| < Go
back to homepage |
| In
Focus |
 |
|
ILDEFONSO P. SANTOS JR.:
Portrait of the National Artist
as a Landscape Architect
By Nappy Navarra
That I.P. Santos is a visionary has long been known
by the peers he has awed and the students he has inspired.
Widely known as the “Father of Philippine Landscape
Architecture,” Ildefonso P. Santos Jr. is credited
to have been the brains, and oftentimes the brawn, behind
the establishment and flowering of the profession on
our shores. Early on, his passion for placemaking has
been inextricably intertwined with his tireless struggle
to bring recognition to the placemakers themselves, in
a milieu deeply uninformed and often critical of “those
glorified gardeners.” In June of this year, I.P.
Santos was named a National Artist for Architecture and
the Allied Arts, an award that recognizes not only one’s
prowess in the art of turning spaces into places, but
more so, how one uses that prowess to serve the greater
good.
I.P., as he is fondly called, started it all in 1963,
when he and a handful of other Filipino landscape architects
trooped back from the United States, where they trained,
to serve the needs of their countrymen. From organizing
a small group of pioneers into a united body of professionals,
establishing the first landscape architecture program
to educate the next generations of Filipino landscape
architects right in their own country, and appealing
to the authorities to recognize the legitimacy of landscape
architecture as a profession in its own right, I.P. was
there leading those who shared his mission as only a
true father can.
Fast forward to 2006, forty-three years past, and landscape
architecture in the Philippines has not only emerged
as a robust profession, but one with prospects that are
brighter than ever. Filipino landscape architects are
now populating noted practices in Southeast Asia, in
emerging giant China, and in the far-off Middle East.
In the home front, the very fact that I.P., a landscape
architect, is now a National Artist speaks volumes about
the ground gained by the profession and its prime movers
in their continuing bid to elicit popular acceptance
and legitimacy for landscape architecture. Tracing the
root of these achievements leads us back to I.P. himself;
these are, in large part, his enduring legacies.
Yet another one of his legacies is that he has broadened
the rationale of landscape design as it is practiced
in the country, smashing the common misconception that
landscape design exists to “prettify” and
nothing more. As a designer and an educator himself,
I.P. preaches and practices an approach to design that
emphasizes not only aesthetic expression but the articulation
of function as well. His fluid lines and expression of
movement go hand in hand with attending to the needs
of the end users, resulting in spaces that serve as places
of genuine interaction, as the culmination of highlighting
the spirit of the place and the person.
All in all, the history of Philippine landscape architecture
parallels the struggles and achievements of I.P. Santos.
Already an institution in the local designing community,
he is that rare person whose singular vision has the
power to transform his present milieu and shape the landscape
of the future.
|
|
| |
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
