RISING to a height of 50 meters, straight and sharp as a letter opener, the Southeast Asian Games torch tower is the last monumental work of National Artist for Architecture Bobby Mañosa. Mr. Mañosa should have been named National Artist 30, 40 years earlier. Only Mr. Mañosa made a push for Philippine architecture by following the shape and silhouette of the nipa hut in his projects. I have always wondered why the Philippines did not early on recognize the Philippine-ness of his architectural lines and spaces.
When other architects were fashionably building houses inspired by Swiss chalets, English castles, Mediterranean villas and such, he was busily incorporating elements of the “silong” (open on all sides, the ground floor without a real floor) and what is now popularly known as the “dirty kitchen” to take care of everyday cooking and washing, without risk of breaking the family heirloom of crystal and china for use only on special occasions. The Mañosa ideal was a house that let the tropical breeze in – airy, lots of windows, a friendly veranda, garden in front, yard in the back.
A R50 million towering cauldron? It’s only fair to the architect, may he rest in peace, to point out that his fee was less than 10 percent of the cost. It may not be fair, either, to point out that when the French architect Eiffel built the tower in Paris that was named after him, he and it were condemned not for its cost, but its atrociously ugly design. Today, can you imagine Paris, or France, without that crazy monument?
Some people like Senator Drilon may not like the cauldron because in its place we could have built 50 classrooms, but our athletes are proud of it. If not now, when? Much easier to build 50 classrooms, just ask the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A tower with technical tricks stored in it, like keeping the flame burning for 264 hours straight, is another story.
Some forms of art take time to appreciate – Van Gogh, Rachmaninoff come to mind – so there’s hope that when our athletes’ medals start piling up, our cheers will be backgrounded by the 2019 Games symbol, the tower.
