bangued's posts with tag: architecture
|  | "In keeping what was, we know what we are."
This is the second installation of a two-part series of Balay collection.
You would notice that most Ilocano brick and wood-and-stone houses' facades aren't excessively ornamented as compared to the Tagalog and Visayan counterparts. Fernando Nakpil Zialcita aptly describes these houses in his article, Traditional Houses (Filipino Style): "Vigan streets wear the regional character of the Ilocano: sober and dignified, restrained and austere."
Sometimes I'd imagine Old Bangued circa 1850-1900, back when the town was in brick-red because of the houses, bridges, church and business buildings and even the plaza - all made out of brick or nadrillo. Unfortunately, Old Bangued never fully recovered after World War II. It never gained its charm back that some houses were never rebuilt and were just left to be grim reminders of the past.
Below are the four houses (there used to be lucky seven houses back in the days), World War II survivors as you may call them, that now stand alongside relatively new houses of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Balbuena House (N. Peñarrubia Street)
Barras House (W. Rizal Street)
Vasquez-Barros House (corner E. Actividad Economia and Arellano Streets)
Torreliza House (E. Actividad Economia Street)
Undoubtedly, these houses deserve landmark statuses - each with varying reasons and factors such as:
a. they are over 25 years old;
b. architectural styles;
c. connections with a significant event or person.
Vasquez-Barros House is over-qualified for a designation of landmark status because it is the only house with an intact wood-and-stone style of architecture in Bangued. It also used to be the house where Vasquez sisters, Doña Francisca and Doña Rosa (the generous persons behind the construction of the Shrine of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Camposanto) lived.
Most importantly, may these houses continue to be reminders for the present and future generations of what was once the Old Bangued. |
| | Calling Architect Paulo Alcazaren, this town badly needs some help! Uh-uh, I'm not kidding at all. With its so-common buildings and unfriendly streets, Bangued, as any other Philippine town or city needs a sense of urban planning. Look at what happened to Taft Street. What was once a pedestrian-friendly street where business establishments flourished along with the residential houses tucked in between is now a concrete jungle of sorts. Two commercial complexes stand a few blocks away from each other, with one more being built on that same street. Not only that, there are also taller and denser business/residential buildings minus the sidewalks. So with all that comes the biggest problem: traffic.
Here, we will try to change all that. Enough of these nondescript buildings. Enough of these traffic-causing business establishments. Spare this town these obtrusive boxes.
Send in your photos and reviews for this album at banguedenio@yahoo.com. |
| | Bangued is growing and it behooves us that these buildings and structures in Bangued should be preserved for the coming generations. |
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