Filipina Architect Magazine

Filipina Architect of the Month: Mary Catherine Diaz

For Filipina architects like Cat Diaz, the cities must learn from the barrios, and not the other way around. 

It’s a controversial statement, coming from someone who teaches several courses of architecture in schools like the University of Mindanao. How indeed do you question centuries and centuries of architectural history, when it works and has proven to be so effective? 

But when you come to think of it, she might be on to something. 

The advocacy is called the Barriotecture Movement, which is essentially what it sounds like: a movement for the mainstreaming of rural elements in more modern or urban everyday architecture.

“Growing up and living in the rural, as well as traveling to various rural areas made me realize a lot of things that greatly influence me not just personally but professionally,” Diaz said.  

The Barriotecture Movement evolved from “The Architect for the Barrio” idea Diaz had in 2016. This would eventually become a passion project, and by 2019, Cath found herself doing talks about the advocacy. 

The concept, of course, was inspired by a medical counterpart: Doctors to the Barrio, which is still an ongoing, albeit undervalued, project to reach out to geographically disadvantaged areas (or GDAs in government parlance). 

But it wasn’t always this way, Diaz’s point of view about her practice. 

“In the past, I thought rural people should learn more about architecture,” Diaz said. 

But she would soon have a change of heart, between late 2019 and early 2020. 

“I realized that there are actually many practices and ingenuities in the rural areas that manifests through their building which we could also appreciate and learn from.”

Ironically, the architectural industry she grew up with saw the countryside as a place of conquest, with urban living eventually encroaching into empty, untapped spaces.

In Barriotecture, it’s the city people who learn from rural folk. The city is full of rusty metal and dull concrete, while the houses of the barrios breathe and adjust. Materials are based on nearby resources. There is an actual interaction among residents. Stress levels are pretty low, and everyone gets some rest (after a long day’s work). These are merely the first steps to a simple yet unbelievably complex school of thought. 

For example, it’s hot in the city, and most modern buildings think airconditions are requirements. 

Barriotecture believes that people in the provinces should appreciate their own wealth of knowledge. 

“All of these ideas would only just remain inside my mind if not for the support of my friends and partners in SWITO  who encourage me to pursue and bring this advocacy outside and in the online platform.”

To Diaz, as long as people in the barrios believe they are inferior, progress will be slow in the larger ecosystem of Philippine architecture. 

“We have to change that,” she said. 

“Cities and their people are perceived to be developed, modern, smart, sophisticated, more fashionable while the rural areas and their people are said to be backward, unsophisticated, ignorant, awkward or “baduy” and poor. These negative connotations sadly also extend to architecture in the rural areas or in the barrios,” she said.

Even materials have their hierarchy. 

For example,  the use of concrete, metal and glass are hailed while the use of native materials like bamboos, nipa or “amakan” are considered unsophisticated and just for the houses of the poor.  

“What most people don’t realize is that using these local materials in building houses is quite smart, sustainable and sophisticated in its own way,” she said.

“I believe that by having this movement that promoting the beauty and ingenuity of rural architecture and construction will help people become more open-minded and appreciative not just of the rural built environment but also the rural culture and the rural people. Somehow, I hope this would help end discrimination against anything that is rural and break the double standards between the urban and rural places.” 

You’ve experienced this yourself. You step into a home, and you are promptly welcomed. You’re offered something to drink, or in the best of days, eat. You refuse and say it’s okay, and the convincing takes a little Asian volley back-and-forth of hesitation. When you relent, you are asked to sit down.

And the host apologizes for the house being “too simple,” inato. Roughly translated, too ours. 

“I find it absurd and a little sad for them to feel that way about their homes. I appreciate beautiful buildings whether they are designed by architects or not. Also, I think rural architecture is the most overlooked and underrated part of architecture. I think colonial buildings get highlighted most in the study and advocacy of Philippine architecture,” she said.

“I guess many city people would just immediately imagine rural areas to have mainly vernacular architecture like bahay kubo and other agricultural structures. When you come from the provinces, you know that it’s not totally true.  That is something that I want to explore more for myself and other people, too, to study and have another perception about the rural built environment in the Philippines.

What’s next for Arch. Diaz?

“I want to be able to write a book, conduct some talks and be able to promote Philippine rural architecture to the public,” she said. We hope she gets right on it. F.A.

Contact Ar. Mary Catherine Diaz at Swito Designs Architects and check out her blog on Barriotecture.