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CAGAYANLifestyle TIMES Weekly de Oro
Volume 3 | No. 12 | Cagayan de Oro City | October 24-30, 2015
Balay Balay Ta!
Interactive 3D Puzzle Exhibit pushes indigenous architecture *Davao-based social enterprise promotes indigenous Filipino architecture through interactive exhibits*
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By Mike Baños, Editor-at-Large
ore Filipinos are getting a first-hand look at indigenous Filipino architecture thanks to a traveling exhibit by a Davaobased social enterprise.
Dubbed BalayBalay Ta! (Let’s Play House), the interactive exhibit just completed the third leg of its Mindanao swing at the C.M. Recto entrance of Centrio Mall where shoppers enjoyed
putting together its three-dimensional architectural puzzles featuring the Meranao Torogan. Balay-Balay Ta was previously exhibited in Davao’s Abreeza Mall, followed by another
stint at Mindanao State University at Marawi City last October 13-17, before the 3-day event Centrio. However, those who missed the Centrio exhibit can still catch it at Xavier University on November 25-December 2 and later at Capitol University’s Museum of Three Cultures on December 7-11, 2015. Open free to the public, the exhibit has also scheduled lectures, okir drawing workshops and speed puzzle building challenges to further spice up the visitors learning experience. A joint undertaking of Davao City-based social enterprise Swito Designs and the National Commision for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the exhibit features five wooden prototypes of the 3D architectural puzzle featuring the Meranao’s ancestral and communal house
Dr. Nagasura Madale of MSU-Marawi lectures on the torogan at Centrio Mall.
known as the torogan. “By putting together the puzzle, people can personally interact with the torogan which is first-person experience that will more likely leave a lasting impression on the assembler than any classroom or more passive means of learning can hope to achieve,” relates
Gloryrose Dy, head architect of the project who came up with the concept. “It’s not only for children but also for grownups, and we have seen how both parents and children bonded putting it together.” “Even as an architecture student, I only had vague ideas about pre-colonial/ exhibit/PAGE 7
Even children enjoy themselves having a first-hand experience putting together the torogan.
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