The UAP Museum

By Dean Lorelei B. De Viana, PhD, UAP Executive Director, UAP Center for Filipino Architecture

The creation of the UAP Museum was one of the major activities to celebrate the 100 Years of the Architecture Profession in the Philippines. The brainchild of NEVP Richard Garcia, FUAP and spearheaded by the UAP Center for Filipino Architecture (CFA), the UAP Museum was inaugurated on December 9, 2021 during Architecture Week Celebration.

Located at the second floor of the UAP Headquarters, the UAP Museum opened with an exhibit Architecture of Statecraft: Imaging Filipino Architecture in the Early 20th Century. The exhibit curator, Architect Gerard Lico, PhD, Deputy Director and Publications Chair of the UAP CFA, presents archival plans, drawings, and photographs from the DPWH and his personal collection, in a tapestry of images that depict the role of the State in the shaping of public buildings in the Philippines in the years before the Second World War.

The exhibit critiques architecture as a form of statecraft where foreign styles such as the Neoclassical and Art Deco find their way in buildings designed by the architects of the Bureau of Public Works. While foreign styles have been used as a general template for civic buildings, the nationalist sentiment of Filipino architects have resulted in Filipino architects like Juan Arellano pursuing architectural design with their vernacular takes on public buildings.

UAP National President Armando Eugene de Guzman III led the ribbon-cutting ceremony together with Architects Josefina Bautista and Carmelo Casas of PIA, and Architect Ellison de Guzman of the DPWH Bureau of Buildings.

The UAP is grateful for the support extended by the different UAP Chapters namely, Makati, Diliman, Manila Metro, Manila Maynilad, and Manila Centrum; Arc Lico International; University of the East architecture students; and the DPWH in helping realize the opening of the UAP Museum.

The UAP launched Dr. Gerard Lico’s new book “Arkitekturang Pilipino: A History of Architecture and the Built Environment in the Philippines” during the UAP Area B Assembly held on February 19, 2022 at the Villa Escudero, Tiaong, Quezon. The book launch was the culminating activity of the celebration of the 100 Years of the Architecture Profession in the Philippines which was organized by the UAP Center for Filipino Architecture. The event included a video-documentary by the author on the making of the book with explanation of the development of Philippine architecture through a historical survey and critical analysis of prominent buildings and their architectural styles and contexts.

The book traces the history of Philippine architecture from its primeval roots to its contemporary manifestations. The work is a product of Gerard Lico’s two-decade career