British Council awards International Collaboration Grant to University of the Philippines and University of Plymouth’s CAREscape project
The British Council is pleased to award the International Collaboration Grant to the CAREscape project, an innovative initiative between the University of Plymouth in the UK and the University of the Philippines’ (UP) College of Architecture. UP is one of the three grant recipients in the East Asia region. This partnership brings together scholars, architects, and artists to develop creative and climate-adaptive solutions for healthcare spaces, responding to the pressing challenges posed by climate change in vulnerable communities. The Climate-Adaptive Reimaginings for Enhancing Healthcare Spaces of the Future (CAREscape) project aims to promote health equity, sustainability, and inclusivity in urban communities facing climate risks, with a particular focus on Manila. Through three transformative phases, the project team will engage local communities, architects, and artists to co-create imaginative and climate-resilient healthcare infrastructures that resonate deeply with community values and local cultural practices.
The project’s first phase centres on creative deep mapping and community engagement in Manila, using storytelling and mapping tools to gather insights from residents about their experiences with climate impacts and healthcare needs. This unique approach emphasizes climate justice, leveraging local knowledge and traditions to inform architectural designs that genuinely reflect and serve the community’s needs. Preparation for the workshops will begin in November 2024, with the engagements scheduled to begin in January 2025.
In the second phase, architects and artists from both countries will collaborate to envision climate-resilient healthcare spaces that are inclusive and sustainable. These speculative designs go beyond traditional blueprints, incorporating visuals, sounds, and cultural elements that embody the community’s relationship with healthcare spaces.
The final phase will bring these innovative designs and prototypes to life in exhibitions in Manila and London, showcasing digital maps, architectural models, and artistic representations that inspire cross-border dialogue on resilient healthcare spaces.
By fostering international collaboration and sharing artistic outputs, the project aims to generate impactful discussions and actionable insights on building climate-resilient healthcare architecture that can be applied in other regions facing similar challenges.
Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan, Head of Arts at the British Council in the Philippines, expressed his excitement about the project, stating:
“This collaboration opens new opportunities to strengthen UK-Philippines partnerships, providing a platform for mutual learning and shared innovation. By supporting projects like CAREscape, we are not only building connections between our two countries but also creating a space for artistic and academic exchanges that can lead to transformative impacts in vulnerable communities worldwide.”
Professor Mona Nasser, Director of the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR), said: “The impacts of climate change are increasingly destroying lives and livelihoods all over the world. They could also lead to situations where facilities offering everything from emergency medicine to period products are out of action at the very time people need them the most. If we are to avoid that, we need to think about the best ways to design future healthcare spaces in vulnerable locations so they can be resilient to climate hazards. Through this project, we hope to use our collective expertise to tap into the wisdom and knowledge of communities to begin developing ideas of how that can best be delivered.”
The UP College of Architecture team, together with Professor Richard Martin Rinen, Professor Pamela Cajilig and Professor Leonido Gines, said: “More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our International Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works and imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.”
As one of the recipients of the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant, the CAREscape project exemplifies the core aim of these grants—to support creative projects that foster meaningful, sustainable partnerships between the UK and its international collaborators. This initiative stands as a model of how art, research, and community-driven insights can intersect to address complex issues, demonstrating the power of cultural exchange in advancing climate resilience and healthcare accessibility.
The International Collaboration Grant (ICG) is open to projects across all themes, empowering innovative collaborations that bridge geographic boundaries and stimulate cultural connections. Grantees will receive GBP 25,000 – GBP 75,000 for their collaborations.
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our International Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Dr. Pamela Cajilig
CAREscape confronts how the delivery of healthcare in the Philippines mirrors deep economic divides, where those with the least resources are often the last to receive adequate medical attention—further exposing how inequality shapes even the most basic right to health. By documenting and responding to these realities, CAREscape calls for a community-driven solution that recognizes both the resilience of these communities and the urgent need to make healthcare more equitable.
Asst. Prof. Richard Martin Rinen
This project reminds us that true climate resilience begins where systems meet — where healthcare intertwines with housing, environment, and community voice. By reimagining these connections from the ground up, we can design spaces that heal people and the planet, inspiring new models of equity and wellbeing worldwide.
Prof. Mona Nasser
When we walk with communities rather than study them from afar, the landscape itself becomes a teacher. Each step reveals how climate, housing, and health are deeply intertwined and reminds us that research grounded in lived experience is the first step toward justice.
Dr. John Martin
CAREscape is a living map of care where researchers, artists, architects, and communities come together to imagine climate-adaptive futures. Through shared maping and storytelling, we co-create knowledge that grows from lived experience, transforming the landscape of health into one of empathy, resilience, and collective imagination.
Dr. Sana Murrani
The British Council is pleased to award the International Collaboration Grant to the CAREscape project, an innovative initiative between the University of Plymouth in the UK and the University of the Philippines’ (UP) College of Architecture. UP is one of the three grant recipients in the East Asia region. This partnership brings together scholars, architects, and artists to develop creative and climate-adaptive solutions for healthcare spaces, responding to the pressing challenges posed by climate change in vulnerable communities. The Climate-Adaptive Reimaginings for Enhancing Healthcare Spaces of the Future (CAREscape) project aims to promote health equity, sustainability, and inclusivity in urban communities facing climate risks, with a particular focus on Manila. Through three transformative phases, the project team will engage local communities, architects, and artists to co-create imaginative and climate-resilient healthcare infrastructures that resonate deeply with community values and local cultural practices.
The project’s first phase centres on creative deep mapping and community engagement in Manila, using storytelling and mapping tools to gather insights from residents about their experiences with climate impacts and healthcare needs. This unique approach emphasizes climate justice, leveraging local knowledge and traditions to inform architectural designs that genuinely reflect and serve the community’s needs. Preparation for the workshops will begin in November 2024, with the engagements scheduled to begin in January 2025.
In the second phase, architects and artists from both countries will collaborate to envision climate-resilient healthcare spaces that are inclusive and sustainable. These speculative designs go beyond traditional blueprints, incorporating visuals, sounds, and cultural elements that embody the community’s relationship with healthcare spaces.
The final phase will bring these innovative designs and prototypes to life in exhibitions in Manila and London, showcasing digital maps, architectural models, and artistic representations that inspire cross-border dialogue on resilient healthcare spaces.
By fostering international collaboration and sharing artistic outputs, the project aims to generate impactful discussions and actionable insights on building climate-resilient healthcare architecture that can be applied in other regions facing similar challenges.
Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan, Head of Arts at the British Council in the Philippines, expressed his excitement about the project, stating:
“This collaboration opens new opportunities to strengthen UK-Philippines partnerships, providing a platform for mutual learning and shared innovation. By supporting projects like CAREscape, we are not only building connections between our two countries but also creating a space for artistic and academic exchanges that can lead to transformative impacts in vulnerable communities worldwide.”
Professor Mona Nasser, Director of the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR), said: “The impacts of climate change are increasingly destroying lives and livelihoods all over the world. They could also lead to situations where facilities offering everything from emergency medicine to period products are out of action at the very time people need them the most. If we are to avoid that, we need to think about the best ways to design future healthcare spaces in vulnerable locations so they can be resilient to climate hazards. Through this project, we hope to use our collective expertise to tap into the wisdom and knowledge of communities to begin developing ideas of how that can best be delivered.”
The UP College of Architecture team, together with Professor Richard Martin Rinen, Professor Pamela Cajilig and Professor Leonido Gines, said: “More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our International Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works and imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.”
As one of the recipients of the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant, the CAREscape project exemplifies the core aim of these grants—to support creative projects that foster meaningful, sustainable partnerships between the UK and its international collaborators. This initiative stands as a model of how art, research, and community-driven insights can intersect to address complex issues, demonstrating the power of cultural exchange in advancing climate resilience and healthcare accessibility.
The International Collaboration Grant (ICG) is open to projects across all themes, empowering innovative collaborations that bridge geographic boundaries and stimulate cultural connections. Grantees will receive GBP 25,000 – GBP 75,000 for their collaborations.
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.
CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE REIMAGININGS FOR ENHANCING HEALTHCARE SPACES OF THE FUTURE
The UP College of Architecture and University of Plymouth presents
Creating Speculative Architecture to Building Connections for Healthy and Climate-Resilient Communities
Creating Speculative Architecture to Building Connections for Healthy and Climate-Resilient Communities
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our International Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Dr. Pamela Cajilig
CAREscape confronts how the delivery of healthcare in the Philippines mirrors deep economic divides, where those with the least resources are often the last to receive adequate medical attention—further exposing how inequality shapes even the most basic right to health. By documenting and responding to these realities, CAREscape calls for a community-driven solution that recognizes both the resilience of these communities and the urgent need to make healthcare more equitable.
Asst. Prof. Richard Martin Rinen
This project reminds us that true climate resilience begins where systems meet — where healthcare intertwines with housing, environment, and community voice. By reimagining these connections from the ground up, we can design spaces that heal people and the planet, inspiring new models of equity and wellbeing worldwide.
Prof. Mona Nasser
When we walk with communities rather than study them from afar, the landscape itself becomes a teacher. Each step reveals how climate, housing, and health are deeply intertwined and reminds us that research grounded in lived experience is the first step toward justice.
Dr. John Martin
CAREscape is a living map of care where researchers, artists, architects, and communities come together to imagine climate-adaptive futures. Through shared maping and storytelling, we co-create knowledge that grows from lived experience, transforming the landscape of health into one of empathy, resilience, and collective imagination.
Dr. Sana Murrani
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CAREscape Catalog
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
and Artists Bionotes
ARTWORKS
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
This exhibition gathers 14 artistic works and expressions by architects, designers, artists and an engineer whose reflections attempt to speculate on and redefine paradigms within the built environment in areas vulnerable to climate change, health equity issues and climate disasters. The initiative seeks to map and merge artistic vision with local knowledge and community engagement to promote inclusive and resilient practices in the provision of spaces of care. The exhibition forms part of its namesake, “CAREscape Project” proposed to and funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig and Professor Richard Rinen of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture who partnered with Dr. Mona Nasser of the University of Plymouth formed the core proponents of the project.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our Internal Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Climate change is a contingent part of our shared volatile realities. Its effects on our everyday life and long-term resilience can be determined by common resolve: governments, institutions, organizations and communities must not just recognize the inevitability of its worst effects, they must also be provoked to solvency. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangarap community attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. Leaders from the community, all women, unsurprisingly, shared their wisdom on resilience to the artists. Issues beyond climate change were opened, as the discourse became more broad, including that of security of tenure, which must no longer be set to the margins. Artists presented their response, and while some solutions for an otherwise uncertain future were raised, issues remain open-ended. Volatile realities are real-life conditions that define the 21st century developed through the contingencies in constructed knowledge and practice, and that which will perhaps structure our thinking of the future amidst climate change.
The project underwent exhaustive preparations for the artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. These preparations attempt to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space for caring.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell:
In an age where art takes countless forms, how can we even begin to define it? A creative output, perhaps, but what does it mean to be truly creative? I can look for definitions, but every answer seems to open another question. The more I search, the more elusive art becomes.
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Artist
Search for a Sliver of Hope
Grace Camille Umali
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Camille Umali has tried various types of jobs during her stay in college. Being exposed to corporate events and kiddie parties for more than a decade boosted her love for art, which brought her to teaching Visual Techniques, Graphics, and Bamboo Research to home-schooled students and Architecture students.
This artwork presents a striking juxtaposition of past and present realities, where individuals continue to cling to traditional modes of survival- scavenging, recycling, and repurposing discarded items-as a means of enduring modern hardship.
Rendered from a low-angle perspective, as though viewed from within a trash bin, the composition invites the audience to see from the vantage point of the discarded. This deliberate point of view emphasizes that even what society deems as waste can retain value and meaning within marginalized communities.
At the center of the piece stands a child-an emblem of youth, vulnerability, and an uncertain future. The child's somber expression evokes a yearning for change, yet also a quiet resignation-an awareness of the systemic barriers that hinder access to rights and opportunities, particularly in the face of escalating climate change. The child becomes a poignant symbol of hope restrained by circumstance.
Surrounding the figure are various discarded objects-prescription bottles, medication wrappers, junk food packaging, and desiccated plants. Each of these items acts as a metaphor for broader social issues. The ongoing struggle for adequate healthcare, worsened by frequent flooding, has led some to depend on herbal remedies in the absence of consistent medical access. Similarly, the scarcity of nutritious food has resulted in a reliance on instant meals and processed snacks, reflecting the deeper issues of malnutrition and health inequality.
The arrangement of these items within the bin is not random-it speaks to consumption, neglect, and survival. Each object tells a story, bearing silent witness to the failures of a system that devalues both people and resources. Through this visual narrative, the artwork invites reflection on the complex intersections of poverty, healthcare, climate justice, and the enduring human pursuit of dignity.
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Artist
To Start a Conversation
Ikang Gonzales
Oil Paint on Polyester Fabric, Bi-Fold Lightbox 36"x24" 2025
Erica ‘Ikang’ Gonzales is a licensed Architect and Artist based in Quezon City. Alongside her professional practice, Ikang has been actively exhibiting her artworks in group shows since 2017. Ikang's current works make use of intricate oil paintings on translucent fabric.
Narrow Paths & buildings pressed tight, meters lined side by side, Cables-varied and tangled, dancing in our gaze towards the sky. Are we just going to let this all by? "Simple Life, Simple People" so they say, as if the root-a simplicity, or else a silenced citizen. This, they claim, is PAYATAS. Yet it resists the name. Hope-Where shall it lean? On those seated at the table, or on ourselves, the many masses? In ways, finding other ways, stitching threads to unpick what was once woven. Flowers of Blumea, after years, slowly, slowly but surely blooming rising, defiant.
Every conversation Is a seed of change-Shaping how we see, How we feel, And how we connect. At its root and crown, Art is never solitary. In contrast, it lives, it comes alive when people engage: in a glance, in a question, in a word, The soul stirs to life; In people: In a gaze, In wonder, In dialogue, And encounters. Art serves as a beginning, It is never an end.
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Artist
Flowers and Leaves
Richelle Rhea R. Baria
Acrylic on 50cm x 60cm box-type canvas
Richelle Rhea R. Baria is an architect, assistant professor, author, and researcher. Her work explores the intricate interplay between urban lighting, environmental acoustics, and technology with human activity, interaction, and movement.
The women of Lupang Pangako are the driving force that enables their community to care for their families and neighbors, remaining resilient and steadfast despite the wrath of nclimate-induced disasters and their impacts on health and well-being. The artworks express this in two ways, reflecting how the women I worked with have seen and experienced the interconnected effects of climate change, health, and their barangay’s urban design. The first artwork, which is displayed at the bottom, presents a bird’s-eye view that intertwines space and experience. Their recollections of the Payatas dumpsite landslide and persistent urban floods are symbolized by a large mass in the middle and winding blue water channels, respectively. Interwoven with these climate-induced disasters is their neighborhood—dense, grid-like, and marked by urban blight. Despite these challenges, the women, drawing from their local knowledge of herbal medicine and access to social services, are the central figures in this space, striving to provide care for their families and neighbors. In this artwork, the women are represented by flowers, while the herbal medicines they use are symbolized by leaves.
The representation of their problems and experiences is viewed from a macro level or the map of Lupang Pangako. It is an inventory of the site analysis factors and issues, and being critical about how space is tangible evidence of the community's struggles. Through the site walks, interviews, and workshops with these women, they visualized the vastness of their knowledge about their neighborhood. They acknowledge there are many areas with trash, dog excrement, open canals, and stagnant wastewater. They know which areas have regular floods, and the exact area in the Payatas dumpsite which collapsed and killed so many families during those 10 days of relentless storms in 2020.
Reflecting on these climate-induced disasters and unregulated waste disposal practices, there is an understanding that change has to happen in a macro and systematic manner. The future of Lupang Pangako is shaped by the hands of many- its leaders, residents, and on
a macro scale, the policy makers that create the laws for climate-change adaptation. These flowers, or the women, can be nurtured and taught new skills on neighborhood beautification, sanitation, and wellness urban design, and the gardens they cultivate will bloom of more effective climate-adaptive strategies. These leaves are the greening of their locale, making it robust and resilient.
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Artist
Voice in Reflection
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva is an Architectural Assistant at the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, with a background in sustainable built environments, integrating research, design, and community engagement. He brings a critical and creative lens to visual storytelling as a former Editorial Cartoonist of Region III.
In the Promise Land this is what I beheld: narrow paths and humble homes. The trades long practiced still endure today—a testament to the way of life left by the past; a livelihood that, even now, many continue to rely upon.
Yet, along with the rhythm of the rain, flows the threat of illness and unending fear. Soaked in mud and refuse, safety has no certainty. In a shifting climate, people search for care and refuge that should be near and visible—not hospitals that seem like distant visions, hidden within buildings and difficult to find.
Now, look below—you will see a reflection. It is the sorrow of voices pleading, carrying tears. Hands reaching out, begging for rescue in the midst of drowning: will you take hold of them, or once again turn away and consign them to be forgotten?
(My sincere gratitude to Gloria V. Tañedo, Ailine Doromal, Fer Panon Balatucan, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for sharing their voices yand experiences in Lupang Pangako.)
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Artist
Change is a choice
Reinhardt Pang Rey
Digital on 18” x 18” Cardboard Puzzle with Wooden Frame
Reinhardt Pang Rey is a licensed architect. Currently, he works as a Senior Architectural Assistant at the UP Diliman Office of Design and Planning Initiatives (ODPI) and as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
Once a huge dumpsite known for poverty, flooding, and a tragic landslide in 2000, Payatas now tells a new story. Despite ongoing flooding and limited access to healthcare facilities, small herb gardens and large reforestation projects show how a stronger bond with nature is reshaping Lupang Pangako— made possible by the community’s bayanihan spirit.
But change is a choice. The improvement of the village’s environment did not change overnight, but was instead a slow, steady process that took the collective efforts of the community to rehabilitate, rebuild, and renew. This piece aims to show this feeling through the form of a puzzle. The puzzle, partially assembled, has more than enough pieces left to complete the picture. What sets it apart, however, is the duality hidden in the extra pieces: one set reveals an image of the village neglected—flood-prone, polluted, and burdened with its past—while the other reveals a future, teeming with life.
The puzzle reminds us that the future of a community is never fixed, but assembled piece by piece through the choices of its people. Each resident is a vital part of the whole, and it is their collective direction—whether toward neglect or renewal—that determines the final picture. True progress comes from consciously fitting these pieces together.
Search for a Sliver of Hope
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Artist
Shaped by Hand
Dan Matutina
Dan Matutina is a designer and illustrator. He is a founding partner at Plus63 and Hydra Design Group. His work spans print, digital, and animation, characterized by an illustration style that blends angular, graphic shapes with hand-painted textures.
The challenges facing Lupang Pangako (poverty, land ownership, health crises, flooding) are neither mysterious nor unsolvable. Their causes are visible, their solutions frequently discussed. Yet the pieces never fit. "Shaped by Hand" confronts this frustrating reality. This reflects the lived experiences of residents in Lupang Pangako. Access to healthcare, food and land ownership should be achievable, yet systemic barriers from inadequate infrastructure to economic inequality keep solutions perpetually out of reach.
The work reimagines shape-sorting puzzles, replacing simple geometric forms with shapes representing daily realities in Lupang Pangako: plants, trees, dogs (symbolizing rabies), animal waste, houses to name a few. Fabricated pieces appear obvious matches for their corresponding holes, yet resist connection, deliberately sized just slightly too large. This impossibility becomes a metaphor for policy gaps and misaligned priorities.
By making solutions visible but unattainable, "Shaped by Hand" challenges audiences to take matters. into their own hands, echoing what residents and workshop participants repeatedly emphasized: we cannot always rely on those who should solve these problems, so we must act ourselves.
Moldable clay sits alongside the puzzle, inviting viewers to create their own solutions, literally shaping material to fill the gaps. They craft responses to problems the system cannot or will not address. This act transforms frustration into agency, passive observation into active participation.
This becomes a tangible reminder of community resilience and a provocative question: if ordinary citizens must fill these gaps themselves, especially as disasters make healthcare access even more precarious, what purpose do our institutions truly serve?
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Artist
Colors
Dave V. Carbonel
Dave V. Carbonel, a graduate of Far Eastern University with a degree in BS Architecture, has been in the Architectural Design and Construction industry for almost 20 years. Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to the fields of architecture and design.
“Colors” are things that are usually seen by many. It can even show symbols and their relationships, convey emotions, and deliver a message from a story or an event. It can even be used for the illustration of a current situation, desires, or even a dream for the future.
The artwork is a revival of the story of life from the tragedy that happened in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, Quezon City, on the 10 day of July 2000, and how the community progresses little by little. It also shows how they rise while they continue to live their life after
the devasted event that happened. The artwork also shows the stability and resilience of the Lupang Pangako, regardless of the shortages and minimal support in their community.
At present, Lupang Pangako citizens continue to live their lives positively while waiting for hope that they can still be given love, support, and true care.
(My sincere gratitude to Porferia Balatucan, Gloria Tanedo, Ailene Doromal, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for making this artwork, a community story of resilience and strength.)
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Artist
UN-TITLED
Aldren Thomas R. Rocha
3X3X2 GLASS BOX INSTALLATION
Aldren Thomas Rocha (Dren) moves between spaces of making, teaching, and reflecting, and is always curious about how people shape and are shaped by their environments. His work explores the curiosity of the ordinary, from photographs to the imagined architecture to the quiet rituals of daily life.
This work examines the lives of people without titles, individuals who navigate the intersecting challenges of climate change and unequal access to healthcare. It finds its grounding in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, a place whose name, “Promised Land, ” carries both irony and hope. Here, daily survival becomes a quiet form of resistance. Amid poverty, displacement, and the slow violence of environmental neglect, the human spirit endures.
The phrase “boxed inside clear glass” serves as the central metaphor of the piece. It captures the tension between visibility and distance. The people of Lupang Pangako are not invisible; in fact, they are constantly seen, documented, studied, photographed, and
narrated. Yet they remain enclosed by transparent barriers: social systems, economic inequities, and the silent detachment of those who look but do not truly see.
The clarity of the glass is deceptive. It allows observation but denies touch; it invites sympathy but resists transformation. This transparency reflects the way society often engages with poverty, healthcare, and climate change, perceiving them as something visible enough to acknowledge, yet distant enough to keep safely contained. In this reading, the glass becomes both a window and a wall, revealing reality while maintaining the comfort of separation.
It is a meditation on seeing and being seen, on the fragile line between awareness and action. The figures “boxed inside clear glass” are not voiceless; they are waiting to be heard beyond the barrier of our comfort. The piece calls for a reimagined gaze, one that does not merely look through, but looks with.
In bending low, we find the stories scattered beneath our feet, reminders that compassion, like light, passes only when the glass is broken.
The artist or creator is not exempt from this frame. Interpreting these stories also involves confronting one’s own position as an observer, someone aware of the limits of empathy and the ethical weight of representation. The act of seeing becomes an act of responsibility.
Thanks to the purok leaders of Lupang Pangako, to Gab, to Mic, and to the Creator.
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Artist
Hilom
Sheina Mae O. Gaon
Plastic Art Installation
Sheina Mae O. Gaon embodies a compelling blend of technical architectural expertise and an artistic sensibility. She navigates the complexities of bringing structures to life while simultaneously cultivating her passion for visual storytelling through photography and graphics.
Hilom confronts the intertwined crises of climate change, healthcare inequities and institutional neglect through the lived experiences of the residents of Lupang Pangako, Payatas. Known for its history of urban poverty and its precarious relationship with the former landfill site, the community stands as a stark emblem of how climate vulnerabilities
are compounded by fragile health systems and policy gaps.
This artwork is structured as a layered environment: terraces of salvaged wire mesh filled with lighted plastic, sprouting herbal plants cultivated by the residents who often rely on them in the absence of reliable healthcare infrastructures. Plastic bottles molded and crafted into herbal plants– symbols of both environment degradation and human ingenuity– serve as vessels for these fragile remedies. The installation embodies the duality of survival and neglect: while residents cultivate resilience through self-reliance,
whilst the institution remains passive, magnifying its incompetency.
Silent voices and testimonies from Nanay Aurora, Susana, Eleanore and Beth embodied their experience of discomfort and empathy. Viewers might be immersed in the contradictions– plants healing amid pollution, testimonies echoing within the art space
while policies falter outside it. This artwork becomes a provocation to the institution: no longer can they remain silent when voices of lived suffering demand structural change.
By presenting the healing and adaptive practices in Lupang Pangako alongside the toxic realities of their environment, Hilom forces a confrontation with systemic failures. It challenges audiences– especially those in positions of influence– to reimagine healthcare not as a privilege of the few but an urgent necessity inseparable from climate change resilience. In this way, this artwork is not merely a representation of hardship but a call for accountability and participation, insisting that healing must move beyond improvisation to justice.
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Artist
Women, Woes, and Weather
Maria Rosario Argote
Maria Rosario Argote is an architect with specialization in Building Technology and a background in Architectural Interiors and Regenerative Design. Beyond her architectural pursuits, Rose is a passionate dancer. She practices different genres in studios across Metro Manila.
Lupang Pangako has outgrown the misconception of being a waste dump. Instead, it is a thriving habitat of resilient folks adapting over time. Although the citizens fend among themselves, the effects of climate change threaten survival. Camaraderie, communication, and consistency are some of the little they utilize to cope - but even with these tools they cry for help no matter how "repetitive" efforts will be. The piece is a fusion by Roxy as she indulges in a different genre on this stage; just like Rosario did when entered a unfamiliar community far from the usual. Contemporary dance is a weird manifestation and physical retraction from the innermost feelings, producing habitual gestures that will slowly invoke unresolves issues to be addressed from the core. The Artist uses the power of repetition upon entering new territory, an unorthodox method to convey the stories of Allene and Merly, body responses under the guidance of the Rihma Flavah, and movements captured by Superon Productions.
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Artist
Prototype Community Center of Payatas
John Ernest Jose
John Ernest Jose is an architect, master plumber, and environmental planner, currently pursuing his PhD in the Designed and Built Environment at UP Diliman. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was one of the designers of the Mobile Specimen Collection Unit (MSCU).
The artwork is a design proposal for a Community Center in Payatas that can be built in a 60 x 40-meter lot. In conceptualizing the design, the artist considered the everyday life of the Payatas residents: their inclination to socialize, their perennial usage of herbal medicines, their devoutness, and their desire to establish microenterprises, among others.
The artist hopes that the design sparks conversations on the importance of building structures for some of the most vulnerable citizens to serve as their bastion in the event of health and nature-related crises.
In addition, it is also a call for a paradigm shift in architectural design, wherein participatory design should be part of the process. This method allows users and stakeholders to feel that their needs matter and adds a social inclusion component in the design process.
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Resiliency & Sustainability for Flooding-Ark 101 (RSF-Ark 101)
Ardel E. Claridad
3D Scaled Model Miniature, Scale: 1:100mm
Ardel E. Claridad is a Professional Mechanical Engineer and consultant from San Mateo, Rizal. He had been an active officer of the WIT ARTists’ Society and President of the WIT Youth Community Service Club in Iloilo City.
My artistic design is based on the concept of resiliency to flood problems and to sustain life with in for a significant time duration. This RSF-Ark 101 model is a combination of Filipino Engineering ingenuity and artistic. A skill and talent that we had been know worldwide through our OFW. I was one of them not so long ago.
This RSF Ark-101 is a dream of all the people I had talked in Lupang, Pangako, Payatas. The dream that can be only realize if the proper funding for the projects will be delivered direct to them. They hope to achieve this dream 50 yrs from now.
This scaled model is a representation of perfect evacuation center for our people that can save, feed, cure people and continuously teach children. It can accommodate 200 persons, adult & children, It is equipped with a bgry. hall, hospital, classroom, offices, dwelling rooms and a mini court of justice. the floating structure is a self propelling floating vessel based catamaran marine vessel design with proper buoyancy.
The Ark is designed to have a solar power panels with reserved battery power, enough to last for 15 days. The Ark has garden where medicinal plants & vegetables can be grown. It will have its own water pump, refrigeration & air-conditioning system and a water disinfection system. Wide window coated with heat resistance glass.
The people in Lupang Pangako in Payatas, are very resilient and has survived all the calamities that had happened in their area, it could be an exploding mountain of trash, fire incident or flooding, they had shown the spirit of survival & their faith to GOD is very strong.
The Ark will serve as a normal multi-function building during normal and summer but will serve as a floating evacuation center during the time of flooding.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my team during our Lupang Pangako, visit, namely Nanay Matilde, Nanay Lydia, Kathy and other members of Lupang Pangako CRO’s and Purok Leaders.
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Gathering in the Cracks
Isola Tong
Materials: Wire, Inkjet Print on Awagami Paper
Isola Tong received her B.S. in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas Manila, and M.F.A from the University of California. She founded an artistic platform, Lala Projects, a craft-based, socially engaged initiative, exploring our collective sense-making and spatial knowing.
Who should be held accountable for the destruction brought about by climate change? Who is responsible for the care of marginalized
communities in a country bled dry by rampant corruption? What does the future of nature and health look like if the greed and negligence of those in power, whether abroad or in the Philippines, continue unchecked.
These are questions too big for easy answers, but one thing was clear as I walked through Lupang Pangako with the women leaders of the
community: Despite the daunting challenges they face from natural and man-made calamities, it is the residents themselves who care for one another.
As we moved along the roads during our deep mapping walk, we stopped at every corner, every cracks where medicinal plants took root. What was once a mountain of garbage now flourishes with the lushness of trees and potted plants. The entire walk was recorded on my cellphone, documenting not only the names and uses of herbs but also the histories of disasters: landslides, flooded homes, and lives lost.
The basket I wove from wire stands forms a symbol of solidarity, compassion, and our interconnectedness with nature. Its metal strands
coil together, signifying the entanglement of human and the natural environment. Wrapped through it are screenshots from the video,
resembling fragments of memory—holding still moments of connection, kinship, and solidarity.
This work also draws from the concept of “Ruderal Ecology” by German scholar Bettina Stoetzer, which concerns plants and animals that thrive in the crevices of harsh urban and industrial environments. Having grown up in a flood-prone neighborhood in Pasay, I see this as a metaphor for the relationship between my own lived experiences and those of the residents of Payatas.
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The Grab Pail
Marion Descallar
Marion Descallar is an independent designer who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Visual Communication from UP Diliman. Communication, tactical and thematic strategies, Philippine indigenous knowledge, and design ethics are in the DNA of her design curiosity and process.
The Grab Pail is a satirical piece drawn from a personal story told by a resident in Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, Philippines.
During a neighbourhood fire caused by an electrical jumper in 2024, a resident had several pails which she and her neighbours used to carry water and help extinguish the flames. After the fire, she realised that only one pail was returned to her. This ordinary object of property became a symbol of collective action and loss.
However, the story is later co-opted by a corrupt politician who sees not a need for fire prevention systems, but an opportunity for profit. The ubiquitous pail is branded and packaged to mimic an emergency box with the bold headline above it: “IN CASE OF FIRE, GRAB” and below it, a sub-headline: “WATER NOT INCLUDED”—an absurd disclaimer which renders the pail—and the entire package—useless.
A politician’s caricature on the pail does not go unnoticed. This is a disgusting practice among Filipino politicians who love to use their names and faces like a branding tool. This exegesis in English and Tagalog is the dominant part of the backside as a backstory with the strapline, “Tinimbang Ka,” and “Ngunit Kulang.” In English, “You were weighed but found wanting.”
The entire piece critiques how stories of suffering are commodified and turned into overpriced, empty policies. It reflects the loss of the “gathering”—a traditional Filipino practice of coming together for story-telling, rituals, celebration, and interaction—in contemporary times. When residents are excluded from determining their needs, the door opens for corruption and incompetence.
It asks the painful question—what good is a pail if there is no water to fill it? And more broadly: what good are healthcare and disaster preparedness policies when they are built without the people they claim to serve? Compared to an emergency grab bag or a boat grab line, the Grab Pail is a costly distraction, useless, and dangerous idea. The practice of intentional gathering to discuss problems and solutions may possibly help slowly supplant the apathetic mindset of the government.
While The Grab Pail is a metaphor for corrupt Philippine governance practices—including healthcare in the core of disasters: flashy in presentation, hollow in substance, and at its worst: empty—the reality of corruption is not hidden. It is written on the back of the package for all to see. One only needs to look at the product on all sides and angles.
Too bad, the fancy façade is designed to grab most of the viewers’ attention entirely.
Aldren Rocha
The etching of diluvial stories by fire onto the woven surface warns us that disasters caused by warming temperatures can take the form of its elemental opposite. This way of embedding knowledge in craft reminds us that human, nonhuman, and geological agencies are all ecologically entangled across vast distances and in unexpected ways.
Isola Tong
By presenting this nuanced narrative, the artwork will challenge long-standing stereotypes while celebrating the strength, adaptability, and humanity of a community that continues to thrive amidst adversity.
Camille Umali
Our asymmetrical world of an overwhelming climate against our human vulnerabilities, or the over-lording human against an assailable and exploitable nature can probably be better understood if we see these objects on display as provocations, as simultaneously art, artist, community and even as resolve. Not just as individual ‘objects’ or representational works of art. As provocations, these works ask, challenge, confuse… and as art, they should do so. They commit to think about our futures together, they question policies and practices that marginalize or subjugate bodies, they ask to reassess our views on local knowledge about medicinal plants, they ask to correct the values for the underserved in hospitals and clinics, they intimate and demand a more nuanced articulation of “care” itself. Altogether.
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To Start a Conversation
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Flowers and Leaves
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Voice in Reflection
Change is a choice
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Shaped by Hand
Colors
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Hilom
Women, Woes, and Weather
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
This exhibition gathers 14 artistic works and expressions by architects, designers, artists and an engineer whose reflections attempt to speculate on and redefine paradigms within the built environment in areas vulnerable to climate change, health equity issues and climate disasters. The initiative seeks to map and merge artistic vision with local knowledge and community engagement to promote inclusive and resilient practices in the provision of spaces of care. The exhibition forms part of its namesake, “CAREscape Project” proposed to and funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig and Professor Richard Rinen of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture who partnered with Dr. Mona Nasser of the University of Plymouth formed the core proponents of the project.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our Internal Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Climate change is a contingent part of our shared volatile realities. Its effects on our everyday life and long-term resilience can be determined by common resolve: governments, institutions, organizations and communities must not just recognize the inevitability of its worst effects, they must also be provoked to solvency. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangarap community attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. Leaders from the community, all women, unsurprisingly, shared their wisdom on resilience to the artists. Issues beyond climate change were opened, as the discourse became more broad, including that of security of tenure, which must no longer be set to the margins. Artists presented their response, and while some solutions for an otherwise uncertain future were raised, issues remain open-ended. Volatile realities are real-life conditions that define the 21st century developed through the contingencies in constructed knowledge and practice, and that which will perhaps structure our thinking of the future amidst climate change.
The project underwent exhaustive preparations for the artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. These preparations attempt to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space for caring.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell:
In an age where art takes countless forms, how can we even begin to define it? A creative output, perhaps, but what does it mean to be truly creative? I can look for definitions, but every answer seems to open another question. The more I search, the more elusive art becomes.
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Prototype Community Center of Payatas
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Resiliency & Sustainability for Flooding-Ark 101 (RSF-Ark 101)
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Gathering in the Cracks
Grab Pail
Search for a Sliver of Hope
ARTWORKS
and Artists Bionotes
Grace Camille Umali
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Camille Umali has tried various types of jobs during her stay in college. Being exposed to corporate events and kiddie parties for more than a decade boosted her love for art, which brought her to teaching Visual Techniques, Graphics, and Bamboo Research to home-schooled students and Architecture students.
This artwork presents a striking juxtaposition of past and present realities, where individuals continue to cling to traditional modes of survival- scavenging, recycling, and repurposing discarded items-as a means of enduring modern hardship.
Rendered from a low-angle perspective, as though viewed from within a trash bin, the composition invites the audience to see from the vantage point of the discarded. This deliberate point of view emphasizes that even what society deems as waste can retain value and meaning within marginalized communities.
At the center of the piece stands a child-an emblem of youth, vulnerability, and an uncertain future. The child's somber expression evokes a yearning for change, yet also a quiet resignation-an awareness of the systemic barriers that hinder access to rights and opportunities, particularly in the face of escalating climate change. The child becomes a poignant symbol of hope restrained by circumstance.
Surrounding the figure are various discarded objects-prescription bottles, medication wrappers, junk food packaging, and desiccated plants. Each of these items acts as a metaphor for broader social issues. The ongoing struggle for adequate healthcare, worsened by frequent flooding, has led some to depend on herbal remedies in the absence of consistent medical access. Similarly, the scarcity of nutritious food has resulted in a reliance on instant meals and processed snacks, reflecting the deeper issues of malnutrition and health inequality.
The arrangement of these items within the bin is not random-it speaks to consumption, neglect, and survival. Each object tells a story, bearing silent witness to the failures of a system that devalues both people and resources. Through this visual narrative, the artwork invites reflection on the complex intersections of poverty, healthcare, climate justice, and the enduring human pursuit of dignity.
Ikang Gonzales
Oil Paint on Polyester Fabric, Bi-Fold Lightbox 36"x24" 2025
Erica ‘Ikang’ Gonzales is a licensed Architect and Artist based in Quezon City. Alongside her professional practice, Ikang has been actively exhibiting her artworks in group shows since 2017. Ikang's current works make use of intricate oil paintings on translucent fabric.
Narrow Paths & buildings pressed tight, meters lined side by side, Cables-varied and tangled, dancing in our gaze towards the sky. Are we just going to let this all by? "Simple Life, Simple People" so they say, as if the root-a simplicity, or else a silenced citizen. This, they claim, is PAYATAS. Yet it resists the name. Hope-Where shall it lean? On those seated at the table, or on ourselves, the many masses? In ways, finding other ways, stitching threads to unpick what was once woven. Flowers of Blumea, after years, slowly, slowly but surely blooming rising, defiant.
Every conversation Is a seed of change-Shaping how we see, How we feel, And how we connect. At its root and crown, Art is never solitary. In contrast, it lives, it comes alive when people engage: in a glance, in a question, in a word, The soul stirs to life; In people: In a gaze, In wonder, In dialogue, And encounters. Art serves as a beginning, It is never an end.
Richelle Rhea R. Baria
Acrylic on 50cm x 60cm box-type canvas
Richelle Rhea R. Baria is an architect, assistant professor, author, and researcher. Her work explores the intricate interplay between urban lighting, environmental acoustics, and technology with human activity, interaction, and movement.
The women of Lupang Pangako are the driving force that enables their community to care for their families and neighbors, remaining resilient and steadfast despite the wrath of nclimate-induced disasters and their impacts on health and well-being. The artworks express this in two ways, reflecting how the women I worked with have seen and experienced the interconnected effects of climate change, health, and their barangay’s urban design. The first artwork, which is displayed at the bottom, presents a bird’s-eye view that intertwines space and experience. Their recollections of the Payatas dumpsite landslide and persistent urban floods are symbolized by a large mass in the middle and winding blue water channels, respectively. Interwoven with these climate-induced disasters is their neighborhood—dense, grid-like, and marked by urban blight. Despite these challenges, the women, drawing from their local knowledge of herbal medicine and access to social services, are the central figures in this space, striving to provide care for their families and neighbors. In this artwork, the women are represented by flowers, while the herbal medicines they use are symbolized by leaves.
The representation of their problems and experiences is viewed from a macro level or the map of Lupang Pangako. It is an inventory of the site analysis factors and issues, and being critical about how space is tangible evidence of the community's struggles. Through the site walks, interviews, and workshops with these women, they visualized the vastness of their knowledge about their neighborhood. They acknowledge there are many areas with trash, dog excrement, open canals, and stagnant wastewater. They know which areas have regular floods, and the exact area in the Payatas dumpsite which collapsed and killed so many families during those 10 days of relentless storms in 2020.
Reflecting on these climate-induced disasters and unregulated waste disposal practices, there is an understanding that change has to happen in a macro and systematic manner. The future of Lupang Pangako is shaped by the hands of many- its leaders, residents, and on
a macro scale, the policy makers that create the laws for climate-change adaptation. These flowers, or the women, can be nurtured and taught new skills on neighborhood beautification, sanitation, and wellness urban design, and the gardens they cultivate will bloom of more effective climate-adaptive strategies. These leaves are the greening of their locale, making it robust and resilient.
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva is an Architectural Assistant at the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, with a background in sustainable built environments, integrating research, design, and community engagement. He brings a critical and creative lens to visual storytelling as a former Editorial Cartoonist of Region III.
In the Promise Land this is what I beheld: narrow paths and humble homes. The trades long practiced still endure today—a testament to the way of life left by the past; a livelihood that, even now, many continue to rely upon.
Yet, along with the rhythm of the rain, flows the threat of illness and unending fear. Soaked in mud and refuse, safety has no certainty. In a shifting climate, people search for care and refuge that should be near and visible—not hospitals that seem like distant visions, hidden within buildings and difficult to find.
Now, look below—you will see a reflection. It is the sorrow of voices pleading, carrying tears. Hands reaching out, begging for rescue in the midst of drowning: will you take hold of them, or once again turn away and consign them to be forgotten?
(My sincere gratitude to Gloria V. Tañedo, Ailine Doromal, Fer Panon Balatucan, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for sharing their voices yand experiences in Lupang Pangako.)
Reinhardt Pang Rey
Digital on 18” x 18” Cardboard Puzzle with Wooden Frame
Reinhardt Pang Rey is a licensed architect. Currently, he works as a Senior Architectural Assistant at the UP Diliman Office of Design and Planning Initiatives (ODPI) and as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
Once a huge dumpsite known for poverty, flooding, and a tragic landslide in 2000, Payatas now tells a new story. Despite ongoing flooding and limited access to healthcare facilities, small herb gardens and large reforestation projects show how a stronger bond with nature is reshaping Lupang Pangako— made possible by the community’s bayanihan spirit.
But change is a choice. The improvement of the village’s environment did not change overnight, but was instead a slow, steady process that took the collective efforts of the community to rehabilitate, rebuild, and renew. This piece aims to show this feeling through the form of a puzzle. The puzzle, partially assembled, has more than enough pieces left to complete the picture. What sets it apart, however, is the duality hidden in the extra pieces: one set reveals an image of the village neglected—flood-prone, polluted, and burdened with its past—while the other reveals a future, teeming with life.
The puzzle reminds us that the future of a community is never fixed, but assembled piece by piece through the choices of its people. Each resident is a vital part of the whole, and it is their collective direction—whether toward neglect or renewal—that determines the final picture. True progress comes from consciously fitting these pieces together.
Dan Matutina
Dan Matutina is a designer and illustrator. He is a founding partner at Plus63 and Hydra Design Group. His work spans print, digital, and animation, characterized by an illustration style that blends angular, graphic shapes with hand-painted textures.
The challenges facing Lupang Pangako (poverty, land ownership, health crises, flooding) are neither mysterious nor unsolvable. Their causes are visible, their solutions frequently discussed. Yet the pieces never fit. "Shaped by Hand" confronts this frustrating reality. This reflects the lived experiences of residents in Lupang Pangako. Access to healthcare, food and land ownership should be achievable, yet systemic barriers from inadequate infrastructure to economic inequality keep solutions perpetually out of reach.
The work reimagines shape-sorting puzzles, replacing simple geometric forms with shapes representing daily realities in Lupang Pangako: plants, trees, dogs (symbolizing rabies), animal waste, houses to name a few. Fabricated pieces appear obvious matches for their corresponding holes, yet resist connection, deliberately sized just slightly too large. This impossibility becomes a metaphor for policy gaps and misaligned priorities.
By making solutions visible but unattainable, "Shaped by Hand" challenges audiences to take matters. into their own hands, echoing what residents and workshop participants repeatedly emphasized: we cannot always rely on those who should solve these problems, so we must act ourselves.
Moldable clay sits alongside the puzzle, inviting viewers to create their own solutions, literally shaping material to fill the gaps. They craft responses to problems the system cannot or will not address. This act transforms frustration into agency, passive observation into active participation.
This becomes a tangible reminder of community resilience and a provocative question: if ordinary citizens must fill these gaps themselves, especially as disasters make healthcare access even more precarious, what purpose do our institutions truly serve?
Dave V. Carbonel
Dave V. Carbonel, a graduate of Far Eastern University with a degree in BS Architecture, has been in the Architectural Design and Construction industry for almost 20 years. Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to the fields of architecture and design.
“Colors” are things that are usually seen by many. It can even show symbols and their relationships, convey emotions, and deliver a message from a story or an event. It can even be used for the illustration of a current situation, desires, or even a dream for the future.
The artwork is a revival of the story of life from the tragedy that happened in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, Quezon City, on the 10 day of July 2000, and how the community progresses little by little. It also shows how they rise while they continue to live their life after
the devasted event that happened. The artwork also shows the stability and resilience of the Lupang Pangako, regardless of the shortages and minimal support in their community.
At present, Lupang Pangako citizens continue to live their lives positively while waiting for hope that they can still be given love, support, and true care.
(My sincere gratitude to Porferia Balatucan, Gloria Tanedo, Ailene Doromal, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for making this artwork, a community story of resilience and strength.)
Aldren Thomas R. Rocha
3X3X2 GLASS BOX INSTALLATION
Aldren Thomas Rocha (Dren) moves between spaces of making, teaching, and reflecting, and is always curious about how people shape and are shaped by their environments. His work explores the curiosity of the ordinary, from photographs to the imagined architecture to the quiet rituals of daily life.
This work examines the lives of people without titles, individuals who navigate the intersecting challenges of climate change and unequal access to healthcare. It finds its grounding in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, a place whose name, “Promised Land, ” carries both irony and hope. Here, daily survival becomes a quiet form of resistance. Amid poverty, displacement, and the slow violence of environmental neglect, the human spirit endures.
The phrase “boxed inside clear glass” serves as the central metaphor of the piece. It captures the tension between visibility and distance. The people of Lupang Pangako are not invisible; in fact, they are constantly seen, documented, studied, photographed, and
narrated. Yet they remain enclosed by transparent barriers: social systems, economic inequities, and the silent detachment of those who look but do not truly see.
The clarity of the glass is deceptive. It allows observation but denies touch; it invites sympathy but resists transformation. This transparency reflects the way society often engages with poverty, healthcare, and climate change, perceiving them as something visible enough to acknowledge, yet distant enough to keep safely contained. In this reading, the glass becomes both a window and a wall, revealing reality while maintaining the comfort of separation.
It is a meditation on seeing and being seen, on the fragile line between awareness and action. The figures “boxed inside clear glass” are not voiceless; they are waiting to be heard beyond the barrier of our comfort. The piece calls for a reimagined gaze, one that does not merely look through, but looks with.
In bending low, we find the stories scattered beneath our feet, reminders that compassion, like light, passes only when the glass is broken.
The artist or creator is not exempt from this frame. Interpreting these stories also involves confronting one’s own position as an observer, someone aware of the limits of empathy and the ethical weight of representation. The act of seeing becomes an act of responsibility.
Thanks to the purok leaders of Lupang Pangako, to Gab, to Mic, and to the Creator.
Sheina Mae O. Gaon
Plastic Art Installation
Sheina Mae O. Gaon embodies a compelling blend of technical architectural expertise and an artistic sensibility. She navigates the complexities of bringing structures to life while simultaneously cultivating her passion for visual storytelling through photography and graphics.
Hilom confronts the intertwined crises of climate change, healthcare inequities and institutional neglect through the lived experiences of the residents of Lupang Pangako, Payatas. Known for its history of urban poverty and its precarious relationship with the former landfill site, the community stands as a stark emblem of how climate vulnerabilities
are compounded by fragile health systems and policy gaps.
This artwork is structured as a layered environment: terraces of salvaged wire mesh filled with lighted plastic, sprouting herbal plants cultivated by the residents who often rely on them in the absence of reliable healthcare infrastructures. Plastic bottles molded and crafted into herbal plants– symbols of both environment degradation and human ingenuity– serve as vessels for these fragile remedies. The installation embodies the duality of survival and neglect: while residents cultivate resilience through self-reliance,
whilst the institution remains passive, magnifying its incompetency.
Silent voices and testimonies from Nanay Aurora, Susana, Eleanore and Beth embodied their experience of discomfort and empathy. Viewers might be immersed in the contradictions– plants healing amid pollution, testimonies echoing within the art space
while policies falter outside it. This artwork becomes a provocation to the institution: no longer can they remain silent when voices of lived suffering demand structural change.
By presenting the healing and adaptive practices in Lupang Pangako alongside the toxic realities of their environment, Hilom forces a confrontation with systemic failures. It challenges audiences– especially those in positions of influence– to reimagine healthcare not as a privilege of the few but an urgent necessity inseparable from climate change resilience. In this way, this artwork is not merely a representation of hardship but a call for accountability and participation, insisting that healing must move beyond improvisation to justice.
Maria Rosario Argote
Maria Rosario Argote is an architect with specialization in Building Technology and a background in Architectural Interiors and Regenerative Design. Beyond her architectural pursuits, Rose is a passionate dancer. She practices different genres in studios across Metro Manila.
Lupang Pangako has outgrown the misconception of being a waste dump. Instead, it is a thriving habitat of resilient folks adapting over time. Although the citizens fend among themselves, the effects of climate change threaten survival. Camaraderie, communication, and consistency are some of the little they utilize to cope - but even with these tools they cry for help no matter how "repetitive" efforts will be. The piece is a fusion by Roxy as she indulges in a different genre on this stage; just like Rosario did when entered a unfamiliar community far from the usual. Contemporary dance is a weird manifestation and physical retraction from the innermost feelings, producing habitual gestures that will slowly invoke unresolves issues to be addressed from the core. The Artist uses the power of repetition upon entering new territory, an unorthodox method to convey the stories of Allene and Merly, body responses under the guidance of the Rihma Flavah, and movements captured by Superon Productions.
John Ernest Jose
John Ernest Jose is an architect, master plumber, and environmental planner, currently pursuing his PhD in the Designed and Built Environment at UP Diliman. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was one of the designers of the Mobile Specimen Collection Unit (MSCU).
The artwork is a design proposal for a Community Center in Payatas that can be built in a 60 x 40-meter lot. In conceptualizing the design, the artist considered the everyday life of the Payatas residents: their inclination to socialize, their perennial usage of herbal medicines, their devoutness, and their desire to establish microenterprises, among others.
The artist hopes that the design sparks conversations on the importance of building structures for some of the most vulnerable citizens to serve as their bastion in the event of health and nature-related crises.
In addition, it is also a call for a paradigm shift in architectural design, wherein participatory design should be part of the process. This method allows users and stakeholders to feel that their needs matter and adds a social inclusion component in the design process.
Ardel E. Claridad
3D Scaled Model Miniature, Scale: 1:100mm
Ardel E. Claridad is a Professional Mechanical Engineer and consultant from San Mateo, Rizal. He had been an active officer of the WIT ARTists’ Society and President of the WIT Youth Community Service Club in Iloilo City.
My artistic design is based on the concept of resiliency to flood problems and to sustain life with in for a significant time duration. This RSF-Ark 101 model is a combination of Filipino Engineering ingenuity and artistic. A skill and talent that we had been know worldwide through our OFW. I was one of them not so long ago.
This RSF Ark-101 is a dream of all the people I had talked in Lupang, Pangako, Payatas. The dream that can be only realize if the proper funding for the projects will be delivered direct to them. They hope to achieve this dream 50 yrs from now.
This scaled model is a representation of perfect evacuation center for our people that can save, feed, cure people and continuously teach children. It can accommodate 200 persons, adult & children, It is equipped with a bgry. hall, hospital, classroom, offices, dwelling rooms and a mini court of justice. the floating structure is a self propelling floating vessel based catamaran marine vessel design with proper buoyancy.
The Ark is designed to have a solar power panels with reserved battery power, enough to last for 15 days. The Ark has garden where medicinal plants & vegetables can be grown. It will have its own water pump, refrigeration & air-conditioning system and a water disinfection system. Wide window coated with heat resistance glass.
The people in Lupang Pangako in Payatas, are very resilient and has survived all the calamities that had happened in their area, it could be an exploding mountain of trash, fire incident or flooding, they had shown the spirit of survival & their faith to GOD is very strong.
The Ark will serve as a normal multi-function building during normal and summer but will serve as a floating evacuation center during the time of flooding.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my team during our Lupang Pangako, visit, namely Nanay Matilde, Nanay Lydia, Kathy and other members of Lupang Pangako CRO’s and Purok Leaders.
Isola Tong
Materials: Wire, Inkjet Print on Awagami Paper
Isola Tong received her B.S. in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas Manila, and M.F.A from the University of California. She founded an artistic platform, Lala Projects, a craft-based, socially engaged initiative, exploring our collective sense-making and spatial knowing.
Who should be held accountable for the destruction brought about by climate change? Who is responsible for the care of marginalized
communities in a country bled dry by rampant corruption? What does the future of nature and health look like if the greed and negligence of those in power, whether abroad or in the Philippines, continue unchecked.
These are questions too big for easy answers, but one thing was clear as I walked through Lupang Pangako with the women leaders of the
community: Despite the daunting challenges they face from natural and man-made calamities, it is the residents themselves who care for one another.
As we moved along the roads during our deep mapping walk, we stopped at every corner, every cracks where medicinal plants took root. What was once a mountain of garbage now flourishes with the lushness of trees and potted plants. The entire walk was recorded on my cellphone, documenting not only the names and uses of herbs but also the histories of disasters: landslides, flooded homes, and lives lost.
The basket I wove from wire stands forms a symbol of solidarity, compassion, and our interconnectedness with nature. Its metal strands
coil together, signifying the entanglement of human and the natural environment. Wrapped through it are screenshots from the video,
resembling fragments of memory—holding still moments of connection, kinship, and solidarity.
This work also draws from the concept of “Ruderal Ecology” by German scholar Bettina Stoetzer, which concerns plants and animals that thrive in the crevices of harsh urban and industrial environments. Having grown up in a flood-prone neighborhood in Pasay, I see this as a metaphor for the relationship between my own lived experiences and those of the residents of Payatas.
Marion Descallar
Marion Descallar is an independent designer who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Visual Communication from UP Diliman. Communication, tactical and thematic strategies, Philippine indigenous knowledge, and design ethics are in the DNA of her design curiosity and process.
The Grab Pail is a satirical piece drawn from a personal story told by a resident in Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, Philippines.
During a neighbourhood fire caused by an electrical jumper in 2024, a resident had several pails which she and her neighbours used to carry water and help extinguish the flames. After the fire, she realised that only one pail was returned to her. This ordinary object of property became a symbol of collective action and loss.
However, the story is later co-opted by a corrupt politician who sees not a need for fire prevention systems, but an opportunity for profit. The ubiquitous pail is branded and packaged to mimic an emergency box with the bold headline above it: “IN CASE OF FIRE, GRAB” and below it, a sub-headline: “WATER NOT INCLUDED”—an absurd disclaimer which renders the pail—and the entire package—useless.
A politician’s caricature on the pail does not go unnoticed. This is a disgusting practice among Filipino politicians who love to use their names and faces like a branding tool. This exegesis in English and Tagalog is the dominant part of the backside as a backstory with the strapline, “Tinimbang Ka,” and “Ngunit Kulang.” In English, “You were weighed but found wanting.”
The entire piece critiques how stories of suffering are commodified and turned into overpriced, empty policies. It reflects the loss of the “gathering”—a traditional Filipino practice of coming together for story-telling, rituals, celebration, and interaction—in contemporary times. When residents are excluded from determining their needs, the door opens for corruption and incompetence.
It asks the painful question—what good is a pail if there is no water to fill it? And more broadly: what good are healthcare and disaster preparedness policies when they are built without the people they claim to serve? Compared to an emergency grab bag or a boat grab line, the Grab Pail is a costly distraction, useless, and dangerous idea. The practice of intentional gathering to discuss problems and solutions may possibly help slowly supplant the apathetic mindset of the government.
While The Grab Pail is a metaphor for corrupt Philippine governance practices—including healthcare in the core of disasters: flashy in presentation, hollow in substance, and at its worst: empty—the reality of corruption is not hidden. It is written on the back of the package for all to see. One only needs to look at the product on all sides and angles.
Too bad, the fancy façade is designed to grab most of the viewers’ attention entirely.
Aldren Rocha
The etching of diluvial stories by fire onto the woven surface warns us that disasters caused by warming temperatures can take the form of its elemental opposite. This way of embedding knowledge in craft reminds us that human, nonhuman, and geological agencies are all ecologically entangled across vast distances and in unexpected ways.
Isola Tong
By presenting this nuanced narrative, the artwork will challenge long-standing stereotypes while celebrating the strength, adaptability, and humanity of a community that continues to thrive amidst adversity.
Camille Umali
Our asymmetrical world of an overwhelming climate against our human vulnerabilities, or the over-lording human against an assailable and exploitable nature can probably be better understood if we see these objects on display as provocations, as simultaneously art, artist, community and even as resolve. Not just as individual ‘objects’ or representational works of art. As provocations, these works ask, challenge, confuse… and as art, they should do so. They commit to think about our futures together, they question policies and practices that marginalize or subjugate bodies, they ask to reassess our views on local knowledge about medicinal plants, they ask to correct the values for the underserved in hospitals and clinics, they intimate and demand a more nuanced articulation of “care” itself. Altogether.
ARTWORKS
and Artists Bionotes
CAREscape Catalog
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
CAREscape The Exhibit
by: Leonido Gines, Jr.
Exhibition Curator
This exhibition gathers 14 artistic works and expressions by architects, designers, artists and an engineer whose reflections attempt to speculate on and redefine paradigms within the built environment in areas vulnerable to climate change, health equity issues and climate disasters. The initiative seeks to map and merge artistic vision with local knowledge and community engagement to promote inclusive and resilient practices in the provision of spaces of care. The exhibition forms part of its namesake, “CAREscape Project” proposed to and funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig and Professor Richard Rinen of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture who partnered with Dr. Mona Nasser of the University of Plymouth formed the core proponents of the project.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our Internal Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Dr. Pamela Cajilig
Professorial Lecturer and Project Co-Investigator
University of the Philippines College of Architecture
Climate change is a contingent part of our shared volatile realities. Its effects on our everyday life and long-term resilience can be determined by common resolve: governments, institutions, organizations and communities must not just recognize the inevitability of its worst effects, they must also be provoked to solvency. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangarap community attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. Leaders from the community, all women, unsurprisingly, shared their wisdom on resilience to the artists. Issues beyond climate change were opened, as the discourse became more broad, including that of security of tenure, which must no longer be set to the margins. Artists presented their response, and while some solutions for an otherwise uncertain future were raised, issues remain open-ended. Volatile realities are real-life conditions that define the 21st century developed through the contingencies in constructed knowledge and practice, and that which will perhaps structure our thinking of the future amidst climate change.
The project underwent exhaustive preparations for the artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. These preparations attempt to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space for caring.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell:
In an age where art takes countless forms, how can we even begin to define it? A creative output, perhaps, but what does it mean to be truly creative? I can look for definitions, but every answer seems to open another question. The more I search, the more elusive art becomes.
CAREscape Catalog
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
CAREscape The Exhibit
by: Leonido Gines, Jr.
Exhibition Curator
This exhibition gathers 14 artistic works and expressions by architects, designers, artists and an engineer whose reflections attempt to speculate on and redefine paradigms within the built environment in areas vulnerable to climate change, health equity issues and climate disasters. The initiative seeks to map and merge artistic vision with local knowledge and community engagement to promote inclusive and resilient practices in the provision of spaces of care. The exhibition forms part of its namesake, “CAREscape Project” proposed to and funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig and Professor Richard Rinen of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture who partnered with Dr. Mona Nasser of the University of Plymouth formed the core proponents of the project.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our Internal Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Dr. Pamela Cajilig
Professorial Lecturer and Project Co-Investigator
University of the Philippines College of Architecture
Climate change is a contingent part of our shared volatile realities. Its effects on our everyday life and long-term resilience can be determined by common resolve: governments, institutions, organizations and communities must not just recognize the inevitability of its worst effects, they must also be provoked to solvency. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangarap community attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. Leaders from the community, all women, unsurprisingly, shared their wisdom on resilience to the artists. Issues beyond climate change were opened, as the discourse became more broad, including that of security of tenure, which must no longer be set to the margins. Artists presented their response, and while some solutions for an otherwise uncertain future were raised, issues remain open-ended. Volatile realities are real-life conditions that define the 21st century developed through the contingencies in constructed knowledge and practice, and that which will perhaps structure our thinking of the future amidst climate change.
The project underwent exhaustive preparations for the artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. These preparations attempt to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space for caring.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell:
In an age where art takes countless forms, how can we even begin to define it? A creative output, perhaps, but what does it mean to be truly creative? I can look for definitions, but every answer seems to open another question. The more I search, the more elusive art becomes.
and Artists Bionotes
The Grab Pail
ARTWORKS
and Artists Bionotes
The [CAREscape Exhibition] project underwent exhaustive preparations for the participating artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangako community in Quezon City, the Philippines attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. These preparations attempted to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not just to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space of care.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell...
This exhibition gathers 14 artistic works and expressions by architects, designers, artists and an engineer whose reflections attempt to speculate on and redefine paradigms within the built environment in areas vulnerable to climate change, health equity issues and climate disasters. The initiative seeks to map and merge artistic vision with local knowledge and community engagement to promote inclusive and resilient practices in the provision of spaces of care. The exhibition forms part of its namesake, “CAREscape Project” proposed to and funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig and Professor Richard Rinen of the University of the Philippines College of Architecture who partnered with Dr. Mona Nasser of the University of Plymouth formed the core proponents of the project.
More than ever, the global community struggles to contain global warming. Climate disasters in highly exposed and vulnerable countries such as the Philippines will likely strain local health systems and worsen social and health inequities. With its focus on community storytelling, architecture, and art, our Internal Collaboration Grant project is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our collective capacity to aspire, to build on what works, and to imagine new ways of thinking and acting for health and well-being within a climate-adaptive future.
Climate change is a contingent part of our shared volatile realities. Its effects on our everyday life and long-term resilience can be determined by common resolve: governments, institutions, organizations and communities must not just recognize the inevitability of its worst effects, they must also be provoked to solvency. This was how the artists, and the Lupang Pangarap community attempted to collaborate on: open a discourse on climate change impacts, health, individual and collective plight… and site-specific knowledge. Leaders from the community, all women, unsurprisingly, shared their wisdom on resilience to the artists. Issues beyond climate change were opened, as the discourse became more broad, including that of security of tenure, which must no longer be set to the margins. Artists presented their response, and while some solutions for an otherwise uncertain future were raised, issues remain open-ended. Volatile realities are real-life conditions that define the 21st century developed through the contingencies in constructed knowledge and practice, and that which will perhaps structure our thinking of the future amidst climate change.
The project underwent exhaustive preparations for the artists: a series of lectures and research work of resilient architecture practices and collective memory, methodologies with workshops held on local knowledge and placemaking practices, deep mapping and futures thinking, speculative conceptualization and studio work. These preparations attempt to allow them to ask questions about the landscape of healthcare, and of care itself; questions about their capacity not to use art as representation, but as provocation; and questions about the space for caring.
What can art be in this context, then? Pray tell:
In an age where art takes countless forms, how can we even begin to define it? A creative output, perhaps, but what does it mean to be truly creative? I can look for definitions, but every answer seems to open another question. The more I search, the more elusive art becomes.
ARTWORKS
Artist
Search for a Sliver of Hope
Grace Camille Umali
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Camille Umali has tried various types of jobs during her stay in college. Being exposed to corporate events and kiddie parties for more than a decade boosted her love for art, which brought her to teaching Visual Techniques, Graphics, and Bamboo Research to home-schooled students and Architecture students.
This artwork presents a striking juxtaposition of past and present realities, where individuals continue to cling to traditional modes of survival- scavenging, recycling, and repurposing discarded items-as a means of enduring modern hardship.
Rendered from a low-angle perspective, as though viewed from within a trash bin, the composition invites the audience to see from the vantage point of the discarded. This deliberate point of view emphasizes that even what society deems as waste can retain value and meaning within marginalized communities.
At the center of the piece stands a child-an emblem of youth, vulnerability, and an uncertain future. The child's somber expression evokes a yearning for change, yet also a quiet resignation-an awareness of the systemic barriers that hinder access to rights and opportunities, particularly in the face of escalating climate change. The child becomes a poignant symbol of hope restrained by circumstance.
Surrounding the figure are various discarded objects-prescription bottles, medication wrappers, junk food packaging, and desiccated plants. Each of these items acts as a metaphor for broader social issues. The ongoing struggle for adequate healthcare, worsened by frequent flooding, has led some to depend on herbal remedies in the absence of consistent medical access. Similarly, the scarcity of nutritious food has resulted in a reliance on instant meals and processed snacks, reflecting the deeper issues of malnutrition and health inequality.
The arrangement of these items within the bin is not random-it speaks to consumption, neglect, and survival. Each object tells a story, bearing silent witness to the failures of a system that devalues both people and resources. Through this visual narrative, the artwork invites reflection on the complex intersections of poverty, healthcare, climate justice, and the enduring human pursuit of dignity.
Artist
To Start a Conversation
Ikang Gonzales
Oil Paint on Polyester Fabric, Bi-Fold Lightbox 36"x24" 2025
Erica ‘Ikang’ Gonzales is a licensed Architect and Artist based in Quezon City. Alongside her professional practice, Ikang has been actively exhibiting her artworks in group shows since 2017. Ikang's current works make use of intricate oil paintings on translucent fabric.
Narrow Paths & buildings pressed tight, meters lined side by side, Cables-varied and tangled, dancing in our gaze towards the sky. Are we just going to let this all by? "Simple Life, Simple People" so they say, as if the root-a simplicity, or else a silenced citizen. This, they claim, is PAYATAS. Yet it resists the name. Hope-Where shall it lean? On those seated at the table, or on ourselves, the many masses? In ways, finding other ways, stitching threads to unpick what was once woven. Flowers of Blumea, after years, slowly, slowly but surely blooming rising, defiant.
Every conversation Is a seed of change-Shaping how we see, How we feel, And how we connect. At its root and crown, Art is never solitary. In contrast, it lives, it comes alive when people engage: in a glance, in a question, in a word, The soul stirs to life; In people: In a gaze, In wonder, In dialogue, And encounters. Art serves as a beginning, It is never an end.
Artist
Flowers and Leaves
Richelle Rhea R. Baria
Acrylic on 50cm x 60cm box-type canvas
Richelle Rhea R. Baria is an architect, assistant professor, author, and researcher. Her work explores the intricate interplay between urban lighting, environmental acoustics, and technology with human activity, interaction, and movement.
The women of Lupang Pangako are the driving force that enables their community to care for their families and neighbors, remaining resilient and steadfast despite the wrath of nclimate-induced disasters and their impacts on health and well-being. The artworks express this in two ways, reflecting how the women I worked with have seen and experienced the interconnected effects of climate change, health, and their barangay’s urban design. The first artwork, which is displayed at the bottom, presents a bird’s-eye view that intertwines space and experience. Their recollections of the Payatas dumpsite landslide and persistent urban floods are symbolized by a large mass in the middle and winding blue water channels, respectively. Interwoven with these climate-induced disasters is their neighborhood—dense, grid-like, and marked by urban blight. Despite these challenges, the women, drawing from their local knowledge of herbal medicine and access to social services, are the central figures in this space, striving to provide care for their families and neighbors. In this artwork, the women are represented by flowers, while the herbal medicines they use are symbolized by leaves.
The representation of their problems and experiences is viewed from a macro level or the map of Lupang Pangako. It is an inventory of the site analysis factors and issues, and being critical about how space is tangible evidence of the community's struggles. Through the site walks, interviews, and workshops with these women, they visualized the vastness of their knowledge about their neighborhood. They acknowledge there are many areas with trash, dog excrement, open canals, and stagnant wastewater. They know which areas have regular floods, and the exact area in the Payatas dumpsite which collapsed and killed so many families during those 10 days of relentless storms in 2020.
Reflecting on these climate-induced disasters and unregulated waste disposal practices, there is an understanding that change has to happen in a macro and systematic manner. The future of Lupang Pangako is shaped by the hands of many- its leaders, residents, and on
a macro scale, the policy makers that create the laws for climate-change adaptation. These flowers, or the women, can be nurtured and taught new skills on neighborhood beautification, sanitation, and wellness urban design, and the gardens they cultivate will bloom of more effective climate-adaptive strategies. These leaves are the greening of their locale, making it robust and resilient.
Artist
Voice in Reflection
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva is an Architectural Assistant at the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, with a background in sustainable built environments, integrating research, design, and community engagement. He brings a critical and creative lens to visual storytelling as a former Editorial Cartoonist of Region III.
In the Promise Land this is what I beheld: narrow paths and humble homes. The trades long practiced still endure today—a testament to the way of life left by the past; a livelihood that, even now, many continue to rely upon.
Yet, along with the rhythm of the rain, flows the threat of illness and unending fear. Soaked in mud and refuse, safety has no certainty. In a shifting climate, people search for care and refuge that should be near and visible—not hospitals that seem like distant visions, hidden within buildings and difficult to find.
Now, look below—you will see a reflection. It is the sorrow of voices pleading, carrying tears. Hands reaching out, begging for rescue in the midst of drowning: will you take hold of them, or once again turn away and consign them to be forgotten?
(My sincere gratitude to Gloria V. Tañedo, Ailine Doromal, Fer Panon Balatucan, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for sharing their voices yand experiences in Lupang Pangako.)
Artist
Change is a choice
Reinhardt Pang Rey
Digital on 18” x 18” Cardboard Puzzle with Wooden Frame
Reinhardt Pang Rey is a licensed architect. Currently, he works as a Senior Architectural Assistant at the UP Diliman Office of Design and Planning Initiatives (ODPI) and as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
Once a huge dumpsite known for poverty, flooding, and a tragic landslide in 2000, Payatas now tells a new story. Despite ongoing flooding and limited access to healthcare facilities, small herb gardens and large reforestation projects show how a stronger bond with nature is reshaping Lupang Pangako— made possible by the community’s bayanihan spirit.
But change is a choice. The improvement of the village’s environment did not change overnight, but was instead a slow, steady process that took the collective efforts of the community to rehabilitate, rebuild, and renew. This piece aims to show this feeling through the form of a puzzle. The puzzle, partially assembled, has more than enough pieces left to complete the picture. What sets it apart, however, is the duality hidden in the extra pieces: one set reveals an image of the village neglected—flood-prone, polluted, and burdened with its past—while the other reveals a future, teeming with life.
The puzzle reminds us that the future of a community is never fixed, but assembled piece by piece through the choices of its people. Each resident is a vital part of the whole, and it is their collective direction—whether toward neglect or renewal—that determines the final picture. True progress comes from consciously fitting these pieces together.
Artist
Shaped by Hand
Dan Matutina
Dan Matutina is a designer and illustrator. He is a founding partner at Plus63 and Hydra Design Group. His work spans print, digital, and animation, characterized by an illustration style that blends angular, graphic shapes with hand-painted textures.
The challenges facing Lupang Pangako (poverty, land ownership, health crises, flooding) are neither mysterious nor unsolvable. Their causes are visible, their solutions frequently discussed. Yet the pieces never fit. "Shaped by Hand" confronts this frustrating reality. This reflects the lived experiences of residents in Lupang Pangako. Access to healthcare, food and land ownership should be achievable, yet systemic barriers from inadequate infrastructure to economic inequality keep solutions perpetually out of reach.
The work reimagines shape-sorting puzzles, replacing simple geometric forms with shapes representing daily realities in Lupang Pangako: plants, trees, dogs (symbolizing rabies), animal waste, houses to name a few. Fabricated pieces appear obvious matches for their corresponding holes, yet resist connection, deliberately sized just slightly too large. This impossibility becomes a metaphor for policy gaps and misaligned priorities.
By making solutions visible but unattainable, "Shaped by Hand" challenges audiences to take matters. into their own hands, echoing what residents and workshop participants repeatedly emphasized: we cannot always rely on those who should solve these problems, so we must act ourselves.
Moldable clay sits alongside the puzzle, inviting viewers to create their own solutions, literally shaping material to fill the gaps. They craft responses to problems the system cannot or will not address. This act transforms frustration into agency, passive observation into active participation.
This becomes a tangible reminder of community resilience and a provocative question: if ordinary citizens must fill these gaps themselves, especially as disasters make healthcare access even more precarious, what purpose do our institutions truly serve?
Artist
Colors
Dave V. Carbonel
Dave V. Carbonel, a graduate of Far Eastern University with a degree in BS Architecture, has been in the Architectural Design and Construction industry for almost 20 years. Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to the fields of architecture and design.
“Colors” are things that are usually seen by many. It can even show symbols and their relationships, convey emotions, and deliver a message from a story or an event. It can even be used for the illustration of a current situation, desires, or even a dream for the future.
The artwork is a revival of the story of life from the tragedy that happened in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, Quezon City, on the 10 day of July 2000, and how the community progresses little by little. It also shows how they rise while they continue to live their life after
the devasted event that happened. The artwork also shows the stability and resilience of the Lupang Pangako, regardless of the shortages and minimal support in their community.
At present, Lupang Pangako citizens continue to live their lives positively while waiting for hope that they can still be given love, support, and true care.
(My sincere gratitude to Porferia Balatucan, Gloria Tanedo, Ailene Doromal, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for making this artwork, a community story of resilience and strength.)
Artist
UN-TITLED
Aldren Thomas R. Rocha
3X3X2 GLASS BOX INSTALLATION
Aldren Thomas Rocha (Dren) moves between spaces of making, teaching, and reflecting, and is always curious about how people shape and are shaped by their environments. His work explores the curiosity of the ordinary, from photographs to the imagined architecture to the quiet rituals of daily life.
This work examines the lives of people without titles, individuals who navigate the intersecting challenges of climate change and unequal access to healthcare. It finds its grounding in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, a place whose name, “Promised Land, ” carries both irony and hope. Here, daily survival becomes a quiet form of resistance. Amid poverty, displacement, and the slow violence of environmental neglect, the human spirit endures.
The phrase “boxed inside clear glass” serves as the central metaphor of the piece. It captures the tension between visibility and distance. The people of Lupang Pangako are not invisible; in fact, they are constantly seen, documented, studied, photographed, and
narrated. Yet they remain enclosed by transparent barriers: social systems, economic inequities, and the silent detachment of those who look but do not truly see.
The clarity of the glass is deceptive. It allows observation but denies touch; it invites sympathy but resists transformation. This transparency reflects the way society often engages with poverty, healthcare, and climate change, perceiving them as something visible enough to acknowledge, yet distant enough to keep safely contained. In this reading, the glass becomes both a window and a wall, revealing reality while maintaining the comfort of separation.
It is a meditation on seeing and being seen, on the fragile line between awareness and action. The figures “boxed inside clear glass” are not voiceless; they are waiting to be heard beyond the barrier of our comfort. The piece calls for a reimagined gaze, one that does not merely look through, but looks with.
In bending low, we find the stories scattered beneath our feet, reminders that compassion, like light, passes only when the glass is broken.
The artist or creator is not exempt from this frame. Interpreting these stories also involves confronting one’s own position as an observer, someone aware of the limits of empathy and the ethical weight of representation. The act of seeing becomes an act of responsibility.
Thanks to the purok leaders of Lupang Pangako, to Gab, to Mic, and to the Creator.
Artist
Hilom
Sheina Mae O. Gaon
Plastic Art Installation
Sheina Mae O. Gaon embodies a compelling blend of technical architectural expertise and an artistic sensibility. She navigates the complexities of bringing structures to life while simultaneously cultivating her passion for visual storytelling through photography and graphics.
Hilom confronts the intertwined crises of climate change, healthcare inequities and institutional neglect through the lived experiences of the residents of Lupang Pangako, Payatas. Known for its history of urban poverty and its precarious relationship with the former landfill site, the community stands as a stark emblem of how climate vulnerabilities
are compounded by fragile health systems and policy gaps.
This artwork is structured as a layered environment: terraces of salvaged wire mesh filled with lighted plastic, sprouting herbal plants cultivated by the residents who often rely on them in the absence of reliable healthcare infrastructures. Plastic bottles molded and crafted into herbal plants– symbols of both environment degradation and human ingenuity– serve as vessels for these fragile remedies. The installation embodies the duality of survival and neglect: while residents cultivate resilience through self-reliance,
whilst the institution remains passive, magnifying its incompetency.
Silent voices and testimonies from Nanay Aurora, Susana, Eleanore and Beth embodied their experience of discomfort and empathy. Viewers might be immersed in the contradictions– plants healing amid pollution, testimonies echoing within the art space
while policies falter outside it. This artwork becomes a provocation to the institution: no longer can they remain silent when voices of lived suffering demand structural change.
By presenting the healing and adaptive practices in Lupang Pangako alongside the toxic realities of their environment, Hilom forces a confrontation with systemic failures. It challenges audiences– especially those in positions of influence– to reimagine healthcare not as a privilege of the few but an urgent necessity inseparable from climate change resilience. In this way, this artwork is not merely a representation of hardship but a call for accountability and participation, insisting that healing must move beyond improvisation to justice.
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Artist
Women, Woes, and Weather
Maria Rosario Argote
Maria Rosario Argote is an architect with specialization in Building Technology and a background in Architectural Interiors and Regenerative Design. Beyond her architectural pursuits, Rose is a passionate dancer. She practices different genres in studios across Metro Manila.
Lupang Pangako has outgrown the misconception of being a waste dump. Instead, it is a thriving habitat of resilient folks adapting over time. Although the citizens fend among themselves, the effects of climate change threaten survival. Camaraderie, communication, and consistency are some of the little they utilize to cope - but even with these tools they cry for help no matter how "repetitive" efforts will be. The piece is a fusion by Roxy as she indulges in a different genre on this stage; just like Rosario did when entered a unfamiliar community far from the usual. Contemporary dance is a weird manifestation and physical retraction from the innermost feelings, producing habitual gestures that will slowly invoke unresolves issues to be addressed from the core. The Artist uses the power of repetition upon entering new territory, an unorthodox method to convey the stories of Allene and Merly, body responses under the guidance of the Rihma Flavah, and movements captured by Superon Productions.
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Artist
Prototype Community Center of Payatas
John Ernest Jose
John Ernest Jose is an architect, master plumber, and environmental planner, currently pursuing his PhD in the Designed and Built Environment at UP Diliman. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was one of the designers of the Mobile Specimen Collection Unit (MSCU).
The artwork is a design proposal for a Community Center in Payatas that can be built in a 60 x 40-meter lot. In conceptualizing the design, the artist considered the everyday life of the Payatas residents: their inclination to socialize, their perennial usage of herbal medicines, their devoutness, and their desire to establish microenterprises, among others.
The artist hopes that the design sparks conversations on the importance of building structures for some of the most vulnerable citizens to serve as their bastion in the event of health and nature-related crises.
In addition, it is also a call for a paradigm shift in architectural design, wherein participatory design should be part of the process. This method allows users and stakeholders to feel that their needs matter and adds a social inclusion component in the design process.
Artist
Resiliency & Sustainability for Flooding-Ark 101 (RSF-Ark 101)
Ardel E. Claridad
3D Scaled Model Miniature, Scale: 1:100mm
Ardel E. Claridad is a Professional Mechanical Engineer and consultant from San Mateo, Rizal. He had been an active officer of the WIT ARTists’ Society and President of the WIT Youth Community Service Club in Iloilo City.
My artistic design is based on the concept of resiliency to flood problems and to sustain life with in for a significant time duration. This RSF-Ark 101 model is a combination of Filipino Engineering ingenuity and artistic. A skill and talent that we had been know worldwide through our OFW. I was one of them not so long ago.
This RSF Ark-101 is a dream of all the people I had talked in Lupang, Pangako, Payatas. The dream that can be only realize if the proper funding for the projects will be delivered direct to them. They hope to achieve this dream 50 yrs from now.
This scaled model is a representation of perfect evacuation center for our people that can save, feed, cure people and continuously teach children. It can accommodate 200 persons, adult & children, It is equipped with a bgry. hall, hospital, classroom, offices, dwelling rooms and a mini court of justice. the floating structure is a self propelling floating vessel based catamaran marine vessel design with proper buoyancy.
The Ark is designed to have a solar power panels with reserved battery power, enough to last for 15 days. The Ark has garden where medicinal plants & vegetables can be grown. It will have its own water pump, refrigeration & air-conditioning system and a water disinfection system. Wide window coated with heat resistance glass.
The people in Lupang Pangako in Payatas, are very resilient and has survived all the calamities that had happened in their area, it could be an exploding mountain of trash, fire incident or flooding, they had shown the spirit of survival & their faith to GOD is very strong.
The Ark will serve as a normal multi-function building during normal and summer but will serve as a floating evacuation center during the time of flooding.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my team during our Lupang Pangako, visit, namely Nanay Matilde, Nanay Lydia, Kathy and other members of Lupang Pangako CRO’s and Purok Leaders.
Artist
Gathering in the Cracks
Isola Tong
Materials: Wire, Inkjet Print on Awagami Paper
Isola Tong received her B.S. in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas Manila, and M.F.A from the University of California. She founded an artistic platform, Lala Projects, a craft-based, socially engaged initiative, exploring our collective sense-making and spatial knowing.
Who should be held accountable for the destruction brought about by climate change? Who is responsible for the care of marginalized
communities in a country bled dry by rampant corruption? What does the future of nature and health look like if the greed and negligence of those in power, whether abroad or in the Philippines, continue unchecked.
These are questions too big for easy answers, but one thing was clear as I walked through Lupang Pangako with the women leaders of the
community: Despite the daunting challenges they face from natural and man-made calamities, it is the residents themselves who care for one another.
As we moved along the roads during our deep mapping walk, we stopped at every corner, every cracks where medicinal plants took root. What was once a mountain of garbage now flourishes with the lushness of trees and potted plants. The entire walk was recorded on my cellphone, documenting not only the names and uses of herbs but also the histories of disasters: landslides, flooded homes, and lives lost.
The basket I wove from wire stands forms a symbol of solidarity, compassion, and our interconnectedness with nature. Its metal strands
coil together, signifying the entanglement of human and the natural environment. Wrapped through it are screenshots from the video,
resembling fragments of memory—holding still moments of connection, kinship, and solidarity.
This work also draws from the concept of “Ruderal Ecology” by German scholar Bettina Stoetzer, which concerns plants and animals that thrive in the crevices of harsh urban and industrial environments. Having grown up in a flood-prone neighborhood in Pasay, I see this as a metaphor for the relationship between my own lived experiences and those of the residents of Payatas.
Artist
The Grab Pail
Marion Descallar
Marion Descallar is an independent designer who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Visual Communication from UP Diliman. Communication, tactical and thematic strategies, Philippine indigenous knowledge, and design ethics are in the DNA of her design curiosity and process.
The Grab Pail is a satirical piece drawn from a personal story told by a resident in Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, Philippines.
During a neighbourhood fire caused by an electrical jumper in 2024, a resident had several pails which she and her neighbours used to carry water and help extinguish the flames. After the fire, she realised that only one pail was returned to her. This ordinary object of property became a symbol of collective action and loss.
However, the story is later co-opted by a corrupt politician who sees not a need for fire prevention systems, but an opportunity for profit. The ubiquitous pail is branded and packaged to mimic an emergency box with the bold headline above it: “IN CASE OF FIRE, GRAB” and below it, a sub-headline: “WATER NOT INCLUDED”—an absurd disclaimer which renders the pail—and the entire package—useless.
A politician’s caricature on the pail does not go unnoticed. This is a disgusting practice among Filipino politicians who love to use their names and faces like a branding tool. This exegesis in English and Tagalog is the dominant part of the backside as a backstory with the strapline, “Tinimbang Ka,” and “Ngunit Kulang.” In English, “You were weighed but found wanting.”
The entire piece critiques how stories of suffering are commodified and turned into overpriced, empty policies. It reflects the loss of the “gathering”—a traditional Filipino practice of coming together for story-telling, rituals, celebration, and interaction—in contemporary times. When residents are excluded from determining their needs, the door opens for corruption and incompetence.
It asks the painful question—what good is a pail if there is no water to fill it? And more broadly: what good are healthcare and disaster preparedness policies when they are built without the people they claim to serve? Compared to an emergency grab bag or a boat grab line, the Grab Pail is a costly distraction, useless, and dangerous idea. The practice of intentional gathering to discuss problems and solutions may possibly help slowly supplant the apathetic mindset of the government.
While The Grab Pail is a metaphor for corrupt Philippine governance practices—including healthcare in the core of disasters: flashy in presentation, hollow in substance, and at its worst: empty—the reality of corruption is not hidden. It is written on the back of the package for all to see. One only needs to look at the product on all sides and angles.
Too bad, the fancy façade is designed to grab most of the viewers’ attention entirely.
Aldren Rocha
The etching of diluvial stories by fire onto the woven surface warns us that disasters caused by warming temperatures can take the form of its elemental opposite. This way of embedding knowledge in craft reminds us that human, nonhuman, and geological agencies are all ecologically entangled across vast distances and in unexpected ways.
Isola Tong
By presenting this nuanced narrative, the artwork will challenge long-standing stereotypes while celebrating the strength, adaptability, and humanity of a community that continues to thrive amidst adversity.
Camille Umali
Our asymmetrical world of an overwhelming climate against our human vulnerabilities, or the over-lording human against an assailable and exploitable nature can probably be better understood if we see these objects on display as provocations, as simultaneously art, artist, community and even as resolve. Not just as individual ‘objects’ or representational works of art. As provocations, these works ask, challenge, confuse… and as art, they should do so. They commit to think about our futures together, they question policies and practices that marginalize or subjugate bodies, they ask to reassess our views on local knowledge about medicinal plants, they ask to correct the values for the underserved in hospitals and clinics, they intimate and demand a more nuanced articulation of “care” itself. Altogether.
On
Trend
and Artists Bionotes
ARTWORKS
Grace Camille Umali
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Camille Umali has tried various types of jobs during her stay in college. Being exposed to corporate events and kiddie parties for more than a decade boosted her love for art, which brought her to teaching Visual Techniques, Graphics, and Bamboo Research to home-schooled students and Architecture students.
This artwork presents a striking juxtaposition of past and present realities, where individuals continue to cling to traditional modes of survival- scavenging, recycling, and repurposing discarded items-as a means of enduring modern hardship.
Rendered from a low-angle perspective, as though viewed from within a trash bin, the composition invites the audience to see from the vantage point of the discarded. This deliberate point of view emphasizes that even what society deems as waste can retain value and meaning within marginalized communities.
At the center of the piece stands a child-an emblem of youth, vulnerability, and an uncertain future. The child's somber expression evokes a yearning for change, yet also a quiet resignation-an awareness of the systemic barriers that hinder access to rights and opportunities, particularly in the face of escalating climate change. The child becomes a poignant symbol of hope restrained by circumstance.
Surrounding the figure are various discarded objects-prescription bottles, medication wrappers, junk food packaging, and desiccated plants. Each of these items acts as a metaphor for broader social issues. The ongoing struggle for adequate healthcare, worsened by frequent flooding, has led some to depend on herbal remedies in the absence of consistent medical access. Similarly, the scarcity of nutritious food has resulted in a reliance on instant meals and processed snacks, reflecting the deeper issues of malnutrition and health inequality.
The arrangement of these items within the bin is not random-it speaks to consumption, neglect, and survival. Each object tells a story, bearing silent witness to the failures of a system that devalues both people and resources. Through this visual narrative, the artwork invites reflection on the complex intersections of poverty, healthcare, climate justice, and the enduring human pursuit of dignity.
Richelle Rhea R. Baria
Acrylic on 50cm x 60cm box-type canvas
Richelle Rhea R. Baria is an architect, assistant professor, author, and researcher. Her work explores the intricate interplay between urban lighting, environmental acoustics, and technology with human activity, interaction, and movement.
The women of Lupang Pangako are the driving force that enables their community to care for their families and neighbors, remaining resilient and steadfast despite the wrath of nclimate-induced disasters and their impacts on health and well-being. The artworks express this in two ways, reflecting how the women I worked with have seen and experienced the interconnected effects of climate change, health, and their barangay’s urban design. The first artwork, which is displayed at the bottom, presents a bird’s-eye view that intertwines space and experience. Their recollections of the Payatas dumpsite landslide and persistent urban floods are symbolized by a large mass in the middle and winding blue water channels, respectively. Interwoven with these climate-induced disasters is their neighborhood—dense, grid-like, and marked by urban blight. Despite these challenges, the women, drawing from their local knowledge of herbal medicine and access to social services, are the central figures in this space, striving to provide care for their families and neighbors. In this artwork, the women are represented by flowers, while the herbal medicines they use are symbolized by leaves.
The representation of their problems and experiences is viewed from a macro level or the map of Lupang Pangako. It is an inventory of the site analysis factors and issues, and being critical about how space is tangible evidence of the community's struggles. Through the site walks, interviews, and workshops with these women, they visualized the vastness of their knowledge about their neighborhood. They acknowledge there are many areas with trash, dog excrement, open canals, and stagnant wastewater. They know which areas have regular floods, and the exact area in the Payatas dumpsite which collapsed and killed so many families during those 10 days of relentless storms in 2020.
Reflecting on these climate-induced disasters and unregulated waste disposal practices, there is an understanding that change has to happen in a macro and systematic manner. The future of Lupang Pangako is shaped by the hands of many- its leaders, residents, and on
a macro scale, the policy makers that create the laws for climate-change adaptation. These flowers, or the women, can be nurtured and taught new skills on neighborhood beautification, sanitation, and wellness urban design, and the gardens they cultivate will bloom of more effective climate-adaptive strategies. These leaves are the greening of their locale, making it robust and resilient.
Ikang Gonzales
Oil Paint on Polyester Fabric, Bi-Fold Lightbox 36"x24" 2025
Erica ‘Ikang’ Gonzales is a licensed Architect and Artist based in Quezon City. Alongside her professional practice, Ikang has been actively exhibiting her artworks in group shows since 2017. Ikang's current works make use of intricate oil paintings on translucent fabric.
Narrow Paths & buildings pressed tight, meters lined side by side, Cables-varied and tangled, dancing in our gaze towards the sky. Are we just going to let this all by? "Simple Life, Simple People" so they say, as if the root-a simplicity, or else a silenced citizen. This, they claim, is PAYATAS. Yet it resists the name. Hope-Where shall it lean? On those seated at the table, or on ourselves, the many masses? In ways, finding other ways, stitching threads to unpick what was once woven. Flowers of Blumea, after years, slowly, slowly but surely blooming rising, defiant.
Every conversation Is a seed of change-Shaping how we see, How we feel, And how we connect. At its root and crown, Art is never solitary. In contrast, it lives, it comes alive when people engage: in a glance, in a question, in a word, The soul stirs to life; In people: In a gaze, In wonder, In dialogue, And encounters. Art serves as a beginning, It is never an end.
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva
Acrylic on 3'x3' box-type canvas
Cloyd Loui C. Villanueva is an Architectural Assistant at the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, with a background in sustainable built environments, integrating research, design, and community engagement. He brings a critical and creative lens to visual storytelling as a former Editorial Cartoonist of Region III.
In the Promise Land this is what I beheld: narrow paths and humble homes. The trades long practiced still endure today—a testament to the way of life left by the past; a livelihood that, even now, many continue to rely upon.
Yet, along with the rhythm of the rain, flows the threat of illness and unending fear. Soaked in mud and refuse, safety has no certainty. In a shifting climate, people search for care and refuge that should be near and visible—not hospitals that seem like distant visions, hidden within buildings and difficult to find.
Now, look below—you will see a reflection. It is the sorrow of voices pleading, carrying tears. Hands reaching out, begging for rescue in the midst of drowning: will you take hold of them, or once again turn away and consign them to be forgotten?
(My sincere gratitude to Gloria V. Tañedo, Ailine Doromal, Fer Panon Balatucan, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for sharing their voices yand experiences in Lupang Pangako.)
Dan Matutina
Dan Matutina is a designer and illustrator. He is a founding partner at Plus63 and Hydra Design Group. His work spans print, digital, and animation, characterized by an illustration style that blends angular, graphic shapes with hand-painted textures.
The challenges facing Lupang Pangako (poverty, land ownership, health crises, flooding) are neither mysterious nor unsolvable. Their causes are visible, their solutions frequently discussed. Yet the pieces never fit. "Shaped by Hand" confronts this frustrating reality. This reflects the lived experiences of residents in Lupang Pangako. Access to healthcare, food and land ownership should be achievable, yet systemic barriers from inadequate infrastructure to economic inequality keep solutions perpetually out of reach.
The work reimagines shape-sorting puzzles, replacing simple geometric forms with shapes representing daily realities in Lupang Pangako: plants, trees, dogs (symbolizing rabies), animal waste, houses to name a few. Fabricated pieces appear obvious matches for their corresponding holes, yet resist connection, deliberately sized just slightly too large. This impossibility becomes a metaphor for policy gaps and misaligned priorities.
By making solutions visible but unattainable, "Shaped by Hand" challenges audiences to take matters. into their own hands, echoing what residents and workshop participants repeatedly emphasized: we cannot always rely on those who should solve these problems, so we must act ourselves.
Moldable clay sits alongside the puzzle, inviting viewers to create their own solutions, literally shaping material to fill the gaps. They craft responses to problems the system cannot or will not address. This act transforms frustration into agency, passive observation into active participation.
This becomes a tangible reminder of community resilience and a provocative question: if ordinary citizens must fill these gaps themselves, especially as disasters make healthcare access even more precarious, what purpose do our institutions truly serve?
Reinhardt Pang Rey
Digital on 18” x 18” Cardboard Puzzle with Wooden Frame
Reinhardt Pang Rey is a licensed architect. Currently, he works as a Senior Architectural Assistant at the UP Diliman Office of Design and Planning Initiatives (ODPI) and as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
Once a huge dumpsite known for poverty, flooding, and a tragic landslide in 2000, Payatas now tells a new story. Despite ongoing flooding and limited access to healthcare facilities, small herb gardens and large reforestation projects show how a stronger bond with nature is reshaping Lupang Pangako— made possible by the community’s bayanihan spirit.
But change is a choice. The improvement of the village’s environment did not change overnight, but was instead a slow, steady process that took the collective efforts of the community to rehabilitate, rebuild, and renew. This piece aims to show this feeling through the form of a puzzle. The puzzle, partially assembled, has more than enough pieces left to complete the picture. What sets it apart, however, is the duality hidden in the extra pieces: one set reveals an image of the village neglected—flood-prone, polluted, and burdened with its past—while the other reveals a future, teeming with life.
The puzzle reminds us that the future of a community is never fixed, but assembled piece by piece through the choices of its people. Each resident is a vital part of the whole, and it is their collective direction—whether toward neglect or renewal—that determines the final picture. True progress comes from consciously fitting these pieces together.
Dave V. Carbonel
Dave V. Carbonel, a graduate of Far Eastern University with a degree in BS Architecture, has been in the Architectural Design and Construction industry for almost 20 years. Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to the fields of architecture and design.
“Colors” are things that are usually seen by many. It can even show symbols and their relationships, convey emotions, and deliver a message from a story or an event. It can even be used for the illustration of a current situation, desires, or even a dream for the future.
The artwork is a revival of the story of life from the tragedy that happened in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, Quezon City, on the 10 day of July 2000, and how the community progresses little by little. It also shows how they rise while they continue to live their life after
the devasted event that happened. The artwork also shows the stability and resilience of the Lupang Pangako, regardless of the shortages and minimal support in their community.
At present, Lupang Pangako citizens continue to live their lives positively while waiting for hope that they can still be given love, support, and true care.
(My sincere gratitude to Porferia Balatucan, Gloria Tanedo, Ailene Doromal, Mona Baguno, and Julita Delima for making this artwork, a community story of resilience and strength.)
Aldren Thomas R. Rocha
3X3X2 GLASS BOX INSTALLATION
Aldren Thomas Rocha (Dren) moves between spaces of making, teaching, and reflecting, and is always curious about how people shape and are shaped by their environments. His work explores the curiosity of the ordinary, from photographs to the imagined architecture to the quiet rituals of daily life.
This work examines the lives of people without titles, individuals who navigate the intersecting challenges of climate change and unequal access to healthcare. It finds its grounding in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, a place whose name, “Promised Land, ” carries both irony and hope. Here, daily survival becomes a quiet form of resistance. Amid poverty, displacement, and the slow violence of environmental neglect, the human spirit endures.
The phrase “boxed inside clear glass” serves as the central metaphor of the piece. It captures the tension between visibility and distance. The people of Lupang Pangako are not invisible; in fact, they are constantly seen, documented, studied, photographed, and
narrated. Yet they remain enclosed by transparent barriers: social systems, economic inequities, and the silent detachment of those who look but do not truly see.
The clarity of the glass is deceptive. It allows observation but denies touch; it invites sympathy but resists transformation. This transparency reflects the way society often engages with poverty, healthcare, and climate change, perceiving them as something visible enough to acknowledge, yet distant enough to keep safely contained. In this reading, the glass becomes both a window and a wall, revealing reality while maintaining the comfort of separation.
It is a meditation on seeing and being seen, on the fragile line between awareness and action. The figures “boxed inside clear glass” are not voiceless; they are waiting to be heard beyond the barrier of our comfort. The piece calls for a reimagined gaze, one that does not merely look through, but looks with.
In bending low, we find the stories scattered beneath our feet, reminders that compassion, like light, passes only when the glass is broken.
The artist or creator is not exempt from this frame. Interpreting these stories also involves confronting one’s own position as an observer, someone aware of the limits of empathy and the ethical weight of representation. The act of seeing becomes an act of responsibility.
Thanks to the purok leaders of Lupang Pangako, to Gab, to Mic, and to the Creator.
Sheina Mae O. Gaon
Plastic Art Installation
Sheina Mae O. Gaon embodies a compelling blend of technical architectural expertise and an artistic sensibility. She navigates the complexities of bringing structures to life while simultaneously cultivating her passion for visual storytelling through photography and graphics.
Hilom confronts the intertwined crises of climate change, healthcare inequities and institutional neglect through the lived experiences of the residents of Lupang Pangako, Payatas. Known for its history of urban poverty and its precarious relationship with the former landfill site, the community stands as a stark emblem of how climate vulnerabilities
are compounded by fragile health systems and policy gaps.
This artwork is structured as a layered environment: terraces of salvaged wire mesh filled with lighted plastic, sprouting herbal plants cultivated by the residents who often rely on them in the absence of reliable healthcare infrastructures. Plastic bottles molded and crafted into herbal plants– symbols of both environment degradation and human ingenuity– serve as vessels for these fragile remedies. The installation embodies the duality of survival and neglect: while residents cultivate resilience through self-reliance,
whilst the institution remains passive, magnifying its incompetency.
Silent voices and testimonies from Nanay Aurora, Susana, Eleanore and Beth embodied their experience of discomfort and empathy. Viewers might be immersed in the contradictions– plants healing amid pollution, testimonies echoing within the art space
while policies falter outside it. This artwork becomes a provocation to the institution: no longer can they remain silent when voices of lived suffering demand structural change.
By presenting the healing and adaptive practices in Lupang Pangako alongside the toxic realities of their environment, Hilom forces a confrontation with systemic failures. It challenges audiences– especially those in positions of influence– to reimagine healthcare not as a privilege of the few but an urgent necessity inseparable from climate change resilience. In this way, this artwork is not merely a representation of hardship but a call for accountability and participation, insisting that healing must move beyond improvisation to
justice.
Maria Rosario Argote
Maria Rosario Argote is an architect with specialization in Building Technology and a background in Architectural Interiors and Regenerative Design. Beyond her architectural pursuits, Rose is a passionate dancer. She practices different genres in studios across Metro Manila.
Lupang Pangako has outgrown the misconception of being a waste dump. Instead, it is a thriving habitat of resilient folks adapting over time. Although the citizens fend among themselves, the effects of climate change threaten survival. Camaraderie, communication, and consistency are some of the little they utilize to cope - but even with these tools they cry for help no matter how "repetitive" efforts will be. The piece is a fusion by Roxy as she indulges in a different genre on this stage; just like Rosario did when entered a unfamiliar community far from the usual. Contemporary dance is a weird manifestation and physical retraction from the innermost feelings, producing habitual gestures that will slowly invoke unresolves issues to be addressed from the core. The Artist uses the power of repetition upon entering new territory, an unorthodox method to convey the stories of Allene and Merly, body responses under the guidance of the Rihma Flavah, and movements captured by Superon Productions.
Isola Tong
Materials: Wire, Inkjet Print on Awagami Paper
Isola Tong received her B.S. in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas Manila, and M.F.A from the University of California. She founded an artistic platform, Lala Projects, a craft-based, socially engaged initiative, exploring our collective sense-making and spatial knowing.
Who should be held accountable for the destruction brought about by climate change? Who is responsible for the care of marginalized
communities in a country bled dry by rampant corruption? What does the future of nature and health look like if the greed and negligence of those in power, whether abroad or in the Philippines, continue unchecked.
These are questions too big for easy answers, but one thing was clear as I walked through Lupang Pangako with the women leaders of the
community: Despite the daunting challenges they face from natural and man-made calamities, it is the residents themselves who care for one another.
As we moved along the roads during our deep mapping walk, we stopped at every corner, every cracks where medicinal plants took root. What was once a mountain of garbage now flourishes with the lushness of trees and potted plants. The entire walk was recorded on my cellphone, documenting not only the names and uses of herbs but also the histories of disasters: landslides, flooded homes, and lives lost.
The basket I wove from wire stands forms a symbol of solidarity, compassion, and our interconnectedness with nature. Its metal strands
coil together, signifying the entanglement of human and the natural environment. Wrapped through it are screenshots from the video,
resembling fragments of memory—holding still moments of connection, kinship, and solidarity.
This work also draws from the concept of “Ruderal Ecology” by German scholar Bettina Stoetzer, which concerns plants and animals that thrive in the crevices of harsh urban and industrial environments. Having grown up in a flood-prone neighborhood in Pasay, I see this as a metaphor for the relationship between my own lived experiences and those of the residents of Payatas.
John Ernest Jose
John Ernest Jose is an architect, master plumber, and environmental planner, currently pursuing his PhD in the Designed and Built Environment at UP Diliman. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was one of the designers of the Mobile Specimen Collection Unit (MSCU).
The artwork is a design proposal for a Community Center in Payatas that can be built in a 60 x 40-meter lot. In conceptualizing the design, the artist considered the everyday life of the Payatas residents: their inclination to socialize, their perennial usage of herbal medicines, their devoutness, and their desire to establish microenterprises, among others.
The artist hopes that the design sparks conversations on the importance of building structures for some of the most vulnerable citizens to serve as their bastion in the event of health and nature-related crises.
In addition, it is also a call for a paradigm shift in architectural design, wherein participatory design should be part of the process. This method allows users and stakeholders to feel that their needs matter and adds a social inclusion component in the design process.
Marion Descallar
Marion Descallar is an independent designer who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Visual Communication from UP Diliman. Communication, tactical and thematic strategies, Philippine indigenous knowledge, and design ethics are in the DNA of her design curiosity and process.
The Grab Pail is a satirical piece drawn from a personal story told by a resident in Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, Philippines.
During a neighbourhood fire caused by an electrical jumper in 2024, a resident had several pails which she and her neighbours used to carry water and help extinguish the flames. After the fire, she realised that only one pail was returned to her. This ordinary object of property became a symbol of collective action and loss.
However, the story is later co-opted by a corrupt politician who sees not a need for fire prevention systems, but an opportunity for profit. The ubiquitous pail is branded and packaged to mimic an emergency box with the bold headline above it: “IN CASE OF FIRE, GRAB” and below it, a sub-headline: “WATER NOT INCLUDED”—an absurd disclaimer which renders the pail—and the entire package—useless.
A politician’s caricature on the pail does not go unnoticed. This is a disgusting practice among Filipino politicians who love to use their names and faces like a branding tool. This exegesis in English and Tagalog is the dominant part of the backside as a backstory with the strapline, “Tinimbang Ka,” and “Ngunit Kulang.” In English, “You were weighed but found wanting.”
The entire piece critiques how stories of suffering are commodified and turned into overpriced, empty policies. It reflects the loss of the “gathering”—a traditional Filipino practice of coming together for story-telling, rituals, celebration, and interaction—in contemporary times. When residents are excluded from determining their needs, the door opens for corruption and incompetence.
It asks the painful question—what good is a pail if there is no water to fill it? And more broadly: what good are healthcare and disaster preparedness policies when they are built without the people they claim to serve? Compared to an emergency grab bag or a boat grab line, the Grab Pail is a costly distraction, useless, and dangerous idea. The practice of intentional gathering to discuss problems and solutions may possibly help slowly supplant the apathetic mindset of the government.
While The Grab Pail is a metaphor for corrupt Philippine governance practices—including healthcare in the core of disasters: flashy in presentation, hollow in substance, and at its worst: empty—the reality of corruption is not hidden. It is written on the back of the package for all to see. One only needs to look at the product on all sides and angles.
Too bad, the fancy façade is designed to grab most of the viewers’ attention entirely.
Ardel E. Claridad
3D Scaled Model Miniature, Scale: 1:100mm
Ardel E. Claridad is a Professional Mechanical Engineer and consultant from San Mateo, Rizal. He had been an active officer of the WIT ARTists’ Society and President of the WIT Youth Community Service Club in Iloilo City.
My artistic design is based on the concept of resiliency to flood problems and to sustain life with in for a significant time duration. This RSF-Ark 101 model is a combination of Filipino Engineering ingenuity and artistic. A skill and talent that we had been know worldwide through our OFW. I was one of them not so long ago.
This RSF Ark-101 is a dream of all the people I had talked in Lupang, Pangako, Payatas. The dream that can be only realize if the proper funding for the projects will be delivered direct to them. They hope to achieve this dream 50 yrs from now.
This scaled model is a representation of perfect evacuation center for our people that can save, feed, cure people and continuously teach children. It can accommodate 200 persons, adult & children, It is equipped with a bgry. hall, hospital, classroom, offices, dwelling rooms and a mini court of justice. the floating structure is a self propelling floating vessel based catamaran marine vessel design with proper buoyancy.
The Ark is designed to have a solar power panels with reserved battery power, enough to last for 15 days. The Ark has garden where medicinal plants & vegetables can be grown. It will have its own water pump, refrigeration & air-conditioning system and a water disinfection system. Wide window coated with heat resistance glass.
The people in Lupang Pangako in Payatas, are very resilient and has survived all the calamities that had happened in their area, it could be an exploding mountain of trash, fire incident or flooding, they had shown the spirit of survival & their faith to GOD is very strong.
The Ark will serve as a normal multi-function building during normal and summer but will serve as a floating evacuation center during the time of flooding.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my team during our Lupang Pangako, visit, namely Nanay Matilde, Nanay Lydia, Kathy and other members of Lupang Pangako CRO’s and Purok Leaders.
Collaborators from the University of the Philippines College of Architecture:
Dr. Pamela Cajilig advises organisations across Asia-Pacific on disaster resilience, climate–health strategy, and participatory design, drawing on nearly 30 yrs of applied fieldwork, research leadership, and cross-sector practice. Her work asks how communities can live, rebuild, and imagine futures under risk, and how dignity, justice, and local knowledge can reshape how we talk about disaster.
Her research and consulting practice combines disaster anthropology, participatory design, and climate–health equity. Her career began with creating and directing strategic planning teams in Manila, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, before co-founding Curiosity. As a team, Curiosity has completed 300+ projects on research, training, and human-centred and service design with clients across 4 continents, including UNICEF, USAID, Asian Development Bank, GIZ, IDEO, and Boston Consulting Group.
She holds a PhD in Architecture & Design focused on post-flood recovery from RMIT University, Melbourne and an MA in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines. Her work has earned recognition from the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction and the Australian Government at the Asia-Pacific Women’s International Network Leadership Awards.
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Asst. Prof. Richard Martin Rinen is a registered architect with over twenty-five years of professional experience in the planning and design of residential, commercial, and institutional projects. His practice is grounded in a strong specialization in healthcare architecture, supported by a Master of Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines, where he majored in Architectural Design with a concentration in Healthcare Facilities and minored in Building Science. This academic background informs his integrated approach to design, which emphasizes evidence-based planning, environmental performance, and the relationship between the built environment and human well-being.
He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the College of Architecture, University of the Philippines Diliman, and as Director of the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, where he oversees the conceptualization and development of the University’s major infrastructure projects. His research interests center on disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and community resilience, which he pursues under the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, where he is currently undertaking his PhD in Architecture and Architectural Engineering.
Alongside his academic and research engagements, he maintains an active professional practice as Managing Architect of HAN (Human, Architecture, Nature) Architectural Design Studio and as Vice President of AMC International Administrative and Construction Corporation, a Taiwan-based firm, which bridges academic inquiry, design practice, and construction management across local and international contexts.
Collaborators from the University of Plymouth:
Prof. Mona Nasser is a clinical epidemiologist, interdisciplinary methodologist, futurist and a visual artist. She is currently a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Oral Health research at the University of Plymouth and the Director of Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research. She is a methodologist focusing on challenges of using systematic reviews with topics that use diverse study design (clinical, animal and in-vitro) or focus on interdisciplinary topics especially how it can apply to space medicine. She has developed frameworks around developing and evaluating research priority setting exercises. She facilitates collaboration with robotics engineer and cybersecurity experts to find new technological solutions to make the dental practice more welcoming for individuals with different level of intellectual or physical abilities.
Sana Murrani is an Associate Professor in Spatial Practice with a background in Architecture and Urban Design. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Sana’s research interests are rooted in spatial justice, informed by a creative, place-based research practice that maps built, destroyed, remembered, and reimagined trauma geographies of war, violence, and displacement. Sana's research methods are embedded in critical participatory action research approaches and creative mapping techniques that rely on spatial thinking, memory mapping, and speculative and imaginative drawing and layering.
She studied architecture at Baghdad University School of Architecture at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Sana completed her PhD in the UK on the theoretical encounters and the critique of architectural representation and material culture under the influence of technology. She is an alumna of the International School in Forced Migration (cohort 2021) at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford.
John Martin's research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to landscape assessment and monitoring. He utilizes various mapping techniques, including ubiquitous technology tools, participatory walking workshops, and remote sensing methods. Recently, John has been involved in a large-scale (10 Million Euro), multipartner European project, RURITAGE, which aimed to explore how culture and natural heritage can drive rural regeneration. The project sought to translate lessons learned from protected landscapes worldwide into practical actions and policies.
At the national level, John has collaborated closely with Natural England on multiple projects related to understanding stakeholder values. He has also provided evidence to the UK Government’s House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee as part of an inquiry into environmental sustainability and housing growth. John’s research has been cited in UK Government reports, including the England Peat Strategy, referenced in the England Peat Action Plan, and studies on environmental monitoring in protected landscapes, cited in the Glover Review. Additionally, he has contributed as a reviewer for the Local Nature Recovery Strategies - POSTnote (parliament.uk) and the Habitat Restoration Target.
At the local level, John serves as the Vice-Chair of the South Devon AONB Partnership Committee. His diverse involvement has provided him with valuable expertise in the field, reinforcing the importance of translating research and evidence into practical policy applications.
Michael Punt is a leading figure in interdisciplinary arts and technology research and the founding convenor of the Transtechnology Research Group, an international network of more than 20 doctoral, post-doctoral, and visiting researchers. Under his leadership, the group has advanced influential work across cinema, digital technology, design cognition, affective interaction, scientific visualization, sustainable materials, and clinical simulation. He has supervised over 30 completed PhDs and has played a pivotal role in shaping practice-based and theory-driven research in these fields.
An internationally exhibited sculptor and filmmaker, Punt has sustained a distinguished academic and creative career since 1969. He has produced two books, 16 films, and more than 100 scholarly articles on cinema history and digital technology, supported by major funding bodies including the AHRC and the EU. He has also held senior advisory and funding roles across Europe, including Chair of the FWF PEEK Board overseeing approximately €7 million in arts-based research funding, and membership in key UKRI and AHRC panels. At the University of Plymouth, he continues to lead interdisciplinary research initiatives and support the development of doctoral and post-doctoral scholars.
Collaborators from the University of the Philippines College of Architecture:
Exhibits Curator:
Dr. Pamela Gloria Cajilig
Collaborators
Asst. Prof. Richard Martin Rinen
Collaborators from the University of Plymouth:
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Dr. Pamela Cajilig advises organisations across Asia-Pacific on disaster resilience, climate–health strategy, and participatory design, drawing on nearly 30 yrs of applied fieldwork, research leadership, and cross-sector practice. Her work asks how communities can live, rebuild, and imagine futures under risk, and how dignity, justice, and local knowledge can reshape how we talk about disaster.
Her research and consulting practice combines disaster anthropology, participatory design, and climate–health equity. Her career began with creating and directing strategic planning teams in Manila, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, before co-founding Curiosity. As a team, Curiosity has completed 300+ projects on research, training, and human-centred and service design with clients across 4 continents, including UNICEF, USAID, Asian Development Bank, GIZ, IDEO, and Boston Consulting Group.
She holds a PhD in Architecture & Design focused on post-flood recovery from RMIT University, Melbourne and an MA in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines. Her work has earned recognition from the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction and the Australian Government at the Asia-Pacific Women’s International Network Leadership Awards.
Asst. Prof. Richard Martin Rinen is a registered architect with over twenty-five years of professional experience in the planning and design of residential, commercial, and institutional projects. His practice is grounded in a strong specialization in healthcare architecture, supported by a Master of Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines, where he majored in Architectural Design with a concentration in Healthcare Facilities and minored in Building Science. This academic background informs his integrated approach to design, which emphasizes evidence-based planning, environmental performance, and the relationship between the built environment and human well-being.
He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the College of Architecture, University of the Philippines Diliman, and as Director of the Office of Design and Planning Initiatives, where he oversees the conceptualization and development of the University’s major infrastructure projects. His research interests center on disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and community resilience, which he pursues under the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, where he is currently undertaking his PhD in Architecture and Architectural Engineering.
Alongside his academic and research engagements, he maintains an active professional practice as Managing Architect of HAN (Human, Architecture, Nature) Architectural Design Studio and as Vice President of AMC International Administrative and Construction Corporation, a Taiwan-based firm, which bridges academic inquiry, design practice, and construction management across local and international contexts.
Asst. Prof. Leonido Gines, Jr. (Jun) is an architect with over 25 years of professional experience mainly specializing in museums and exhibitions design. His varied expertise ranges from cultural resources management, urban and design anthropology, to critical design. He is also an academic with 30 years of cumulative teaching experience in the Philippines and abroad. He currently focuses on architectural theory research at the University of the Philippines College of Architecture (UPCA) under the history, theory, and criticism (HTC) studio laboratory. He teaches architectural design, architecture research and degree thesis, theory, and history courses for undergraduate (BS Arch) and graduate (M Arch and MA Architectural Studies) programs.
Prior to curating CAREscape, his other recent exhibition designs focused on human rights (The Freedom Memorial Museum Gallery of the Human Rights Violations Victims Commission) and on the development of the idea of the secular in the Phippines (The Secular section) at the UP Manila Museum of a History of Ideas.
He is also an urban anthropologist with an MA Anthropology degree from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) where he is also pursuing a PhD. His research interest revolves around the idea of "volatile realities" and recognizes the effects of multiple conditions that may drastically affect social, cultural and the built environments.
Prof. Mona Nasser is a clinical epidemiologist, interdisciplinary methodologist, futurist and a visual artist. She is currently a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Oral Health research at the University of Plymouth and the Director of Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research. She is a methodologist focusing on challenges of using systematic reviews with topics that use diverse study design (clinical, animal and in-vitro) or focus on interdisciplinary topics especially how it can apply to space medicine. She has developed frameworks around developing and evaluating research priority setting exercises. She facilitates collaboration with robotics engineer and cybersecurity experts to find new technological solutions to make the dental practice more welcoming for individuals with different level of intellectual or physical abilities.
Prof. Mona Nasser
Sana Murrani is an Associate Professor in Spatial Practice with a background in Architecture and Urban Design. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Sana’s research interests are rooted in spatial justice, informed by a creative, place-based research practice that maps built, destroyed, remembered, and reimagined trauma geographies of war, violence, and displacement. Sana's research methods are embedded in critical participatory action research approaches and creative mapping techniques that rely on spatial thinking, memory mapping, and speculative and imaginative drawing and layering.
She studied architecture at Baghdad University School of Architecture at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Sana completed her PhD in the UK on the theoretical encounters and the critique of architectural representation and material culture under the influence of technology. She is an alumna of the International School in Forced Migration (cohort 2021) at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford.
Dr. Sana Murani
John Martin's research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to landscape assessment and monitoring. He utilizes various mapping techniques, including ubiquitous technology tools, participatory walking workshops, and remote sensing methods. Recently, John has been involved in a large-scale (10 Million Euro), multipartner European project, RURITAGE, which aimed to explore how culture and natural heritage can drive rural regeneration. The project sought to translate lessons learned from protected landscapes worldwide into practical actions and policies.
At the national level, John has collaborated closely with Natural England on multiple projects related to understanding stakeholder values. He has also provided evidence to the UK Government’s House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee as part of an inquiry into environmental sustainability and housing growth. John’s research has been cited in UK Government reports, including the England Peat Strategy, referenced in the England Peat Action Plan, and studies on environmental monitoring in protected landscapes, cited in the Glover Review. Additionally, he has contributed as a reviewer for the Local Nature Recovery Strategies - POSTnote (parliament.uk) and the Habitat Restoration Target.
At the local level, John serves as the Vice-Chair of the South Devon AONB Partnership Committee. His diverse involvement has provided him with valuable expertise in the field, reinforcing the importance of translating research and evidence into practical policy applications.
Dr. John Martin
Michael Punt is a leading figure in interdisciplinary arts and technology research and the founding convenor of the Transtechnology Research Group, an international network of more than 20 doctoral, post-doctoral, and visiting researchers. Under his leadership, the group has advanced influential work across cinema, digital technology, design cognition, affective interaction, scientific visualization, sustainable materials, and clinical simulation. He has supervised over 30 completed PhDs and has played a pivotal role in shaping practice-based and theory-driven research in these fields.
An internationally exhibited sculptor and filmmaker, Punt has sustained a distinguished academic and creative career since 1969. He has produced two books, 16 films, and more than 100 scholarly articles on cinema history and digital technology, supported by major funding bodies including the AHRC and the EU. He has also held senior advisory and funding roles across Europe, including Chair of the FWF PEEK Board overseeing approximately €7 million in arts-based research funding, and membership in key UKRI and AHRC panels. At the University of Plymouth, he continues to lead interdisciplinary research initiatives and support the development of doctoral and post-doctoral scholars.
Prof. Michael Punt
Exhibits Curator: