Last Saturday, January 26, I attended the second installment of the ABC of Urban Planning Workshop organized by MLC (Movement for Livable Cebu). Architects Joseph Michael Espina and Omar Maxwell Espina were the speakers.
Archt. Joseph Espina talked about the the three spheres of influence in urban areas and the rise of civil society. Most of his talk, however, was devoted to the development of urban planning in general and in Cebu. It is the same subject matter he wrote for this latest issue of Lantawan except for the part when he stressed about the Marcos era as the golden age of planning in the Philippines. I grew up with Ferdinand Marcos as the president and I was witness to this fact. The Marcoses tried to gather all the best minds in arts and architecture in the Philippines and gave them the projects that mattered. Planning was also so centralized and orderly. Sir "Yumi" went on to say that after the Marcoses left the Filipinos somehow "overreacted." The fear for the repeat of an authoritarian rule and the new found sense of freedom definitely played a big role in the devolution of planning functions to the local government. Unfortunately the local government are not that equipped to make plans. This set up even affected the coordination with national agencies. I remember a news report of former president Arroyo telling the head of the department of public works that he does not know how to plan. It was simply because all their programs were not aligned and coordinated with her office.
I do not think we can achieve the same set up that happened in that "golden age" of planning. The Filipinos have slowly embraced the autonomy of the local governments. I think that it is important to assist the local government instead. This becomes the role of civil societies. Through them the community becomes involved in planning. The private sector should also step in. I think the only time that we can make a sensible urban plan is when these three "spheres": the public, the private, and the community, work together.
During the open forum I learned that the best way to get our local government to act on something we observed is to write a letter. Archt. Joy Onozawa told us that the government works like a corporation, nothing gets acted on unless it is written. Ms. Edna Lee also gave a very good tip: if, after a required number of days to act on community concerns, the local government still did not do anything, we should write a follow up letter and copy furnish the office of the Ombudsman.
Archt. Maswell Espina talked about the theories of urban planning. Since I teach theory of architecture, I was familiar with the content of his talk. What I found most interesting is his statement that gentrification failed because it caused the loss of "soul" of the area being developed. I am trying to "specialize" in urban renewal because I see it as a current need in the Philippines, and among the solutions I found that should be made to work is gentrification. I made a mental note to study how gentrification can be used without causing the developed area to lose its soul.
A workshop followed and I found myself mixed with some first year landscape students from USC, a lady who already lives in the United States, a lady who used to teach in USC, and a colleague in USC-CAFA. Sir Maxwell was our moderator. We discussed a lot of things but what I found more interesting is the topic sir Maxwell first brought up: landmarks. We all agreed that despite the historic landmarks in Cebu there are areas which are a "blur" when it comes to wayfinding. Our streets are simply too complicated for a naming system like New York. The lady from the US suggested using "themes". This worked in their locality. The suggestion was followed up by ideas of putting artworks or art installations as landmarks. I remember how sir Maxwell explained to us why the CAFA building has splashes of color on some walls, he said that it is supposed to help in wayfinding. If you're giving directions and you're not familiar with any of the rooms, you can just mention the color of the wall nearest to it.
The announcements at the end of the workshop were also very interesting. I was impressed on how the youth organized a parallel program to MLC. I was happy to see faces of the the names I often read about in the facebook group. Also, I could not end this blog without mentioning that the cupcakes from Anitas were really delicious. I managed to eat two. I would have wanted to eat more but the students beat me to it. Haha!
I listed many things to do as a result of that workshop.
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