the poor came as a natural response since shelter is a major determinant of quality of life – health, education, employment, etc.
“We want to see people living in safe sites, in communities where all are considered and treated fairly, where they have opportunities to improve and to make decisions, where the environment is cared for, and where there is equitable access and just distribution of resources,” Arch. Matabang said.
To accomplish this, the communities are usually hands-on, from conceptualization to planning and building. And since architecture takes into account the context of location, the residents also learn about stuff like hazards in their areas as well as stuff that’s not necessarily just about their houses. They learn about things like quality of life, housing innovations, even land tenure.
In two decades of work, the group has done so much, but there is still a lot to be done. The challenge is still there, especially for Filipina architects.
“From a gender perspective, we know that architecture is traditionally male-dominated and Filipinas continue to be underrepresented as architects, more so in the building industry. When I was studying architecture at UP, this was not apparent since there was gender balance in the number of students and in the faculty. Clearly, women have the creative talent, visuospatial ability or skills to become architects. But coming into the professional field, you can see that it is mostly men in the leadership tables, so where have the women gone? Is it an issue of work-life balance, are they not thriving in careers in architecture, or are simply kept in the background? To break the status quo, I think there’s a need to look at how gender plays into this situation and find ways to address the disparity,” Arch. Matabang said.
“Not to say that there are no leading Filipina architects. There are some, especially those who chose who strike out on their own. I mean TAO-Pilipinas IS an organization that is women-led, after all. Ever since TAO started, we did not play to the fact that we were women – I’d like to think we are actually good at what we do to last two decades at this.”
In each area, TAO Pilipinas introduces itself to communities as a women-led organization and inspires quite a few people. Among these are mothers whose daughters they inspire, too.
It is through the TAO architects that these daughters can dream of becoming themselves Filipina Architects someday.
TAO-Pilipinas team, both current and former staff members, with architect-mentor Fr. Jorge Anzorena, SJ.