What is a skyline? A skyline is the view of a city’s tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates.[1] It gives the identity of a city and the most unique thing about it is that no two buildings in a skyline are alike. Most skyscrapers in a skyline are used as office buildings and because of this skylines are seen as the symbolism of the power of the city’s economy. The more tall skyscrapers you have, the more power you have in the economy. Our skyline is a representation of our modernity through the modern designs of our buildings.
What is our Philippine skyline? How do we define our skyline? What impact does it give the Filipino people whenever they see the skyline of Makati or Ortigas, or the many buildings grouped together in Malate? Do we like the way our skyline shows our country’s modernity? Do we have iconic buildings in our skyline that we could say it would represent the Philippines? These are the questions I ask myself every time I pass by the streets of Makati and Ortigas. I live in Pasig and also in a condominium in EGI Taft Tower, Taft Avenue because of the distance of the site from my school. Every time I travel going back to Taft from Pasig during the weekends, I would alternately take the route to EDSA or the route to Makati. I would pass by the busy streets of Makati and or Ortigas and I would notice how busy the people walking in the sidewalk are. They wore these business attires with ties and carrying their brief cases while talking on their phones altogether while walking very fast. Some were even running. I would notice and observe them weave through some of the not so busy people and race to the entrance of their buildings. They were business men. They were racing against time because maybe their offices were located in the upper half of the building and maybe they were already late and the elevators had a full queue of other business men who were also in a hurry. This is what a business man would see his building, a tall, “makes me late for my work and now I’m all sweaty” building. But what would a bystander, normal citizens who are not into business and architecture, think of a skyscraper? How do they see a skyscraper? Before I took up architecture in college, and not knowing a lot of how structures in our society work, I would see a skyscraper as just an ordinary building. Growing up in Davao, we don’t have any skyscrapers in the city because of the soft soil Davao has. So whenever I would come home to my birthplace, and whenever I see the skyline of Makati and Ortigas, I would be amazed to see the magnificent towers cover the streets we were passing through on a sunny day. But I just saw them as tall buildings occupied by a lot of people. I knew back then that they were for offices for famous business companies because I knew relatives who used to work in them. I didn’t have the time and knowledge to appreciate the aesthetics of the buildings and wonder how they were made to stand tall in an earthquake prone country. I was unmindful of what they meant to our society, being a colony of America, the most powerful economy in our world. I wasn’t that interested in the buildings, I was just amazed to see such marvellous structures. Now that I am in my second year of Architecture in the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde, I have found interest in observing our skyline with knowledge of how their designs came from the influence of other styles. As an architecture student, I now question myself how the builders of each of the skyscrapers in Makati and Ortigas design the aesthetics of the buildings and how they would look when grouped together with other buildings. I would ask myself how they were able to make these tall buildings stand for over 40 years now, how they were structurally made and what makes them stable when earthquakes happen. I would imagine what the functions of the many spaces inside this tall building would have and how they would affect the people using the building. I would ask myself if the buildings were successful in their designs and their functions as well. These questions come to mind whenever I pass by Makati and or Ortigas when going back and forth from Pasig and Taft.
What does our skyline tell us? Whenever I see the skyline of Makati from my school building, I would see the skyline of Makati telling me a story. A story of how our country was ravaged by the powerful countries that tried to control our country. Being colonized by Spain and America, and also being controlled by Japan for a few years, we have so many buildings that were influenced by their styles and culture. We had so many colonial houses in the Philippines like Bahay na Bato because of the Spanish influence, then when we were colonized by America, after 333 years with Spain, we were faced with another style, and these style were different with the ones we were used to before. But when America left and Japan saw their chances, and later they had a war with America set in the Philippines, most of our structures were destroyed and burnt into ashes. We lost most of the buildings we got from the influence of Spain. We also lost some of the modern buildings America gave us. The American-Japanese War destroyed our society. But in the end, the Americans still stayed with us and even became allies with them. They helped us and influenced us in making modern designs and structures and skyscrapers that would later define the power of our economy. The skyline of Makati tells the story of the things our society lost in the war, and through the many years of rebuilding, we were able to stand tall and became and independent country. The skyline of Makati symbolizes the Filipino people, standing tall against the many small buildings (Filipinos before the war) and showing the change the colonizers brought here. This is a way of how our skyline symbolizes Filipinos because you can see that many other countries still don’t have what we have right now. We still see many countries who are dependent to other countries.
I have been to many Asian countries outside the Philippines like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and when I would compare the skyline of the Philippines to the skyline of the other countries, I would say that we have no iconic skyscraper in the Philippines. Countries like Malaysia that has the Petronas Twin Towers and Hong Kong that has the HSBC Tower have iconic skyscrapers because these buildings were designed by either famous architects or they were design to break a world record. The skyscrapers in the Philippines were built for business purposes and are not used as tourist attractions and thus, we do not have iconic skyscrapers we can call a true Filipino design. Our iconic structures are the small but aesthetically designed buildings that were built from the influence of the Spaniards and Americans in our society. In order for us to have an iconic skyscraper, we must first find out the true identity of a Filipino. What is Filipino Architecture? Have architects shown true Filipino Architecture. Do we really have a unique Filipino style that we can call our own? If we have found this unique Filipino Architecture identity, then we can easily build a skyscraper that shows Filipino architecture and would then be an icon Filipinos and foreigners would look at as part of Philippine culture. One city that I know that has their own identity when we see their skyscrapers is the city of New York in the United States of America. It is truly a concrete jungle. The skyline of New York can be easily identified before because of the World Trade Center, also known as the Twin Towers, but because of the terrorist bombing that crumbled the economic power and structure of America, the skyline of New York has changed. Sure they still have the same buildings, and maybe even more buildings to be built, but the twin towers gave them their image. In my opinion, the skyline of New York looks a little bit like the skyline of Chicago, unless you would see the Statue of Liberty in the picture. This is what I mean when I say that iconic structures define the cityscape. Since then New York has never been the same without the Twin Towers. The bombing was a symbolism of the momentary damage to the economy of the United States of America, the most powerful economy today. Because of these happenings, in time, another country will have the power of the economy.
A country that I think that has an unsuccessful skyline is the country of Dubai. I mean come on, think about it. You have many small structures grouped with a few skyscrapers. And the skyscrapers have even been grouped far from each other. Then suddenly a gigantic tower appears out of nowhere. It was like a tall three that grew in the middle of shrubs. It was different from the other buildings. In my opinion, it doesn’t blend well with the surroundings because the country of Dubai is a country of desert. It seems weird that a tall building like this would rise up from a country like Dubai but don’t get me wrong, Dubai had a good economy before, but now that they had gone bankrupt because of this structure seems pretty likely that it would happen, and for what reason did they build this structure? To increase tourist visits? Make Dubai a famous country? Or just to break a world record? Whatever their reasons are, I still find that the building of Burj Khalifa a failure and a waste of time in building, a waste of man power, a waste of money. I also read in an article that not many people would want to live in that building because of the air pollution Dubai has. But now that the ownership of the building has changed hands, I hope that they will try to show us that the Burj Khalifa can be a successful structure in many ways. And they have already started this advertising, particularly in the upcoming film of Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible 5, which shows him dangling from a rope on the Burj Khalifa tower.
Our skyline does not really show our image us a Filipino country, but it shows the influence of other countries to us and how we take into our designs these influences. I know that in the future, our skyline will change and show the true modern side of the Filipinos, but also keeping our historical buildings in place. In time, future Filipino architects will change the face of Filipino architecture, and I hope that I will be one of those architects to do so. The skyline of Makati and Ortigas shows that we can become a modern country and still keep our ancestral structures intact. I would say that our country is still a young country. We are still a country in our teenage years while the countries of Malaysia and Singpore are young adults, and the country of America are full grown adults while the European countries that started all of this are elders. This means that we can still improve our society and how our country would look like. We can still catch up to our older brother and sister countries and join their ranks one day. But for now, we can only look at our skyline and imagine those things.
What is our Philippine skyline? How do we define our skyline? What impact does it give the Filipino people whenever they see the skyline of Makati or Ortigas, or the many buildings grouped together in Malate? Do we like the way our skyline shows our country’s modernity? Do we have iconic buildings in our skyline that we could say it would represent the Philippines? These are the questions I ask myself every time I pass by the streets of Makati and Ortigas. I live in Pasig and also in a condominium in EGI Taft Tower, Taft Avenue because of the distance of the site from my school. Every time I travel going back to Taft from Pasig during the weekends, I would alternately take the route to EDSA or the route to Makati. I would pass by the busy streets of Makati and or Ortigas and I would notice how busy the people walking in the sidewalk are. They wore these business attires with ties and carrying their brief cases while talking on their phones altogether while walking very fast. Some were even running. I would notice and observe them weave through some of the not so busy people and race to the entrance of their buildings. They were business men. They were racing against time because maybe their offices were located in the upper half of the building and maybe they were already late and the elevators had a full queue of other business men who were also in a hurry. This is what a business man would see his building, a tall, “makes me late for my work and now I’m all sweaty” building. But what would a bystander, normal citizens who are not into business and architecture, think of a skyscraper? How do they see a skyscraper? Before I took up architecture in college, and not knowing a lot of how structures in our society work, I would see a skyscraper as just an ordinary building. Growing up in Davao, we don’t have any skyscrapers in the city because of the soft soil Davao has. So whenever I would come home to my birthplace, and whenever I see the skyline of Makati and Ortigas, I would be amazed to see the magnificent towers cover the streets we were passing through on a sunny day. But I just saw them as tall buildings occupied by a lot of people. I knew back then that they were for offices for famous business companies because I knew relatives who used to work in them. I didn’t have the time and knowledge to appreciate the aesthetics of the buildings and wonder how they were made to stand tall in an earthquake prone country. I was unmindful of what they meant to our society, being a colony of America, the most powerful economy in our world. I wasn’t that interested in the buildings, I was just amazed to see such marvellous structures. Now that I am in my second year of Architecture in the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde, I have found interest in observing our skyline with knowledge of how their designs came from the influence of other styles. As an architecture student, I now question myself how the builders of each of the skyscrapers in Makati and Ortigas design the aesthetics of the buildings and how they would look when grouped together with other buildings. I would ask myself how they were able to make these tall buildings stand for over 40 years now, how they were structurally made and what makes them stable when earthquakes happen. I would imagine what the functions of the many spaces inside this tall building would have and how they would affect the people using the building. I would ask myself if the buildings were successful in their designs and their functions as well. These questions come to mind whenever I pass by Makati and or Ortigas when going back and forth from Pasig and Taft.
What does our skyline tell us? Whenever I see the skyline of Makati from my school building, I would see the skyline of Makati telling me a story. A story of how our country was ravaged by the powerful countries that tried to control our country. Being colonized by Spain and America, and also being controlled by Japan for a few years, we have so many buildings that were influenced by their styles and culture. We had so many colonial houses in the Philippines like Bahay na Bato because of the Spanish influence, then when we were colonized by America, after 333 years with Spain, we were faced with another style, and these style were different with the ones we were used to before. But when America left and Japan saw their chances, and later they had a war with America set in the Philippines, most of our structures were destroyed and burnt into ashes. We lost most of the buildings we got from the influence of Spain. We also lost some of the modern buildings America gave us. The American-Japanese War destroyed our society. But in the end, the Americans still stayed with us and even became allies with them. They helped us and influenced us in making modern designs and structures and skyscrapers that would later define the power of our economy. The skyline of Makati tells the story of the things our society lost in the war, and through the many years of rebuilding, we were able to stand tall and became and independent country. The skyline of Makati symbolizes the Filipino people, standing tall against the many small buildings (Filipinos before the war) and showing the change the colonizers brought here. This is a way of how our skyline symbolizes Filipinos because you can see that many other countries still don’t have what we have right now. We still see many countries who are dependent to other countries.
I have been to many Asian countries outside the Philippines like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and when I would compare the skyline of the Philippines to the skyline of the other countries, I would say that we have no iconic skyscraper in the Philippines. Countries like Malaysia that has the Petronas Twin Towers and Hong Kong that has the HSBC Tower have iconic skyscrapers because these buildings were designed by either famous architects or they were design to break a world record. The skyscrapers in the Philippines were built for business purposes and are not used as tourist attractions and thus, we do not have iconic skyscrapers we can call a true Filipino design. Our iconic structures are the small but aesthetically designed buildings that were built from the influence of the Spaniards and Americans in our society. In order for us to have an iconic skyscraper, we must first find out the true identity of a Filipino. What is Filipino Architecture? Have architects shown true Filipino Architecture. Do we really have a unique Filipino style that we can call our own? If we have found this unique Filipino Architecture identity, then we can easily build a skyscraper that shows Filipino architecture and would then be an icon Filipinos and foreigners would look at as part of Philippine culture. One city that I know that has their own identity when we see their skyscrapers is the city of New York in the United States of America. It is truly a concrete jungle. The skyline of New York can be easily identified before because of the World Trade Center, also known as the Twin Towers, but because of the terrorist bombing that crumbled the economic power and structure of America, the skyline of New York has changed. Sure they still have the same buildings, and maybe even more buildings to be built, but the twin towers gave them their image. In my opinion, the skyline of New York looks a little bit like the skyline of Chicago, unless you would see the Statue of Liberty in the picture. This is what I mean when I say that iconic structures define the cityscape. Since then New York has never been the same without the Twin Towers. The bombing was a symbolism of the momentary damage to the economy of the United States of America, the most powerful economy today. Because of these happenings, in time, another country will have the power of the economy.
A country that I think that has an unsuccessful skyline is the country of Dubai. I mean come on, think about it. You have many small structures grouped with a few skyscrapers. And the skyscrapers have even been grouped far from each other. Then suddenly a gigantic tower appears out of nowhere. It was like a tall three that grew in the middle of shrubs. It was different from the other buildings. In my opinion, it doesn’t blend well with the surroundings because the country of Dubai is a country of desert. It seems weird that a tall building like this would rise up from a country like Dubai but don’t get me wrong, Dubai had a good economy before, but now that they had gone bankrupt because of this structure seems pretty likely that it would happen, and for what reason did they build this structure? To increase tourist visits? Make Dubai a famous country? Or just to break a world record? Whatever their reasons are, I still find that the building of Burj Khalifa a failure and a waste of time in building, a waste of man power, a waste of money. I also read in an article that not many people would want to live in that building because of the air pollution Dubai has. But now that the ownership of the building has changed hands, I hope that they will try to show us that the Burj Khalifa can be a successful structure in many ways. And they have already started this advertising, particularly in the upcoming film of Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible 5, which shows him dangling from a rope on the Burj Khalifa tower.
Our skyline does not really show our image us a Filipino country, but it shows the influence of other countries to us and how we take into our designs these influences. I know that in the future, our skyline will change and show the true modern side of the Filipinos, but also keeping our historical buildings in place. In time, future Filipino architects will change the face of Filipino architecture, and I hope that I will be one of those architects to do so. The skyline of Makati and Ortigas shows that we can become a modern country and still keep our ancestral structures intact. I would say that our country is still a young country. We are still a country in our teenage years while the countries of Malaysia and Singpore are young adults, and the country of America are full grown adults while the European countries that started all of this are elders. This means that we can still improve our society and how our country would look like. We can still catch up to our older brother and sister countries and join their ranks one day. But for now, we can only look at our skyline and imagine those things.
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