MANDANI BAY EMERGES

FROM THE DEPTHS

Green township project Mandani Bay has transcended its standing start to emerge from reclaimed land on the Cebu shoreline onto the national stage

BY AL GERARD DE LA CRUZ

THE MANDANI BAY SUITES DESIGN TEAM CONSIDERED VARIOUS PARAMETERS TO FINETUNE THE LOOK AND SIZE OF THE WINDOWS, THE ANGLE OF THE LOUVRES, AND THE BUILDING ORIENTATION ITSELF, ALLOWING OCCUPANTS TO MAXIMISE THE VISTAS

Both high-density port cities with a long colonial past, Cebu and Hong Kong have many commonalities. So, when two of the cities’ biggest developers, Taft Properties and Hongkong Land, linked up for Mandani Bay, a PHP130billion (USD2.4 billion) township venture in the Philippines, it was almost like kismet.

The first phase of the township, Mandani Bay Suites, received last year the Philippine Green Building Council’s (PHILGBC) five-star Building for Ecologically Responsive Design (BERDE) mark, the equivalent of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The twotower project is just the opening salvo of a 21-tower, city-like development within the city of Mandaue, an industrial hub of metropolitan Cebu. Jardine Matheson, Hongkong Land’s parent company, brokered the project with Taft Properties, the real estate arm of the Gaisano retail dynasty in Cebu, as early as 2013. A joint venture, HTLand, was established the following year. “When I came to the site in 2014, it was raw land with containers and trucks,” recalls HTLand project advisor Jeffrey Lun. “The question that came to my mind at that time was, ‘What did the management see that I don’t?’ Most of our projects were right in the middle of a CBD in a capital city: Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila…And we were not even in Cebu City. We were in Mandaue, in the middle of nowhere at that time.

“Of course, I had to trust our management’s vision on this,” he admits.

The 20-hectare disused site has since metamorphosed beyond recognition—a “world-class transformation in Cebu,” according to HTLand project director Gilbert Ang. Mandani Bay has also triggered a chain of seafront developments across Metro Cebu, including the 101-hectare reclamation project Global City of Mandaue. With only a sliver of built-up area between a strait and the island’s mountain range, Metro Cebu has been reclaiming

THE GRAND DRIVEWAY AND COVERED DROP-OFF MARK THE START OF A SELF-CONTAINED, WALKABLE COMMUNITY WITH INTERLINKED BUILDINGS AND A TUNNEL NETWORK FOR CARS, PLUS AMENITIES FOR CYCLISTS AND EV OWNERS

thousands of hectares of land since the 1960s. Plotted on Mandaue’s expansive North Reclamation Area, Mandani Bay has for its muse Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, itself the site of many reclamation works.

Hongkong Land knows the challenges inherent to developing reclaimed areas worldwide. “The biggest concern of reclaimed land is always the soil condition,” says Lun. “We have to consider the design and additional costs in terms of piling work, the substructure, the drainage, and flood levels. Normally, these are not a big deal in other projects, but on reclaimed land, they become a big consideration.”

HTLand assembled an intercontinental team of designers and consultants, from Australian master-planner Crone Architects to New York-based traffic manager Parsons Brinckerhoff, for the township. The structural design team, led by engineers such as Manila’s SY^2 + Associates, conducted soil investigations before foundation works commenced in late 2016. The preconstruction studies were pivotal to designing the substructure system supporting Mandani Bay Suites, the township’s first residential enclave.

“The reclaimed ground where Mandani Bay sits is structurally unstable,” notes Rhys Abon, associate and project manager at Aidea Inc., the architecture firm behind Mandani Bay Suites. “This is why the structural design team recommended using bored piles to reach the most stable soil substrate.”

Ideating the subterranean structures of Mandani Bay initially proved thorny because of its unique tunnel network, which allows cars to move from basement to basement beneath the township. “The construction of the tunnels connecting the basement parking faced the same challenges as the basements themselves: a high water table and unstable soil,” says Abon.

The team found a workaround by enveloping the tunnels and basements with diaphragm walls, protecting belowground structures from water and preventing them from sinking.

Where other township projects would sardine three towers into one hectare, Mandani Bay keeps its density low. Mandani Bay Suites is spread out on an 11,546-square-metre plot, bounded by a 400-metrelong green promenade parallel to F.E. Zuellig Avenue and a 500-metre-long boardwalk by the wharf. To maximise sightlines of the sea, towers are generously spaced from each other, every block observing at least a three-metre setback.

Mandani Bay had been master-planned before the Mandaue government enacted in 2015 its green building ordinance, the first in the country to adopt the BERDE system. The Philippine Green Building Code was implemented in the same year. “As it turned out, Mandani Bay Suites’ design was already compliant with most of the requirements of the Philippine Green Building Code, and the design team only had to make adjustments on a few elements,” says Abon.

WHEN I CAME TO THE SITE IN 2014, IT WAS RAW LAND WITH CONTAINERS AND TRUCKS. THE QUESTION THAT CAME TO MY MIND AT THAT TIME WAS, ‘WHAT DID THE MANAGEMENT SEE THAT I DON’T?’ OF COURSE, I HAD TO TRUST THEIR VISION ON THIS

MANDANI BAY SUITES USES SUSTAINABLE WOOD PRODUCTS WHERE POSSIBLE, SUCH AS COMPOSITE DECKING FOR THE SWIMMING POOL AREAS, IN LIEU OF 100% TIMBER PRODUCTS

Mandani Bay Suites aced, among other BERDE metrics, the use of environmentally conservative materials. The PHP6-billion project procured paints low on volatile organic compounds (VOC) and chose engineered or recycled products like laminated wood and medium-density fibreboards (MDF) over 100% timber.

The development also impressed PHILGBC with its visitor management system, waste management plan, and UV-purified indoor environment. Energyefficient LED lights in the common areas, as well as access to daylight and water efficiency, also helped the project secure good grades.

The landscaping team, led by Coen Design International and SGS Designs, planted indigenous flora that thrives in the salty air and withstands strong winds. American retail planner CallisonRTKL meanwhile designed the decks of the Suites’ two-storey podium blocks as landscaped areas interconnected by footbridges. Bicycle racks and EV parking slots encourage non-fossil-fueled transportation around the township, which lies opposite the international airport across the Mactan Channel. Vistas of the strait, as well as the sun path and prevailing winds, determined the buildings’ form and orientation. “The products are boomerang-shaped towers meant to give their residents the best possible views and streamlined to withstand strong winds coming from the sea,” explains Abon. Each of the two towers has distinctly articulated high and low wings. “This solution has effectively given each wing of the towers its character, making it seem like there are four individual towers,” says Abon.

“The architects played around with the form of the buildings by just dropping a bit of the roof height from one side of the building versus the other one

SLATTED FEATURE WALLS ARE RECURRING MOTIFS THROUGHOUT THE INTERIORS, WARMED BY WOODEN ELEMENTS AND PAINTINGS BY FILIPINO ARTISTS

UPON RECEPTION, RESIDENTS ARE GREETED BY A LOBBY GLOWING WITH COVELIGHTS, ACCENT FIXTURES, AND CONTEMPORARY CHANDELIERS, AMPLIFIED BY COPPER MIRRORS AND COMPLEMENTED BY FURNITURE FROM LOCAL ARTISANS

and by also playing around with the facade design, some with more emphasis on the horizontal elements, others with more emphasis on the vertical elements,” says Lun. “It’s quite clever.” The buildings’ unique articulation made possible a wide gamut of unit types. Standard units range from studios to three-bedroom condominiums, plus penthouses and townhomes. Some types, like the loft apartments, even extend out to private gardens. “The lifestyle of locals was being considered when we designed the unit layouts—how they live, how they cook, how they keep their stuff,” recalls Lun.

Construction of Mandani Bay Suites went full blast in 2017. Manila-based contractor Monocrete Construction hewed to a sustainable building system, steering clear of phenolic boards and using precast panels instead. Five million manhours later—rendered by some 1,500 workers—the 26- and 34-storey towers topped off in late 2018. “When we saw the buildings finally come together, it was quite emotional,” says Lun. HTLand began turning over the 1,226 sold-out units last year, with locals driving an estimated 80% of the demand. Designed by Asuncion Berenguer, Inc., the interiors of Mandani Bay Suites house paintings by Cebuano artist Sio Montera and pieces by local furniture designer Murillo.

Three more residential towers, Mandani Bay Quay, and an office building, One Mandani Bay, will follow the Mandani Bay Suites. They form just the second of eight phases set to complete the township over the next 10 years or so. Sustainable design is expected to remain a constant all that time. HTLand may get succeeding phases assessed for LEED as well as the Singapore Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark, predicts Lun.

“When you do something that is not common, there are always questions. ‘Is it worthwhile to do?’” he says. “Our answer is always, ‘Yes, we are creating a different product.’”

EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE

Like Hong Kong, Cebu is prone to lashings by typhoons. It is also given to seismic activities, the Philippines being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Last year, the Mandani Bay Suites made their stand against the destructive Typhoon Odette. The buildings only sustained superficial damages, thanks in part to their watertight substructure and climate-resilient elevation, perched a metre above the 50- and 100-year flood level. As part of a performance-based design process, HTLand, developer of Mandani Bay Suites, had commissioned a wind tunnel study to see how the structures could accommodate gale-force wind loads. “You don’t want a certain area to have very strong winds and a certain area to have stagnant air,” explains Jeffrey Lun, project advisor of HTLand. The joint venture also conducted exhaustive seismic hazard analyses, determining how parts of the edifices would react to ground movement. “The engineers put in like a hundred, 200 scenarios,” says Lun. “The earthquake may not just move sideways, up and down—it can move in any direction.”

WHEN REALISED OVER THE NEXT DECADE, THE MASTERPLAN OF MANDANI BAY WILL HAVE ROLLED OUT IN EIGHT PHASES ACROSS 21 TOWERS, TRANSFORMING THE SKYLINE OF THE CITY OF MANDAUE

ADVERTORIAL

Everything that Matters

A Filipino developer builds a strategically located address in the Philippine capital’s EDSAMandaluyong area, providing residents with unparalleled connectivity and access to health and convenience

A robust economic rebound is expected of the Philippines as it transitions to the new normal. This was made evident by the country’s GDP growth of 8.3% in Q1 2022.

However, a return to normalcy may also mean more traffic congestion on the streets of Metro Manila. Members of the workforce end up spending more time on the road and have less time to do things that they love.

Making an investment in a centrally located residential property can address the inconveniences that accompany the great return to work in the Philippines. SM Development Corporation (SMDC), the largest and fastest-growing real estate developer in the country, makes it possible for more Filipinos to own such a prime address in the heart of Metro Manila.

SMDC’s Light 2 Residences has been imagined as a beacon of modern urban living in the bustling EDSAMandaluyong area of the metropolis. Residents are just within walking distance of transport hubs and a vibrant selection of shopping, dining, and recreational destinations built into their immediate surrounds.

Unbeatable location

SMDC’s Light 2 Residences is part of a master-planned development that boasts a direct connection to the EDSABoni MRT-3 station. It also stands close to one of the stations along the upcoming Mega Manila Subway. From the site, residents can easily gain access to Quezon City, Parañaque City, and all points in between, plus a convenient link to domestic and international airports. In short, residents need not hop in a car to get from point A to B.

Retail convenience is only an elevator ride away from the residences—a shopping centre, The Light Mall, is integrated into the development. Residents can easily fit a trip to the grocery, a visit to the bank, a haircut appointment, and even a night in the cinema into their schedule.

SMDC’s Light 2 Residences is an ideal address for those who work in Metro Manila’s major business centres. The development is just an MRT ride away from the Ortigas Central Business District and the Makati CBD and only a short drive from Bonifacio Global City and Rockwell Makati. Such proximity to the metropolis’ financial and

ADVERTORIAL

commercial hubs translates to reduced travel time and increased savings in fuel—a welcome perk in a time of rising prices.

Access to a healthy lifestyle

In a post-pandemic Philippines, homebuyers are highly likely to consider features related to health and fitness as top of their priorities. Ever responsive to the needs of Filipinos, SMDC has geared its recent developments towards addressing these new considerations.

SMDC’s Light 2 Residences is one of these developments, with a remarkable curation of amenities for those who desire to be in the pink of health. These include an indoor gym and fitness studio, an outdoor gym and yoga deck, and table tennis courts. Lounge and lap pools are also available, ideal for harried residents who want to relax after a hard day’s work.

The pièce de résistance is the community’s Private Urban Park. The exclusive landscaped area covers almost a hectare in size and includes lush gardens that families can enjoy, as well as jogging and running paths where residents can instantly decompress from the stress of everyday living.

Life with luxury

The architecture and interior design of SMDC’s Light 2 Residences exude luxury. The grand lobbies are decked with regal touches of marble, reflective materials, and light wood finishes as well as bespoke lighting fixtures and furniture.

The residential units are well appointed. Property seekers have a range of unit configurations to choose from, including studios, one-bedroom units, and two-bedroom units with balconies, as well as the option to combine units.

SMDC offers affordable payment options for Light 2 Residences; prospective buyers need not break the bank to own such a coveted address. Investors are also secure in the knowledge that the property is professionally managed by Greenmist Property Management Corporation, making sure that the upkeep remains impeccable and the value of the real estate investment remains lucrative for years to come. Also, all homeowners get peace of mind with 24/7 security at the residences.

Built around the idea of living a good life, such an affordable, centrally located address is a testament to SMDC’s commitment to developing homes that Filipinos deserve.

For more information on SMDC’s Light 2 Residences and other SMDC properties, visit https://smdc.com

In the green corner

Ommid Saberi works to reduce the impact of buildings on climate change, with a focus on developing countries

BY BILL CHARLES

THROUGH HIS WORK FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION, OMMID SABERI HAS HELPED FACILITATE GREEN CERTIFICATION FOR BUILDINGS LIKE THIS OFFICE DEVELOPMENT IN METRO MANILA

Working on different building types across the globe in both the public and private sectors has helped me to appreciate the challenges and opportunities to reach a zero-carbon future

Green means go for Ommid Saberi in his role as a senior industry specialist with the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group.

A trained architect with a PhD in energy efficiency in buildings, Saberi is the global technical lead for IFC’s EDGE Green Buildings Program and the global lead for IFC’s Building Resilience Index Program. He has done extensive work in the property sector, as well as with funds and commercial banks to divert investments to “climatesmart” and resilient projects.

Through his work, he has been involved in affordable housing finance in Mexico, green home finance in India, green warehouses in Kenya, green data centres in Africa, and a zero-carbon airport and office buildings in Latin America.

Before joining IFC, Saberi advised on sustainability strategies for development projects in the UK, Middle East and Asia, including the development of green building codes in multiple countries. He has also been a member of regional government advisory panels as an expert in low-energy designs and a technical director for energy conservation at the city level.

SABERI HELPS THE BUILDING SECTOR MITIGATE AGAINST CLIMATE HAZARDS, WHICH ARE BECOMING MORE SEVERE AND FREQUENT IN ASIA

“In my work, I have been engaged in developing building regulations as well as software applications for construction sector professionals,” Saberi says. “Working on different building types across the globe in both the public and private sectors has helped me to appreciate the challenges and opportunities to reach a zero-carbon future.” How does IFC’s work on green and resilient buildings help lift people out of extreme poverty?

At IFC, we recognise the role of the private sector as a critical engine for growth in emerging markets. By encouraging this growth, IFC supports the World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in emerging markets. We do this through our investment offer, which creates new markets and mobilises other investors, and our advisory offer, which imparts our expertise. Aligned with this work, our focus on the property sector is on key industries such as tourism and retail because of their economic importance in generating revenue and creating jobs. We also focus on affordable housing, which uplifts the lives of people in developing countries. As we come in with our investment, we also ensure that capital goes into more climatesmart projects such as green and resilient buildings.

From IFC’s Green Buildings report, we know that more than half of the world’s population by 2030 will be in East Asia, the Pacific and South Asia, so our work in the region for the property sector is probably the most important globally. It represents a tremendous investment opportunity—for example, around two-thirds of the investment opportunity in green buildings lies in Asia. Why is IFC focusing on green and resilient buildings?

Buildings and the construction sector are responsible for about 37% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, if we also include the embodied carbon. This means buildings are one of the key sectors in the global move toward a low-carbon economy.

Meanwhile, with climate change, climate hazards are becoming more severe and frequent. As a result, buildings are damaged, if not destroyed, which accumulate as increasing economic losses. So the building sector must address both climate change mitigation and adaptation simultaneously. This is where IFC’s EDGE Green Buildings and Building Resilience Index programs come in.

What is the aim of the Building Resilience Index?

The Building Resilience Index aims to “lay the foundations for resilient cities, one building at a time” by providing a resilience assessment framework for the building sector.

We designed the Building Resilience Index to facilitate access to locationspecific hazard information, provide resilience measures to mitigate applicable risks, and improve transparency for disclosing a building’s resilience information between sector stakeholders, leading to a diversion of financing to resilience.

What has been learned so far from the Philippines pilot?

We started piloting the Building Resilience Index program in the Philippines because it is a hotspot for a range of natural hazards, including floods, typhoons, landslides, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes.

IN LIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC, THERE HAS BEEN EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN DEMAND FOR GREEN BUILDINGS, NOT ONLY IN ASIA BUT ACROSS THE WORLD

Amidst its climate vulnerability, however, not a lot of people know that the Philippines is actually a low-emitting country globally. What we see is that the countries that contribute the least to climate change are the ones that are greatly impacted by it. Therefore, climate change adaptation is equally, if not more, important to climate change mitigation for the Philippines’ property sector.

Working with developers, financial institutions, and the public sector, we have discovered a strong appetite for the Building Resilience Index. When we launched the Building Resilience Index, various developers pledged to use the tool on 1.8 million square metres of floor space, including both new construction and retrofit projects. A few commercial banks and city governments also expressed interest in integrating the index into their own processes and frameworks to encourage resilient building design and construction.

What is the state of the EDGE Green Building certification in Asia?

With the pandemic, we saw exponential growth in demand for green buildings, not only in Asia but across the world. EDGE-certified space has reached over 40 million square metres in 72 countries. Asia makes up about one-third of this.

What has contributed to this rapid growth are awarenessraising and advocacy. In Asia, as in the rest of the global south, the key barrier to green building adoption is the widespread notion that green is expensive, complex, and does not deliver value. Real estate players realise more and more that while there is an additional cost, it is not as high as they think, and the operational benefits far outweigh the initial capital expense, with short payback periods of just three years on average.

Through the EDGE app, we also simplify the green building certification process to remove the layer of difficulty and lower the barriers to entry. Asian banks are providing green building construction finance and mortgages such as OCBC for EDGE-certified buildings. Governments perceive that, by providing fiscal or non-fiscal incentives, markets can move faster toward adopting green buildings.

IFC FACILITATES THE MAINSTREAMING OF GREEN BUILDINGS AND CONSTRUCTION IN WAYS RANGING FROM DIGITAL TOOLS TO FINANCIAL PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT THE PROCESS

Despite our success, the green building sector as a whole is still far from where it needs to be if we are to bring down emissions and limit warming to 1.5 °C. We will continue working with developers to increase their awareness of the business case for green and to provide technical assistance on the process.

At the same time, we will also work closely with financial institutions to create finance products to encourage the market, and with the public sector to create an enabling regulatory environment for green buildings to flourish, thanks to our program donors such as the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, the European Union, Australia, and Rockefeller Foundation. How is IFC pushing for greater adoption of green and resilient buildings globally?

IFC facilitates the mainstreaming of green buildings and resilient buildings in four ways. First, we have the EDGE and Building Resilience Index apps, which provide sector actors publicly available tools to design, construct, retrofit and finance green and resilient buildings. They address information asymmetries that construction developers face. And they create a clear and standardised definition for green and resilience among market stakeholders.

Second, we invest through financial institutions or help develop new financial products such as green bonds and green mortgages that support these building activities.

Third, IFC directly invests in projects in the property sector. Lastly, we offer expertise to central or local governments on policy reforms to improve building codes and design incentives for green and resilient buildings. These four approaches generate a successful enabling environment and initiate a systemic transformation toward zero-carbon and resilient cities.