![]() Blissful seclusion means not being able to see the others, but still remaining within full hearing range.Īccording to a friend of mine who is descended from Bacolod sugar royalty, everyone could hear a couple having sex, so this meant that enterprising couples stole any moment they could: dressed or not, standing or lying down, in a secluded corner or in the open portico walk that lined the house. Temporary as the privacy may turn out to be, the fluttering illusion of an unlatchable door screens the rest of the family out. However, in houses like these, residents found enough privacy to conceive, deliver and nurse babies, to care for the sick and the aged….When in need of solitude, a thin cloth curtain strung over an opening stakes out a private section. Air circulated freely through the entire story, and so did noise. Georgina notices right away that “carved moldings-the design as fine as lace-divided the large space into separate salons.” In other words, none of the walls were complete. None of these “rooms” are really separate, though. Like a bahay kubo, the real house is upstairs: the caida (foyer), sala mayor (sitting room), comedor (dining room), the cuartos (bedrooms), the cocina or kusina (kitchen), despacho (office), comun or banyo (toilet), often an azotea (open balcony), and maybe an oratorio (prayer room). The sala of the Crisologo House and Museum in Vigan, Luzon. Men didn’t have to wear full skirts with tiny slippers, nor did they have to worry about the grace of their entrance. ![]() Sometimes he wanted to take an axe to them, and he might have done that long ago if they were not such a rich Narra wood.” That’s such a guy thing to think, I suppose. Javier had stumbled down them many times, both as a child and an adult, and he never failed to swear up a storm as he did. It was a mongrel style, and it suited Javier.”Ī hacienda guest would enter through the zaguan, walk past the overseer’s desk and waiting workers, and ascend up to the second story: “The ‘princess’ steps had been fashioned deliberately shallow to allow for the modest ascent of a young lady in her skirts. Huge sliding panels opened up to the breeze, their rectangular frames checkered with iridescent capiz shells that let in light but wouldn’t shatter at every tremor. Javier again focuses on the logic of the construction: “The architecture was a…patchwork of foreign and native elements: stone foundations topped by light wood structures, an elegant yet practical design in earthquake country. The bottom left image of the zaguan, or entryway, is from the Cavite Expressway website. Georgina’s impression of Casa Altarejos mirrored mine at the Museo de la Salle: “A wooden top floor overhung the gray stone foundation by a few feet on all sides, an elegant-yet-clumsy layer cake decorated in white and green frosting.” Images from the Museo de la Salle on the campus of De La Salle University, Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines. One thing a visitor will immediately notice at Museo de la Salle is that the building is a perfect square-a bahay kubo writ large. In fact, Casa Altarejos was modeled on the Museo De La Salle at De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, an ilustrado lifestyle museum built upon the models of the Constantino house in Balagtas, Bulacan the Arnedo-Gonzales house in Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga and the Santos-Joven-Panlilio house in Bacolor, Pampanga. From my character Javier Altarejos’s perspective, it is a highly practical design: “The stone base of the house served as a storeroom for everything that made the hacienda hum: carriages, rice, tools, chickens, and-of course-sugar.” This bottom story, or zaguan-vaguely resembling a dungeon-is a combination garage, warehouse, office, and stables. Though the stilts of the bahay na bato are hidden by a stone wall “ curtain,” the concept is really the same. Beautiful creative commons photos by Kenji Punzalan. This is a Philippine Cultural Heritage Monument. Three views of the Balay Negrense, or the Victor Fernandez Gaston Ancestral House, in Silay City, outside Bacolod, in Negros Occidental. The Spanish saw these kubos and thought: how we could steal their environmentally-intelligent design, yet make it a whole lot more posh and expensive? The original bahay na bato (stone house) was born. Last week I discussed the clever, airy design of a native cube house on stilts, the bahay kubo.
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