A spatial concept with non-Western roots, it is commonly used to describe the delight of experiencing vernacular root- ed architecture. Similarly, this quality of clarity, spaciousness and expansiveness is pervasive in Philippine music and literature. It is appreciated in pre-colonial music played on the kulintang (horizon- tally laid gongs) which flows in and out with no beginning and no end. It exists in ancestral epics that are chanted at length over days where there is a sense of continuity and in the rhythmic cadence of Tagalog poetry and language.
Maaliwalas is exemplified in single room indigenous dwellings that have no partitions, with high ceilings and porous envelopes that filter light and allow air to flow through its interior.
The ubiquitous bahay kubo is a house on stilts framed in bamboo, lined with woven bamboo mat walls called sawali and large awning windows. The underside of its hipped grass roof looks like the underside of a basket cover, while the sahig (floor) is clad with slatted bamboo. Even when the windows are closed, light and air pass through the walls and floor, allowing the house to breathe. Traditionally, the house is not divided into smaller rooms. The single room setting is a place for gathering and for interdependence, where members of a family eat, sleep and work together. The bahay kubo is set in a garden and life flows from indoor to outdoor. There is an elevated porch at the entryway, big enough for a family to sit in, sing and socialize from. At the back of the house is the bakuran, where a family would typically grow vegetables. Although small in footprint, the bahay kubo feels generous for its vertical proportion and its design that allows the exterior environment to be felt from inside through
the breeze that is let in, screened light, and the sound of the elements penetrating in.
The single-room indigenous house ap- pears in different regions throughout the Philippines. The T’boli’ people of South- ern Cotabato in Mindanao built larger type open space dwellings on posts and bamboo mat walls as well. The interior of the T’boli house is a space surround- ed by space, with its central portion lowered for social gathering. Opposite ends of the dwelling are designated for working and for resting, allowing for a generous open plan interior space. Similarly, in Northern Luzon, endemic to the people of the Cordilleras is the single-room Ifugao house called the fale. Here, the sleeping quarters of the house are lifted off the ground and pushed into the roof structure by four large wooden posts resting on stone pavement. The unbound space created beneath the house is tall enough to be used as the family’s social area and workspace still that is connected to the surrounding landscape. A unique sense of community is created when houses are grouped in clusters, where communal spaces visually connect to those of adjacent dwellings. Maaliwalas is felt when the sheltered areas flow seamlessly with the outdoors, where one can feel open and connected to nature and community. Contrary to the notion of Maaliwalas are boundaries and mass, introduced to Philippine architecture through its long history of colonization. Aesthetic concepts and images were imposed by colonizers to alter the notion of beauty by Filipinos and engrain the idea that local traditions are inferior and uncivilized. Dramatically altering the Philippine landscape with Western architecture was a cornerstone of colonization in the country.
The Philippine dwelling, traditionally light in its construction, transformed through the different stages of the country’s colonial history. Though mass and new construction methods were introduced, qualities of the bahay kubo such as the flow of layered spaces and passive design concepts made its way back to colonial architectural typologies. The fusion of local building tradition and Western methods of building with masonry began with the bahay na bato (house of stone), a building type that emerged during the Spanish colonial period of the Philip- pines. The reconstruction of the late 17th century Piñero house in Intramuros Manila demonstrates a deviation from the original Spanish tendency of building extravagant mansions completely in stone. In the bahay na bato, only the base is constructed with stone. The use of wood, the large screened windows with vented openings (so air can pass through even when windows are shut) and the elevated living spaces were concepts derived from the bahay kubo. The enclosed volada, a cantilevered and windowed wooden gallery akin to a balcony wrapping around the inner living space—“a space surrounded by space”—sets the bahay na bato apart from other colonial architectural types. Fundamentally, because of qualities adapted from indigenous housing typologies, the bahay na bato still carries the qualities of expansiveness and free-flowing layered spaces. The house breathes. The upper portion of the bahay na bato feels like one room, where living space and the volada flow with each other. While colonial and contemporary architecture are enmeshed in the current built environment, the aesthetic quality of maaliwalas persists in domestic architecture.
Our experience of the environment flows beyond the structures that shelter us. There are folk stories that speak of the thrill of birds that flow in and out of structures, and lyrics noting the sound of the rain pounding on the roof in rhythm. Feeling the environment is like a symphony that gives a distinct sense of pleasure and wellbeing.
Different cultures have distinct standards of aesthetics that are innate and make them feel rooted to their identity. Art is often a vehicle for these standards. Throughout the Philippines’ com- plex history of colonization, Filipinos have adapted what has been imposed on them by intentionally layering their familiar aesthetic concepts that they feel connected to. When Filipinos were left with hundreds of surplus U.S. military jeeps from World War II, they trans- formed the fleet into culturally appealing passenger vehicles. They were decorated with the vibrant colors of the sari-manok, a legendary bird with colorful wings and feathered tail, and a symbol of the Maranao people. On the exterior, they were painted with local landscapes and personalized with the vehicle owner’s clan name. The interiors were decorated with crocheted curtains and a little altar. The jeepneys became the people’s bus. The 20-seater rear passenger area were lined with two benches facing each other in such a way that facilitated socialization while travelling. The seating area was roofed, yet open-air, because of full width windows and an open rear and side passenger. Even the jeepneys are maaliwalas.
Filipinos are communal and compassion- ate people. Filipino values are rooted in relationships where the self is inserted and can reciprocate. The concepts of pagdadamayan (caring and cooperation to- wards one another) and pakikisama (companionship) are ingrained in the Filipino value system. The shared experience is what binds Filipinos together, even in times of oppression. The concept of a just society is one where there is compassion. Even the process of building and moving homes, traditionally is an effort by the community. To gather is essential to the feeling of wellbeing.
Aesthetics is learned and taste is ac- quired. To discern what is natural to the Filipino, one might simply look back to the bahay kubo, where the air is free to come in and out, a generous space to commune, and where there is a sense of space that remains unconstricted, un- cluttered, and free. Maaliwalas.
